Tag Archives: old friends

Day 4 – Old friends in new places

Our original plan was to leave for Italy today but when yesterday turned out to be…substandard, we decided to stay the whole day at Christine’s place to relax and catch up with one of our oldest friends. Luckily, Christine, Torsten and their little one were able to host us longer than they had expected. J

The day started off with Flo making pancakes for everyone (such a treat!) and they were devoured in record time. To be fair, we haven’t had enough sleep as the catching up part started yesterday evening which stretched into the night and then our two rascals were awake from 5.50am onwards when the Agent of Entropy crashed into the wooden train set with gusto and woke us up with a start. The best thing to do to remedy some of the effects of a night with not enough hours of shut-eye was to immediately plan our second breakfast. At 8pm, Flo, Christine and the Agent of Entropy left for the bakery to buy more baked goods for our indulging shenanigans.

Second breakfast started around 9.20am and after so much yummy food we all agreed to go on a walk before taking advantage of the more relaxed Swiss Corona rules and eat out for lunch. As it is with kids though, it took forever to get three of them ready to leave so by the time we were outside we had about 40 minutes left before the aforementioned kids would demand lunch. -.-

Our walk was postponed until after even more food and we headed straight to the restaurant in the next village up. Neither Christine nor Torsten had been there before so it was nice to explore something new with our hosts. This part (or maybe many parts) of Switzerland are very rural so we passed sheep and chickens and a picturesque fountain on the way. All three kids absolutely loved it.

The restauarant…what can I say?…it’s been almost a year since we went out for food. It was a celebration in itself to be able to do this again. Also, the food was delicious, the place kid-friendly (Number 3 had a Pizza Batman and a scoopf of mango ice cream) and our outside seating had just the right combination of sunshine and shade.

On the way back, we then had to hurry to be home in time to get the kids to bed for their midday nap. Well, two out of three kids had to nap. We still took the scenic route home with time for cows, a tractor and all things Swiss. It was a bit of a task to get the kids to calm down enough to sleep but once the Agent of Entropy slept there even was time to play a boardgame with Number 3.

In the late afternoon we went to the playground where much fun was had.

Back home we opted for more food followed vy a much earlier bedtime. J Tomorrow, we’ll head off to Italy…with a detour (back to Germany o.ô) to refresh our rapid Covid tests first.

Day 55 – Unjustified attacks

First order of business, breakfast, went pretty smoothly. We slept in late a bit – given that Number 3 had not had the best of nights. That came out just right, as packing for camping after a bit of a break can always be a little struggle, especially with new gear added into the mix. Nontheless, we took it slow and ate until a bit of a break in the rain seemed like the perfect opportunity to complete our little camp.

Our friends joined us for breakfast with fresh bread and a great attitude. Since Peter is running a shop aimed at (adventure) motorcyclists, he will be opening up today. Still, we had at least a good chunk of the morning for a couple of things.

Our full set up with car, tent, tarp and friends’ tent

Leonie, Peter and Mini van Bartang have a new, enormous tent. What nobody told me was that it was also a bit aggressive. Just when we thought it might actually be a good idea to peg it down before getting the rods in, it decided to viciously attack me with one of the metal loops (i.e. a gust of wind threw a corner at my head). I managed to turn a bit, but the impact left quite the bump, just sort of a cut. No baby was hurt though and this was the last bit of trouble while setting up.

Peter left for the shop around lunch time, leaving us to catch up with Leonie and sit out a good bit more of the bad weather. It was a wee bit too chilly until the sun came out to make it real cosy, but good company made up for it.

After the midday sleep for the kids, the winds picked up just before the weather got better. After 4 or 5 times of putting back single pegs for the awning tiedowns after a gust of wind we switched to soft soil pegs to cope with the wet and sandy pitch. All of this did not save me from a particular strong gust taking out the entire awning and sending one of the poles full speed into my head. This was the second tent attacking me in one day. This time, I was a bit dazed for a minute or so before we decided that it might just be too windy for the awning that afternoon. It was time for shopping anyway.

Later on, picking up Peter after he closed down the shop, we went out for dinner. Even though the Dutch are maybe a bit less enthusiastic to come up with veggie options for Nina, the result was great for all nontheless.

To round off the evening, we all sat down with a bunch of (non-alcoholic) beers. Other travelling friends we know came by to show their newly converted T4 camper and have a good old chat. All in all, this seems like just the right place to let out trip fade out …

Our full set up with car, tent, tarp and friends’ tent
Breakfast was great so it just got longer and longer…
Two babies in a box
…turn out to be a bit heavy
If that isn’t a picture perfect ad for camping in the Netherlands…
So cute!
Mini van Bartang being cute in his high chair
Number 3 trying the spreads
Dinner table
Busy dads
What a spot to return to!
More travellers visiting in the evening

Day 15 – Clashing travel modes

The day started with a lovely Nutella toast and tea breakfast before we got into our “getting things done” mode. Ruth and Damien were amazing hosts, driving me around Auckland to pick up our camping gear from Linda and Denis who were kind enough to take it down to Auckland from Cape Reinga.

Flo took the bike, bought a big army bag so we could properly store our gear in the crate and then drove to the airport where Rocinante had a date to be crated. We met up again at the airport (Ruth and Damien were still driving me around) and cleaned all our gear for the biosecurity check in Australia. The tent gave us the most work; especially the footprint had seen some wet and muddy conditions in the last two weeks.

But we finished cleaning, packed the bags for the crate and the bag for staying in Auckland and got driven to Nick’s, Sophie’s and Dan’s place where we can stay for the next little while.

Thank you so much, Ruth and Damien, for everything you did. We hope to repay you some day in Frankfurt for your kindness. 🙂

We are mildly ashamed for going to Burgerfuel over more foodhipster place

Entering Nick’s place, we suddenly became tourists in a city again. The bike was not available as a mode of transport, most of our biking cloths stayed with the crate as well. Instead, we met Mash, a good friend, on his holiday back home in NZ and went to Kelly Tarlton’s which is an underwater and arctic animals place. Given how long the way to the counter was they must usually have quite the crowd coming in but we had almost no one in front of us. There were line of penguin foot marks outside, showing the way, but they were quite far apart as well. Flo managed a jump from one set of prints to the next and was declared part penguin because of it. 🙂

Interesting talk during the feed

We rushed to the stingray enclosure to be there for the feeding and the talk. Stingrays are surprisingly cool and big. Of course, we also looked at the penguins and sharks. A rotating tube was the thing that tickled our fancy the most: It screws so much with your head that you cannot walk straight through it. Everyone wobbled through as if drunk which was hilarious.

Afterwards, Nick took us to Milse which is exactly my kind of place. They have so many awesome sweet things there! We were too early for the dinner menu (which apparently is also just desserts) but I still found so much to try!

To round up the evening, we ordered pizza and watched a movie.