Tag Archives: pastries

Day 18 – La Serenissima or Venice! Finally!

Okay, just as a warning, there will probably be a lot of squeeing. It is my first time in Venice. And Venice is one of these places that you know something about without ever having been there. It’s the city in the water. Also, being in Venice during carnival and going all out on a costume is on my bucket list.

The day started on our lovely campground. Flo organized two-day passes for the public transport in and around Venice which will make getting around so much easier. We packed up and left. Of course, I forgot the “Italian road trip” Lonely planet, which is the only guide book we brought, on the campground while the Venice guide book is still at home. -.- Oh well. At least we had the app.

Off we went. The bus left super close to the campground. Taking the land bridge to Venice, we already saw the sea and then buildings started to appear on the horizon. Venice!

The bus stop is where everybody got off for their own personal Venice experience. We opted to use the “face first” approach for the city and take a vaporetto to San Marco. Vaporettos are water busses which take you around Venice. Line 1 goes along the Canale Grande and stops at every lamp post. However, since we just wanted to get to our starting point, we used line 2, which took us to San Marco quicker but on a less picturesque way along the outskirts.

A big task she had picked for herself there …

So, our day started on a boat. We were lucky enough to get seats outside, put our noses in the wind and eventually have a good view on a couple of amazing buildings, including the doge’s palace. Piazza San Marco was our first destination. It was already really hot in the sun and it was only like 10.15am. Then again, it’s just beautiful. You walk around and everything around you is just so lovely to look at. We are really fortunate to travel now as Piazza San Marco was nowhere near the level of crowds it usually draws. As our half-Italian friend put it when he saw a picture “Wow, it’s empty!”. J

So this was our start. Looking at the doge’s palace, San Marco basilica, the tower and the buildings surrounding Piazza San Marco…we just wanted to stay here for a bit. This is why we sat down in Cafe Florian, which has been around for the last 300 years, and the prime spot to look at the buildings and take it all in. It also has the most expensive coffee Flo (10.50 € a cup) had ever had. No matter, we were here to enjoy ourselves. We had coffee and tea and some macaroons and life was good. J

Coffee time moved straight into lunch time. Number 3 got hungry so we started walking around a little on our way to a little lunch place. As soon as you turn away from Piazza San Marco, the city quiets down. Sometimes, we were the only people in an alleyway. Just taking the city in through walking is something we really enjoy. The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal was busier again and in the sunshine and thus too hot to linger.

Further we went, into the little alleys with tiny bridges over canals, here a turn, there a tunnel…it’s a maze and I don’t know how people get around without google. You can tell who’s local just by how confidently people turn corners into what looks like a house entrance but turns out to be a tunnel underneath a house and your only way to get to where you’re going.

We had lunch at a tiny whole-in-the-wall type place which made amazing pizzas. So far on our trip, it was pasta all the way. It was really nice to change to the other staple Italian food for once. It was good pizza. Even Number 3 enjoyed it and he’s not the biggest fan of pizza. As a side note: Number 3 was utterly charmed by the city. It had everything he wanted: Boat busses, water and food; including sweet treats. After lunch, we went on another boat ride, this time straight through the city until we got to the railway station. We didn’t mean to stop here but Number 3 needed to go to the toilet and in a classic move, we went into the wrong entrance first and had a little tour of all of the railway station in our search. Number 3 was delighted by the trains on display – he thought this to be a highlight of the day.

I had looked up a pastry shop where I wanted to have afternoon coffee really close to the railway station. Also, the railway station has a vaporetto stop which is just *so* convenient. From there, it was just a couple of minutes to Dal Mas. Oh, they had great stuff! Still being rather full, we all could just get one thing but they were all delicious.

Our first day in Venice was a Sunday which meant that churches were closed for tourists as regular mess was held. Luckily, San Marco Basilica opened up at 2pm for tourists. We decided to get out of the sun and into a church. Another boat ride. By now we were professionals at riding a water bus.

The line to get into the basilica looked long, but it took 10 minutes tops to get in. We had our temperature checked, used disinfectant hand gel, got an audio guide for Flo and looked around inside. There is much to look at from the mosaics in the entry hallway to the colourful Venetian marble floors to the Pala d’Oro, for which we paid another 5 € to see. Given that the admission into the church is only 3 € per person, we could easily justify that extra expense. J

After this, we did a good bye tour of Piazza San Marco. Both kids were really, really tired and it was getting close to dinner time. So we took another boat, went back to Piazza Roma and took the bus back to the campground.

Such a great day. Number 3, especially, is the best city explorer I know. He walked so much today!

A “bus stop”, venice style. The boat on the yellow pier is one of the water busses

Day 40 – Good bye Douro

We had a lovely morning at the camp site and before we left we even got to chat to the owners one more time. Number 3 patted more dogs and then hung out on the swing for a while.

To make this trip east worthwhile, we decided to keep going for one more hour until Pinhão. It’s the second city in the region called Alto Duoro, the first one being super touristy. Now, we were in the wine region proper, even if we didn’t spot Graham’s vineyards. We did however see Sandemann and Taylor’s name pop up in the landscape.

I think granite formations are becoming my new favorite after …

Pinhão was “on the wrong side of Rüdesheim” to speak in Flo’s terms. Very touristy still, quite pricey and really just our point to say goodbye to the river Douro. It was lunch time though so we sat down to have an underwhelming, expensive meal somewhere at the riverfront (Flo: I know codfish is a national institution, but dry, overly salty grilled “cod-loin” is nothing to recommend).

From here on, we go north until, eventually, we leave Portugal and enter Spain again, in a couple of days. After lunch, we drove towards a camp ground on the other side of the Parque natural do Alvão. The park was super pretty again and we were glad to have come that way.

When we left again around 4pm, we found another cute café in Mondim de Basto to have pastel de nata. Again. We have to have them a couple more times before we leave. 🙂

Afterwards, we looked for the camp ground. It took us a while to find the signs leading us there as the navigation was no good in this case. The Quinta do Rio was probably the closest we have come to a DOC camp site on this trip. And we had it all to ourselves, no other guests had made their way here. Setting up our roof tent with a lovely view onto the river, we were wondering why. Is it because power is limited to solar energy and thus big camper vans are not allowed? Or simply the fact that you have to actively look for it to find it? Or is it too rustic for European tastes?

True hospitality for the whole family
Hmm, lemons fresh from the garden …
The road went up an down …
… allowing for some great vies of the valley
cool statue 😉
Almost gone …
the vinyards contiue far past the Douro valley, though
I think granite formations are becoming my new favorite after …
… so much limestone on our big trip
A little reservoir high up in the park
hmmm … I almost look human again after the Porto haircut (and some pastries)
he ate almost the whole thing …
Keeping wee one from stepping right in
I tried to force him to go barefoot again but stopped after stepping into thorns 10 seconds in …
just us – I mean even “full” this would be a great site
The pool was a spring fed old trough …
… just perfect for number 3 to explore

Day 17 – Hasta luego España, bom dia Portugal

It was quite the hard decision to leave this place today. In the end, the lure of our “destination” and the distinct lack of connectivity made the call for us. We took our time. Enough to share breakfast drinks with Lu and Eike, whom we had a great wine filled chat with last night.

We took aim for the very first thing on the Portuguese side recommended in our guidebook: The seaside town of Tavira. The scale has to change now, almost by an order of magnitude. If we do travel by the 100 kilometers, we will rush past most there is to see. Portugal is, ultimately, a small country.

We knew in advance the Algarve coast will be touristy. After the huge pre-season crowds in Andalucia, we did not mind much. Tavira was touristy, but right now still retained this elusive air of authenticity. There are still locals mingling about, out on the streets and the whole affair, though freshly painted and dressed up for the guests, stayed well this side of the Rüdesheim point. We felt good sampling our first custard-hbased bit of pastry and Portuguese coffee. Just enough of a stop gap to bridge the one hour time difference and help us to hold out to lunch.

Another thing was inconveniencing us more as we strolled along the sides of the river: The Lonely Planet for Portugal is from early 2017 vs the 2019 edition Spain guide we carry. In hot spots like this, the “cool places” change at quite the pace, it seems. None of the three food recommendation we steered for were even still in business. After about half an hour of wandering and not wanting to risk it with one of the riverside touts, we headed back for the Pastelaria Tavirense. There we loaded up on savoury pastries and headed off to find a picnic spot on our way to the campground.

Right away, the short distances tripped us up. We skipped the first beach sign only to realise that the next stop will already be the designated campground. Then, Baby dutifully fell asleep in the car, unaware that his nap would have to be cut woefully short. We checked in and had lunch with a sleepy and cranky Linus on our towel sized emplacement.

The mood started to turn. Why did we leave the amazing camp yesterday instead of enjoying it for a while? What are we doing on this 250 emplacement supercamp hell filled with permanent campers? At least the emplacements around us were unoccupied – oh never mind. Noisy ones, with beer, music and impolite kids walking right through our camp to get to the bathrooms. A fence and a rail line separate us from the beach, almost 20 minutes to walk. This is not at all what we were looking for. Shade and the cheapest price of our trip was all that this camp had going for it.

To add to all of this, sleep deprived Number 3 went into a bit of a downward spiral as well. Mozzie bites, two molars breaking through and lack of sleep made him insufferable. He would not sleep, would not eat. We tried to make plans but could all but manage to hold on from resignation.

Dinner was a quick affair, chomping through the worst spaghetti carbonara I ever served. Something needs to change tomorrow.

Bridge into Portugal
Our “destination”
Little roads
A bit of riverfront music
Shoulder ride for Number 3
River in Tavira
Going all in with the touristy things
Tavira
Sleepy but still having fun
Too tired to walk
Campsite hell
Campground pool
New fashion…
…for Number 3

Day 288 – Being a hipster in Tehran

A young Polish couple was traveling with this one.

After all the quiet times in the mountains, Tehran came as a bit of a shock. It’s a big city with lots of option of how to spend your time. Do you go shopping in the bazaar? Do you look at the Royal Palace? Do you visit the Museum of Iran to see more of the ancient artefacts that have been dug out throughout the country? To be honest, we were out of energy. Instead of trying to cramp in as much as we could, we decided to try and see contemporary Iran and experience city life in the capital.

Nina with nice organic tea

So we took it slow this morning, sleeping in, have a longer breakfast and using the internet after two days of abstinence. At about 11.30 we went out with the plan of having lunch in a tea house. The Lonely Planet recommends going to one of the parks to watch people which sounded like a good idea. Park-e Shahr is the one closest to our hotel so we could walk there. Right before we go to the entrance, we stumbled into a tiny market full of stalls. One stall sold freshly baked pastries, most of them vegetarian, another stall sold sweets. Two buy options and we were set for lunch on a park bench in Park-e Shahr. 🙂 A lady at the stall next door offered us to test the tea they are selling. They are the first company that has gained the organic label in Iran. She had a little cheat sheet which she used to read the information to us in English.

bird watching, Tehran style

The park was quite big and to our surprise, it had bird cages in it as well. Once we had eaten and wandered around for a bit, we were ready for more exploration. Flo wanted to see the old embassy of the United States now named US Den of Espionage which was too far to walk there. Thus, we took the metro for a couple of stations to get there. Always a bit of an adventure to figure out how public transport works in other cities. The train was crowded but a lovely lady got me a seat before telling me about her three years in Vienna 30 years ago.

True face?

The US Den of Espionage is closed to the public most of the times but you can walk around it and look at the murals on the wall around the area. Such a weird experience. We continued from here to the Park-e Honar Mandan for some more people watching. The park sports a trim-dich-pfad as well as some sculptures. More strolling around before settling down for a café for some lovely tea, coffee and chocolate cake. Mmmmh, chocolate cake. 🙂

Others were more into it

The café we chose was in the Iranian Artists’ forum building. We had snobbed the forum yesterday … but not today. The exhibition is for free and as a way of experiencing contemporary Iran, it was perfect. Taking our time, we made our way through three level of art. It was great. We especially liked the room dedicated to the caricaturist Hadi. The artist was actually present to take some pictures in the exhibition room so Flo and I ended up on a couple of “look here is the public looking at the works” shots, we think.

Public display of logo design suggestions for an event. Pretty cool.

One room was lined with the entries to a design competition. Flo particularly enjoyed this as you could make out differences in the quality already. Another room showed photos of theatre plays which were incredibly interesting but we are lacking any knowledge of the plays which is a shame really.

Going back home we passed the market stalls again. Not wanting to have another round of kebab for dinner, we bought more vegetarian pastries as well as olives in a spicy paste that go very well with bread and cheese. Dinner was had in the hotel room before we met up with Joris and Noor who stayed next door. Going for some tea, it was lovely to talk to fellow travellers; we spent two hours just doing that and then made to ride with Joris tomorrow. Noor took a flight back to the Netherlands this night as her holiday of visiting was over.