Queen’s Day in Amsterdam

30 April 2008: Queen’s Day is large national holiday in the Netherlands. I believe it’s a celebration for the Queen’s birthday. It’s always on 30 April, but people actually start partying the night before. But for us that night, I bought Sean some chicken so he could make adobo. I was craving some “home cooking” and we needed to eat the rest of the food in the camper before we returned it. And what else do you expect; we have a two year old!

On Queen’s Day, everyone dresses in orange. I believe because it’s the Queen’s favorite color. Luckily, I already had an orange shirt to wear. We picked up a cute orange t-shirt for Kai at a souvenir shop. And, Sean got a green Amsterdam sweatshirt. The shop was already sold out of orange ones for him. Dressed for the occasion, we hopped on the trolley towards the center of the city around noon, when the celebration starts. First, we decided to hit a part of the city where we haven’t been to yet. The past few days, we kept going to the same neighborhoods because we were on a mission to get things done, we thought it would be nice to explore somewhere else. That didn’t work out as well as planned. We got to the street, but couldn’t even SEE the street, much less see anything else besides all the people that were no less than 2 inches beside you at every angle. As a matter fact, I’m not sure if I was standing on street, sidewalk or what! So after picking up a lumpia for the road, we decided to head back to the same ole’ neighborhood that we might not get so lost in. Looking back, I’m not sure if it mattered, because we got lost wandering around in that neighborhood too. And, getting lost didn’t really matter. There was something around every block to explore anyway.

Queen’s Day is a mixture of a huge citywide street festival and flea market/garage sale. They close off the streets, erect food and drink booths and have stages with music/entertainment/DJs around every corner. People also sell their used stuff on the sidewalks. It would have probably been smart for us to sell some of our stuff, but we didn’t want to be tied down with it. I’m not sure if it’s an organized event, but there was also a large procession of boats going down the canals with people partying and loud music/DJs. It was an absolutely crazy event to see! As the afternoon went on, garbage cans started to fill up and litter on the streets was piling up. So by then, we tucked ourselves away in this tiny little restaurant somewhere along the canal near Leideseplein. (Darn, I wish I could remember the name of it!) Figuring we were about to leave the country of cheese, we indulged with some cheese fondue and a wonderful salad with warm goat cheese while watching the craziness, including a procession with Brazilian drum beats, walk by outside. Overall, we are thrilled that we were able to be in town during the right time of the year to experience this holiday. If you ever get the chance to go to Amsterdam around the end of April, do try to be there for this!

The Netherlands was the one country in Europe that I had the least expectations about and am pleasantly surprised by it. There’s this kind of bohemian vibe here. Cities are exciting and bustling, yet easygoing. And, there are also so many outdoor settings to go to for absolute calm and peace. In both settings, there are all different kinds of people from all walks of life on bikes. The bikes all look the same, old and beat up. They are definitely a form of transportation and not a status symbol! The culture is so immensely diverse, yet traditional is also valued. It is evident in their architecture. You see very modern, industrial designed office buildings and homes that are very classic-looking. Best of all, with such a diverse population, everyone still seems to live cohesively. It’s just such a lovely thing!

Amsterdam

(Our new haircuts)

27 April 2008: We have made our last stop in the camper and need to pack everything up, return it and get ready to leave this continent. The past four days have not been the most exciting part of our trip. But, for the sake of my swiss cheese memory trying to recall this from a different perspective, here it is:

We woke up late and headed into town. Unfortunately, the Heineken Brewery is closed for renovations until this summer, as that was one of the “to do” items on Sean’s list. Instead, we proceeded to eat lunch outside at some pub. I had the best salad so far (smoked chicken, bacon..) Then, we needed cash and groceries. And along the way, found a camping/travel store and scored on a couple necessary items: a replacement for my lost headlamp, a sleep sack for two and a knife sharpener. Later in the day, we did the infamous laundry.

Woke up late again and ate lunch outside at some cheesy tourist sports bar in Leideseplein. I had chicken sate with peanut sauce (good, but not the greatest) and Sean had fish and chips. (…despite me reminding him that we’ll be in the land of fish and chips at the end of the week!) Went to the Bulldog, a cheesy chain, the McDonalds of coffee shops. I went to use their internet but got fed up with feeding the machine coins and then sat on a piece of gum. And, it was getting too smoky (cigarettes). So, we resumed internet activity at a nice café attached to a theater with more artist ambiance, DeBalie. By the way, we were way behind on internet stuff. We still didn’t have any hotels booked in London, Hong Kong or Manila. When we were in Italy they require a passport to get online and we always had ours stashed in some inconvenient spot. And besides Munich, we didn’t see anything in the countryside of Germany. Then, we couldn’t connect to the infamous wifi at the campground in Arnheim. Anyway, we booked Hong Kong, couldn’t find anywhere affordable or available in London and decided we needed to read up on Manila a bit more.

Day 3 was Monday, and we needed to ship two rather large boxes of junk out now that the post office was open. One was a box of stuff we didn’t need anymore, to go to the states. The other was half of our cold weather clothes, to go to Australia for when we get there around September-ish. It’s amazing how much you can accumulate by living in a camper for 2 months! Carrying two large boxes from the campground to the train station, to the tram and down the street to the post office, with a 2 year old, was just not possible. We had to break the boxes down, carry separately, pack stuff in rolling luggage, and assemble it all at the post office. During the assembly, we met another couple who borrowed our tape for a (much smaller!) box that they were shipping out, Sasha and Amy from North BC. They just completed a circle around Europe too, but stayed more east than we did and went clockwise rather than counter-clockwise. They were also going to Asia, but to Japan instead of Hong Kong and the Philipines. We traded contact info, and shall see if our paths cross again, perhaps when we both hit Thailand around the same time. After the post office, we headed across the street to a mall, where Sean was looking for a pair of shorts. In addition, I found a Tony & Guy hair salon, booked an appointment and ate lunch while waiting for it. Butterflies were starting flutter in my stomach as the appointment got closer. I haven’t had my hair done by anyone except my long time friend, Jenny, for years. But, I was months overdue and desperate. Giani did a great job and even trimmed Kailani’s fringe (bangs). To my surprise, Kai sat still for him and didn’t mind it at all. After, we headed to a pub and sat outside along the canal for another internet session. I didn’t have much luck with booking anything. I couldn’t connect to the pub’s wifi, but to someone else’s network. So, the connection was poor. Then, Kai woke from her nap and it started getting cold. But at least, we were able to talk to Caitlin on Skype, show her our haircuts and turn the computer camera towards the canal, which she didn’t believe was just RIGHT behind us. Another “to do” on my list was to eat Indonesian food, which Amsterdam is supposed to have a bunch of really good places. I figured we could become familiar with the food before we get to that country. But, we had no idea where to go. The tourist information booth recommended a place, Puri Mas, that’s supposed to be famous, I think. We went for the “Rijk-menu” (don’t exactly remember the right word for this) which is a little smorgasborg of everything: chicken soup, salad with peanut sauce, pickled cabbage, chicken sate with peanut sauce, pork in soy sauce, spicy beef, etc. Overall, it was OK/good. The restaurant was sparkling clean, the staff really nice and the food was good. But, it was also a bit pricey.

Day 4 was post office trip #2 with box #2. At least, the stuff was appropriately packed and we knew how to get to the post office this time. The shipping took almost all our cash and the next day is their big national holiday, Queen’s Day. We keep hearing how crazy packed (like, a million people) the city gets during this celebration. We also hear credit card machines get so jammed with transactions, they don’t work, and ATM machines run out of money. (It should be fun!) So, we started panicking when the ATMs at the post office wouldn’t work and the second ATM was out of order. But, luckily, we were able to use the third one. From there, we went back to DeBalie. This time, I gave up looking for Manila hotels, and just booked a pricey and convenient room for our first night there. Unfortunately, we still didn’t have any luck with London, even any of the expensive places on our list. And we need something for this Friday. So now, we’re in a bit of a panic over that…


(After Amsterdam, then London for 4 days, then Hong Kong for 5 days, the Philipines for 3 weeks, then Thailand for who knows (no set bookings after that.)

Back to Amsterdam and the Goat Farm

25 April 2008: On our way back to Amsterdam, we decided to again stop by the Amsterdame Bos and visit the goat farm. We had so much fun there when we first arrived to Europe. And, we wanted to see how big the baby goats got, get more raw biodynamic/organic goat milk, cheese and eggs and lunch. Lunch just as good as the first visit. Their menu is very basic: soup, sandwiches, snacks, desserts and ice cream. But, we like the way they incorporate what they have into the menu. We had two kinds of soup, goat cheese and tomato. Then, an ice cream sundae with pistachio and vanilla ice cream (pistachio was AWESOME, both made from goat milk), caramel sauce, whipped cream, and ground pistachios on top. This put me over the edge! The weather was nice, so we ate on the patio with the chickens and neighborhood Rotweiler. Just like our drive a couple days ago to the center of Amsterdam, the farm was much more crowded than 2 months ago. The weather is getting nice, so I guess people are starting to come out of the woodwork!

After lunch, we got a baby bottle full of milk to feed the baby goats. I never even noticed how big the babies we previously fed had gotten because there were new, smaller baby goats now there. They were just so darn cute! This time I took Kailani into the pen. They were also so very soft! They do like to nibble on your hands when you are feeding them food pellets and nip at your buttons, but they don’t really have teeth either.

In the afternoon, we checked into the last campground of this phase of the trip, Gaasper Camping Amsterdam, a peaceful, yet lower-key atmosphere with nice facilities. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing some final packing and letting Kailani play in the nice grassy area where the camper is parked. There is a little stream right next to us and the ducks sometimes come around to visit.

Arnheim, Hooge Veluwe Park and The Kroller-Muller Museum

23 April 2008: Arnheim is also only an hour outside of Amsterdam. Although we didn’t want to pass up Arnheim, we were also anxious to pack up for the next leg of our trip and get stuff shipped back to the US. Although 2 months in Europe sounded like a lot of time in the planning phase and we are very grateful for the time we’ve had here, we would have loved to stay in many places a few days longer than we had and we felt rushed most of the time. But as we headed north, we were also mentally ready to move on. And, we had a little over a week before returning the camper and heading off to London for 5 days, then Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. So for our first day in Arnheim, we decided to drive into Amsterdam to get our empty luggage and a box of warm-weather/Asia stuff that the camper place was storing for us. The GPS sent us in the wrong direction somehow, then quit and we found ourselves going in circles around the compact streets and construction of central Amsterdam. But, after a few circles, we found our way. Unfortunately, the stuff was being stored in their workshop right outside town. So there we went. Overall, a quick drive into town to get our stuff ended up taking most of the day. At least, we accomplished what we set out to do!

The campground, Campeercentrum de Hooge Veluwe, is a 5 star luxury campground right across the street from the south entrance of the Hooge Veluwe Park. The location was perfect and the facilities were top notch, except the 6 minute hot water timers on the showers that kept running out on me. The only other thing that was a bummer was that I couldn’t get the wifi connected to my computer, especially since it’s been hard the past few weeks to find places to connect to. We really need to book some accommodations for the next phase of our trip too!

The Hooge Veluwe Park is a very large national park. There are paths throughout and the best thing is that they provide free bikes. So the next day, we entered (at the south gate), got on bikes (they even had ones with kid seats, both in front and behind the rider!) and headed to the Kruller-Muller Museum, which is located inside the park. Somehow I pictured that it would be an easy 20-30 minute ride, but it was at least triple that. We went from wooded forest area to dry, dessert brush-like areas and back to forest. At times we looked at each other wondering where the heck we were and what happened to civilization. But, the museum ended up being well worth the ride. We loved everything, from the Frank Lloyd Wright building architecture (if not original, a good copy), to the woodsy natural surroundings outside, to the layout of the rooms and the art. We had a nice, peaceful lunch sitting outside on the patio. Then, we looked at a fine selection of art work from many famous artists, including a Van Gogh collection that, in my opinion, was more interesting than his museum in Amsterdam. Then, we walked outside to the sculpture garden. They even provide free "buggies" (strollers). The weather was calm, the ground slightly moist and bright spring green leaves were just sprouting off the dark winter trees in this wooded area. I love this setting and it took me back to my mountain biking days. On top of that, there were some great sculptures to look at, including a Rodin. By then, our senses went into complete overload! If I had enough money, I would love to fly family, friends and loved one’s here to have a party at the open-air pavilion in the back of the garden, which again was a perfect display for more sculptures. The lighting was hitting so perfectly that we shot off a billion pictures of this area!

If ever coming to Amsterdam, this place is a must see, even with the drive! I would also highly recommend the campground, for the location to the park (although a ride to the museum), comfortable woodsy atmosphere and clean, modern facilities. Even if you aren’t a “camping” person, they have these awesome “cabins” for rent, with modern furniture, their own bathroom and kitchenettes, and patio, that they aren’t even finished building yet (though you pay for it). Also if you aren’t into cooking, there is a handy restaurant that isn’t too bad either. And yes, I was drooling over those cabins. I’ve loved living in our camper and it has suited us very well (big enough, but not so big it’s hard to get around in), but I’m ready for a little more space!

PS: Thanks Rory and Lisa, for recommending the park/museum! :-)

Bacharach and Arnheim, Netherlands

(Our camper parked at the winery in the Moselle River Valley)

22 April 2008: We woke up at Winzergenossenschaft de Kreises Cochem-Zell in Ernst. Wineries are generally called “weingut” instead of “winzergenossenschaft”, but this was actually an incorporation where wineries from the Kreises Cochem-Zell area send their grapes to be processed into wine. We “battened down the hatches” to head over to the valley “right next door”, The Rhine River Valley. We got about 10 feet down the driveway when we realized the tasting room was open. We couldn’t leave without at least trying the wine! The wines were mostly made from Reisling grapes and other white varietals, but there were also few reds, just not to taste. The woman gave us a little background on the history of the grapes and the area and it was interesting.

We headed off to the town of Bacharach in the Rhine Valley. The original plan was to take a boat ride up the river and maybe ride bikes back. But, the weather was grey and it was later than we expected. We got a view of part of the river just getting down to the town of Bacharach and snapped off a few photos of the robber-baron castles. Barons would build these castles right on the banks of the Rhine River, or even in the middle of the river. Then, they would block the river off with chains or rope and charge the trade barges going up/down the river a toll. After driving through France, Spain, Italy and Austria, it seems like tolls are a good profit stream in Europe.

Anyway, the town itself was supposed to be another great walled town. So, we decided to check it out and grab lunch. Again, it was more knickknack shops and, although slimmer streets, traffic passing by. And again, Sean started with a snack before lunch. This time, it was something that looked like a gyro but called something else. It ended up being pretty darn good. Nothing else in town appealed to me and I was just about to get another gyro thingy, but we somehow ended up in this courtyard that we wanted to investigate further. Inside was a restaurant called Posthof, if you could call it a restaurant. It had a bar and table for four on the ground floor, and three more sets of tables up in a balcony. Attached was also an art gallery. It was a very homely, intimate setting. At least, we could see ourselves living and working in a set up like this. We sat up in the balcony at a coffee table with sofa and lounge chairs. I had a “German pizza”, flatbread with smoky ham, light dusting of cheese and onions (which I picked off due to allergies) and, of course, some local white wine. Sean had bratwurst and beer (again).

With lunch out of the way and nap time approaching, we were back in the autobahn heading to Arnheim, The Netherlands. The speed of the traffic instantly changed as we crossed over the border. Everything felt like it was all the sudden in slow motion. But still, the drive didn’t seem too long.

Rothenberg and Ernst, Moselle River Valley

Rothenberg


Moselle River Valley

Castle in the Moselle River Valley


21 April 2008: In the morning, we decided to check out Rothenberg again with the hopes that it wouldn’t seem like such a ghost town as the night before. It was a Monday morning and it was still slow, but there were enough shops open to peek into. Most were knickknack shops. And, every couple of doors are bakeries, all of them selling this pastry called Schneeballen, which literally means “snowball” because it looks like one. It’s made from flat strands of batter rolled up into ball, fried (I think) and then coated with powdered sugar, chocolate, etc. We had a couple bites, but didn’t finish them. We wanted lunch instead and still I was still craving Asian food more than German. In the mean time, Sean was so hungry that he got a “German hamburger” (beef and pork with onion, egg, salt and pepper) as an appetizer. Then, we found ourselves in a Chinese restaurant. It seemed really weird to not be able to read the menu, not because it was in Chinese, but because it was in German. Although it was not the most authentic stuff, it wasn’t half bad. Rothenberg is supposed to be one of the cutest walled cities around, and it was cute. But, I think the wider streets and car traffic killed it a bit more than the others we have visited. Still, we had fun on our way out when we found the steps leading up to the lookout fort in the front of the town. There was even an old cannon pointing out of one of the little square “windows”.

That afternoon, we headed to stay at a winery in Ernst, a town in the Moselle River Valley. On the way, we went through Frankfurt. It made us feel we were really coming full circle and our trip through Europe was coming to an end as we passed by the airport that we originally landed in Euorpe in, almost two months ago. The Moselle River Valley is nice, quiet wine growing region. It’s amazing to see that they can put vineyards up these very tall, steep valley walls. Again, it was a very peaceful setting. Tired from the 350 km drive, we opted to have dinner at the restaurant next door instead of walking into town. Sean had more schnitzel, the best one, and I had the goulash, then saved room for an apple strudel for dessert. Kai was more interested in the playground in the front of the place, rather than eating.

Garmish and Neuschwanstein

19 April 2008: We checked out of our campground in Munich and headed towards Garmish-Partenkirchen, which has the tallest mountain peak and straddles the German-Austrian border. Unfortunately it was raining, so we figured there would be no visibility if we took the Zupspitz, their cable car, to the top. So instead, we toured around the town, checked out some auto show they were having, drooled over the European Audi’s (TDI’s that you can’t get in the US!) and stopped for lunch. Just like the previous day, I ordered curry again. This time, it was Thai chicken curry. I guess I’m really getting ready for Asia next.

It was only a short drive to the small town of Schwangau, so we arrived in the late afternoon. Down the street to the campground, there were working barns, stables with horses and ponies, and the locals roll around in horse drawn field machinery. It was definitely a very quiet and peaceful countryside.

This town is also where the crazy King Ludwig II’s castle, Neuschwanstein, is located. And, that’s where we went the next morning. Before you get up the hill to the castle, there’s Mary’s bridge that crosses a VERY tall valley and has the best view of the castle. If the scenery didn’t take our breath away, it must have been the nervousness of standing so high up on a thin bridge and the three planks that are holding you are shaking every time someone else on the bridge takes a step! Anyway, the castle was so huge and such a perfect fairy tale looking castle from afar as we drove in at sunset the day before, and it looked the same close up. You can see why Disney wanted to use it as a model for their logo. We also had some fun on the ride down the hill from the castle, which was a horse drawn carriage.

After a less than spectacular lunch (the area around the castle is very touristy!), we got back in the camper and headed up North on a scenic route called The Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road) that starts from the town of Schwangau and takes you through Germany’s heartland. Once a trade route, it takes you through through Germany’s most beautiful towns and scenery. It was very scenic. The grassy hills looked so perfect that I felt like we were driving alongside a never-ending golf course! But, a couple hours into it, we were ready to make it to the next stop, so we headed to the autobahn. On it, you must keep looking at your rear view mirror if in the far left lane or else the tiny dot that could be a Porsche, Audi, VW, BMW or Benz could be there in a split second. Sean claims that the camper went the fastest ever that day, just keeping up with traffic.

We arrived at a medieval walled city toward the other end of the Romantic Road called Rothenberg and took advantage of their camper right outside the wall. It’s too bad this was only a camperstop, and not a campground with a playground, because as we parked and opened our doors, Kailani instantly made a buddy with a 4 year old girl named Elenora (Ellie for short). Her family was also driving the Romatic Road, but from the other end, on their way back home to Bologna, Italy. Both girls must have been too cooped up driving that day. They were doing laps around the parking lot as an elderly German couple sat at their folding table/chair set , sipping wine and giggling at them. We did a short sunset walk into the city to check it out, but it was pretty dead that Sunday evening.

Munich

16 April 2008: We woke up in a parking lot in the tiny Italian town of Montagna, just outside the Alps, off the autostrada and up a hill. The town was very cute. It looked more Austrian than Italian. But seeing as we didn’t want to get in trouble for camping in a parking lot, we quickly got up and left. We were close to the Austrian border and I read in our book, European Camping, that in Austria, they don’t have toll booths for their highways, they require you to purchase a vignette (sticker for your windshield). We seemed to hit a toll booth every 10 minutes while in France, Spain, France again and Italy, and it can get a bit annoying (and expensive!). So, getting a vignette and no stopping sounded fine to us. But, the book said we’d have to purchase one valid for 2 weeks, but we only planned to cross right through to Germany. So, I was worried about the cost. When we found a gas station that sold them, they ended up only being 7-8 Euro, so that was not too bad for a less than 1 hour trip through Austria. The price for the distance was about the same as the other countries. The only thing I still don’t understand was that there were STILL a couple toll booths that charged us a couple Euro to go through. Oh well!

We arrived in Munich safely and with no issues but a little rain. We were, again like several times before, feeling like drowned rats when we arrived at the campground. We needed showers, clean laundry, to charge every rechargeable device we owned, to fill the water tank, wash dishes, empty the toilet, etc. But after recharging, I took Sean into the Marienplatz (center of town) to one of the only restaurants I know about, from being in Munich for work a couple times, The Ratskeller, located underground below the Neues Rathaus. There, we had some standard German fare for dinner. I getting kind of sick of pizza and pasta in Italy, and was ready for a change. I didn’t find much variety over there! Sean had what I call “Heart Attack Express”, which consisted of a pile of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut topped with various German sausages and a slice of bacon on top. Of course, he had a beer with it. I had roasted duck with organic roasted potatoes and vegetables and rotwein (red wine) to drink. (The duck was good, but not as good as St. Emilion or Barcelona.) After, we went back “home” (which we literally call it wherever we are) and crashed for the night.

The next day, we were still in “recharge” mode. We found a HUGE Biomarket that was the same size as a medium grocery store… (J)… stocked up to the point that we could barely close the fridge (including kombucha!) and lugged everything back home. After that, we headed back to Marienplatz, had a quick shopping spree at H&M and saw the famous Glockenspiel for a 5pm show. It’s quite long (approx 13 minutes, I think) and not really that fabulous, but at least Sean got to see it. After, we headed to the Hofbrauhaus, a famous beer hall that I heard about but have never been to, for a beer (of course), the HUGEST pretzel I’ve seen and some roasted suckling pig. I really can’t drink that much beer, so I had a Dunkels Radler, which was quite good. It was dunkels beer mixed with lemonade. They don’t serve this in smaller glasses, so I was forced to get one of those huge steins. And to Sean’s surprise, I was able to keep up with him. The pig was good but not great. I swear that the gravy that it swam in was exactly the same as what my duck was swimming in!

I was hoping I could find Mike’s Bike Tour company, who I took a tour with 3 years ago, with Kailani in belly. (Yes, everyone gave me weird looks when I asked for an alcohol-free beer at the time!) Luckily, it was right down the street from the Hofbrauhaus. So the next day, we headed back there and rented bikes for the afternoon. (I would have taken the tour again, seeing as I remember NOTHING about the previous one, but they only offered a full day one or a half day one late in the afternoon. Neither really worked for us.) We rode to the English Gardens, which is Munich’s equivalent to New York’s Central Park, and again had more beer for Sean, Radler for me and lunch. Sean had roasted chicken and I had currywurst, which I heard about on TV before. Currywurst is bratwurst with curry sauce, a very interesting mix. The curry didn’t really taste that “curry” to me though. It more tasted more like spicy BBQ sauce with a hint of curry. Neither of us felt like it went that well with the brat. But, I did try it with the chicken and it was pretty good. (As you might have clued in, I’m not really a big fan of German food. Sorry, no offense. At least, I tried!) After, we cruised through the park to find spot where people surf on the Isar river, longed to do what they are doing, and then cruised to another few spots that seemed like things you should see but knew nothing about. (Hence, why the tour would have been good.) We really enjoyed riding through the city on bikes and Kai did great riding on the back of Dad’s. Honestly, I wish we would have gotten bikes when we started out in Amsterdam as we have bike racks on the back of the vehicle. We rounded out the afternoon by finding a coffee shop that offered Wifi, returned our bikes and went home for an evening of Sean’s chicken adobo and rice. Kai ate like it like there was no tomorrow! We had a really fun day overall and were very grateful it didn’t rain.

The Road to Munich

The mountain range we were trying to get over



Kailani being a trooper with all the driving, after we were "out of the woods" and well on our way to Munich.



15 April 2008: We woke-up at Lake Como to some fresh snow dusting at the top of the mountains. The rain from the night before subsided and it was absolutely beautiful. I’m sure this place is as awesome to visit as the scenery suggests, but it was still bone-chilling cold when the wind blew and another weather pattern could blow in quickly. So, we put this place on our “must see next time for at least a week” list and moved on, with still one last hope to make it to Munich by nighttime to see our friend, Rory. It was noon at the latest and I figured it would take 5-6 hours to get to Munich. So, even if we stopped along the way and didn’t arrive until the show started at 20:00 (8pm), there as a chance we could still see No Use for a Name play after the opening band(s). We set the GPS and headed off, still stunned by the beauty of the area.

As we headed up a hill, I noticed the GPS couldn’t pick up where we were. It does this temporarily sometimes, and did this a few times on the way in. We started switchbacking back and forth, and back and forth, up a hill. Still, the GPS wasn’t picking up where we were. Looking back at it, I’m sure it was the mountains in the way of the satellite signals. Finally, we headed toward a tunnel (Remember, there are lots in the hilly parts of Italy!) that was 2.6 meters high. Our camper is 2.85 meters high. OK, that wasn’t going to work!!! So, we had to turn around and head back down. Of course, the GPS started picking up signals now that we were facing the other way down the mountain AND it kept telling us to turn around!

We stopped for lunch at a cafeteria on the way down, where it appeared a lot of people eat on the way to/from one of the snow mountains close by. We weren’t hungry, but we didn’t want to make the same mistake as on the way there. Most places close in the middle of the afternoon, which is when we usually get hungry for lunch. We checked the map for some alternative routes and headed toward one that looked like it went straight through a valley with no snow near it. This looked promising until we started going through the longest tunnel ever, about 10 kilometers (most others in the area were about 2-3 kms.). When we got out, there was a big mountain in our way. Luckily, there were no more tunnels too small for us, but all the passes at the top of this mountain were all closed. I believe I saw some signs going towards the ski areas that had “2000 Olympic” signs, and the town below was Tirano. So, would this be the area where the “2000 Torino Olympic” games were held? I was half tempted to suggest we get a room and stay and snowboard for a day or two, but Sean looked like he was on a mission to get out before a big snow storm locked us in. After suggesting that he stop and ask for directions about 10 times, we finally found an alternative route.

Try number 3 finally worked! But still, there were two other passes we needed to get over. One was more like a 1 ½ lane road and the second was so high that deep powder and chair lifts were aside us. By then, it was late afternoon/early evening and I suggested we stop. But, Sean was so sketched out about the snow that he wanted to get off the mountain first.

When we were out of the snow area, it started getting dark and we were obviously not going to make it to Munich any time soon. I opened the campground books and found a place close by. It was not only “just” a campground, but a 4 star campground with wellness spa and all! Wouldn’t that be nice after our day of endless driving, getting lost, unshowered and all! The place not only ended up being closed for the season (the end of the snow season), it CLOSED THAT DAY! We used their parking lot to eat dinner and headed a block down where I spotted the bright green blaring lights of a Holiday Inn sign. Normally, I would probably choose to stay at a locally-owned hotel with character rather than an American chain hotel, but this place was looking pretty nice, crisp and clean at this point. We were dreaming of a shower and a good bed. Well, the place was so crisp and clean because it was newly built. And, it was SO new that it wasn’t even OPEN yet! Strike #2!

The next place I could find was completely out of the Alps and off the autostrada. It wasn’t a campground OR a hotel, it was merely a parking lot in a shopping center that campers were allowed to stay at. Whatever! We didn’t care at this point. By then, Kai was asleep for the night in her car seat, and we just needed to crawl up to the bunk and do the same. Luckily, they usually post plenty of signs towards campgrounds and camperstops, so we were pointed the right way. Unfortunately, the spot where the shopping center SHOULD have been was a fenced off construction zone. Yes, strike #3! So, we just found the next parking we could and slept “upstairs” feeling like stowaways for the night.

Lake Como

14 April 2008: Originally, we were going to go back to Venice to see it during the daytime, but we change our minds. But, when seeing it as beautiful as it was during sunset and into the night, why ruin it? We headed towards Milan and up to the Lake District, to Lake Como. It was a long drive, and it started to rain near Milan. After Milan, the autostada turned into a one-lane street through small foothill towns and industrial areas. From there, a long sting of tunnels, with only short breaks in between to see daylight. I thought that there were a ton of tunnels going from the French border through Genoa, but this blew that away! We finally got to the north side of the lake where the campground was, but it was still pouring rain.

We were absolutely starving by that point. We had been looking for somewhere to eat from the Milan area, but everything seemed closed. Sean finally found a pizza place, but Kai was napping, so he got it to snack in the camper until we got settled at the campground and could make dinner. They had to stoke up the fire just to make our pizza! The man that worked there mentioned that it had been raining all week, and that this was normal for this time of the year….little did we know…or research!

It was really getting cold and campground also appeared closed. We started wondering what to do. We didn’t really want to park off the side of the road and sleep with no electricity, ie heater. We also realized that this place is probably best visited during the summer. And, that coming up here, next to the Alps and Switzerland, might have not been the best idea. Not that the area wasn’t absolutely beautiful. The lakes along the tall mountains were stunning! But, we also decided to come here for a few days instead of going directly to Munich, where our friend, Rory, drummer for the band, No Use for a Name, was playing on the 15th. Seeing a familiar face in Munich would have been nice.

Luckily, someone appeared as we were driving off, and let us into the campground. I made some more spaghetti Bolognese, as this seems to be the only thing that Kai’s wanted to eat the past week. And, we snuggled into bed all nice and tight for the night.

Venezia

13 April 2008: The drive to Venezia (Venice) was a bit longer than the past few, but we made it later in the afternoon. We decided to check out two places right next to each other before deciding where to stay. As we were leaving the first one, which was nothing really impressive, the lady working there lectured us because we entered without asking for permission first. So, I guess the decision was already made for us. We went to the second place. The second place was not more than a dirt lot (camper stop) but had all the standard facilities. But, what else do you need when Venezia awaits? Plus, the price was less than the standard campground. Sean told me that the owner of the lot lived next door, and he said that if we came home later than midnight, the fence would be closed and we’d have to ring him to let us in. We both thought, we are NEVER out any time NEAR the hour of midnight!

We knew we needed to take the ferry from the campground to the city. But from there, there was really not much I wanted to see, but to see what Venezia was like. This was a place I had not been “dreaming” of going to, but might as well make a visit. We decide to take the “introductory tour” (with a write-up on all the sites in Rick Steves’ book) on Vaporetto #1, which goes down the Grand Canal. The Vaporetto is their equivalent to a city bus and the Grand Canal is their equivalent to the main street. Without any hesitation, we purchased a “1 hour” ticket and hopped on the ferry. We got off when it stopped, and then got completely confused. I thought there was supposed to be no cars in the city?!?! It turned out that the ferry stopped on a couple more islands before actually going into the city. We were on the island of Lido and the next ferry didn’t come for another hour! Oops! With an hour to kill, I suggested we walk along the waterfront a couple blocks, where it looked like there was more action. We ended up at another dock with more boats leaving for the city. This time, I opted for the “24 hour tourist” ticket, which allows you on all the public transportation for 24 hours, a much better deal! AND, it turns out that the boat that was going into the city WAS the Vaporetto #1. We were just getting on it at the beginning of the line. So all in all, it worked out.

As we entered the Grand Canal, the sun was setting and the water started glistening, as did the gold features on the beautifully perfect gondolas riding alongside us. Venice really is a well-preserved old city. You get to see it as it was it was when it was built. There’s nothing modern, except the Vaporettos and their stops. Unfortunately, Rick Steves’ “tour” went backward from where we started out. And, we had a hard time following along with it. Halfway down the Grand Canal, we decided it was taking too long and we were hungry. So, we got off a stop before the Rialto bridge. We looked at a couple restaurants along the waterfront with triple-language menus and steep prices. We walked a couple blocks inland and found a cozy little place with a better menu, called Osteria al Diavolo e l’Acquasanta. (Still a little steep, but I think everything in Venice is!) The waiter, who I found out was the owner later, had this soft, sultry voice. After a couple sips of wine, all the sudden the romanticism of Venice hit me. Dinner was excellent. I had a pork rib “stew” in tomato sauce with potatoes, Sean had a grilled fish and Kai had a plate of penne bolognese made just for her. She was a bit rambunctious, trying to escape the tiny table in the corner. I took her outside, but still she wanted to run around inside the restaurant. The owner got a hold of her and carried her to the kitchen, where his wife apparently did all the cooking. They had three kids themselves, and he was very understanding of kids. After dinner, we strolled around, checked out the Rialto bridge and drooled over the murano glass pieces at a shop open late before heading back “home”. Sean all the sudden became a bit stressed out when he looked at his watch and it was almost 11pm. The vaporetto is pretty slow, and the ferry runs every hour. Fortunately, we made it for the LAST ferry of the night and ended up getting back “home” right before midnight. We never could have imagined that it would take us nearly 7 hours to cruise into town and have dinner, but it did. But at least, we didn’t get stranded in Venezia. Overall, our night in Venice, with the calmness and glistening of the water and the grandeur of the buildings and gondolas, really did impress me much more than I expected.

Firenze

Donatello's Mary Magdalene


12 April 2008: It was a rainy drive. And, even though we got a bit turned around trying to find the campground, we arrived in Firenze (called Florence in English) quickly. The campground is RIGHT outside the city wall and across the river, up on a hill, overlooking all the beautiful building tops of the city! It’s actually right next door to a scenic lookout point for tourists called the Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s absolutely stunning, especially at night!

I made chicken soup while Kailani was still napping. And after lunch, the rain subsided. So, we headed off for an afternoon of sightseeing. I didn’t know what to expect, so I left the agenda open for Sean to fill. He had three museums that he wanted to see. We read that opening times for museums are always changing and erratic, and lines can be long if you don’t make reservations (of course we didn’t have any!). But, we figured we’d take our chances and it would at least give us direction in which to walk around.

The first museum, the Bargello, which housed work done by Michelangelo and Donatello, was unfortunately closed in the afternoons. So, we headed off behind the Doumo to the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo (Duomo Museum). Sean really wanted to see Donatello’s wood carving, Mary Magdalene, all covered in her matted hair and Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture, which he carved when he was 80 years old. There were also many artifacts, displays and models of the Duomo as this was where they staged everything when building of the cathedral. Afterwards, we looked at the actual Duomo, Florence’s Gothic Santa Maria del Fiori. Like the others we’ve seen, it was definitely a piece of work. Roman cathedrals are really not my style, but it’s still fascinating to see such a HUGE building from the 1870’s that you know took a lot of money, a huge team of people hundreds of hours and all the ornate work done in pink, green and while marble. It was intentionally built with the dome missing, because they didn’t know how to build one yet, but knew that someone could figure it out later. The last stop was the Galleria dell’ Accademia (Accademia) for the grand finale, Michelangelo’s David, and it didn’t let us down. It was huge and exceptionally well-done to scale, except his large hands, which were done intentionally as a symbol of power. I could go on and on how realistic this marble sculpture was. But really, you have to go see it for yourself. And after you do, all the mini “David” souvenirs sold in every window on every street in Florence will not do it any justice.

The rest of the afternoon, we took it easy; window shopped and strolled around the center of town, watching Florence on a Sunday afternoon. Kailani did exceptionally well during all those museum visits and we found a carousel for her to ride. I rode with her the first half of the ride. But, she rode the second half all by herself, holding on tight as she went up, down and around. I am just amazed how fast she’s growing right now. Italians are not the least bit shy to give attention to children. And, as with Spanish and French, she’s been speaking Italian words to them. It’s really cute to hear her say “Ciao”, “Grazie” and “Boun Giorno” in her little, shy voice! (But of course, I’m a bit biased!)

On the way back, we hopped into this nice hole in the wall restaurant for some pasta, of course. I wish I could remember the name of the place and got the name of the cheerful waitress that served us. But, saw lots good looking places to eat walking from our campground into the center of town. So, I don’t think there is a shortage of good places to eat in the city. The walk back up the hill to the campground, up a couple hundred steps, was a grueling one. Especially at the end of the day when so full of dinner. But we made it. JUST as we took our shoes off, we heard the first drops of rain start again, and it rained all night. It was as if someone was really looking out for us!

Chianti Hills

(These are the signs you are faced with when you are trying to find your way around in Italy!)

10 April 2008: We are now in the Chianti hills, south of Florence, at the campground, Villaggio Norcenni Girasole Club, in the town of Figline Valdarno. (http://www.ecvacanze.it/) The campground is one of the few four-star campgrounds in Tuscany, and we decided to take advantage of it to have a good rest period (as well as shower and laundry time!) It’s more of a suburb of Florence than I expected. I was hoping to be right in the middle of wineries, where we could drive around and taste. (Although, I’m sure we could, if we had the motivation.) But, we are clean, Kai’s having fun playing with all of English kids in the playground and they have a great restaurant that we are spending lots of money at called “Ristorante Vecchio”. (For any of the Del Vecchio family reading this, there’s also a horse ranch here called “Vecchio Texas”!)

Since being in the Tuscany region, the rugged terraced mountains of Northern Italy/Cinque Terre have not turned into gentle rolling hills “quilted” with vineyards after vineyards with a typical yellow-orange colored Tuscan house, or a medieval-looking old stone building with a tall tower. The hills remind us a lot of the South Belgium/North France/Bordeaux area, and the houses look similar to the ones in the Provence region of France. We’ve seen more tourists than ever before and heard more English than anywhere else in Europe, Provence and the French Riviera probably coming second place. Pizza and pasta is everywhere! We haven’t had problems getting cash like in Spain – phew!

A couple of the large grocery stores in Italy seem to have a good, yet not huge selection of food for me to buy. So today, I’m trying for the first time to make “camper” chicken stock, with “non-GMO” chicken wings and organic leeks, carrot, celery and herbs de Provence, while sipping on (very non-organic!) Kir Royals a la Lavande, which are now being made with Procesco, the Italian version of the French Champagne. (And, Sean joining me with his standard, Heineken, which he says tastes much better than in the states!) When the stock’s done, I’ll strain it and tomorrow make soup by poaching some organic chicken breast with more veggies. I find it very weird that the grocery stores only sell organic breast. What the heck do they do with all the other organic chicken parts?!?! (Still no kombucha or goat milk though!)

Siena

(The Duomo)

(Piazza del Campo in Siena)

9 April 2008: We did Siena as a quick day trip, arriving the earliest so far on our travels and leaving mid-afternoon. Sean keeps mentioning that driving keeps getting tighter and tighter these days. I’m sure the fact that we drove and parked IN Siena, rather than being at a campground and walking/taking transit didn’t help his impression!

I started off getting on the internet and booked the next portion of our trip, so now it’s official. We ARE going to the Philippines and Thailand after returning our camper in Amsterdam and going to London and Hong Kong. We have had hesitation. Europe has been a lot more on our budget with a higher than expected cost of living mixed with an all time high exchange rate. There have been other issues too, like numerous computer issues, trying to take care of other unexpected problems back home and not being able to access our “travel money” bank account. I’ve had the thought of returning back to the states to take care of business, with the hopes of resuming our trip from there. But, we are going to try to keep truckin’!

From the internet point (what they call it here), we proceeded to the Piazza del Campo. There are seventeen neighborhoods in the city if Siena, which tend to be very competitive. Once a year, there’s a lotto for ten of these neighborhoods to race a horse in this little piazza (square or plaza) with tight turns. I saw a postcard with this race in full swing and can’t imagine being in the middle of the crowd! There were no horses in sight when we were there, but there were many cafes and restaurants around the perimeter and it was lunch time. We sat outside and watched in awe at the mostly Siena-colored old brick buildings that surrounded us. Just like most of Tuscany, there were also a ton of tourists, especially a lot of young students, walking by and hanging around. There was also a guy who had a comic/clown act to watch. He’d either spray people on the head with a water bottle or lightly brush their hair with a paint brush and then turn away when they noticed. Or, he’d toot his whistle at them and stop them in their tracks. Of course, like everywhere else, he’d hold out his can for money at the end of his act.

After eating lunch, we went a couple blocks down to the Duomo (their cathedral, apparently one found in almost all Italian cities, as Catholicism is so strong here). Built in 1229, it is made with black and white marble. It has marble inlayed floors with beautiful scenes which I find are incredible works of art alone. But, it also houses masterpieces created by artists such as Donatello and Michelangelo. We were probably the fastest visitors there ever, as Kailani was starting to run amuck quickly.

We also did some shopping. After watching what three kid movies we brought for about the hundred time, Caitlin finally brought us a DVD with Ratatouille and Over the Hedge. Unfortunately, Ratatouille won’t play anymore. It somehow got scratched. With a 2 year old in close quarters…hmmmm. I never even got the chance to see it. But I’m trying to hold out to get it, hopefully in Hong Kong for a dollar. Anyway, we were walking by a CD/DVD shop and finally broke down and bought The Bee Movie, for 20 Euro/$30 USD. Ouch! At least it plays both in Inglese (English) and Italiano (Italian). I was a bit nervous about that at first! I also got a pair of “walking shoes”. I don’t know much about Geox, but there were billboards on every block of this town and they felt comfortable. I’ve been wearing Uggs nearly every day for the past month and half and it was time. I’ve been slipping all over the place walking up and down hills and cobble stone streets. Sean also picked up a new pair of shoes. Originally, he wanted to get some before we left California, but we ran out of time. He was less than thrilled when I “poo-pooed” his trying on Sketchers for 60 Euro ($90 USD) because it’s a US brand and you could probably find them at a discount store in the states for $30 USD. So, I took him to Camper when we were still in Barcelona, mentioned by Rick Steves as the equivalent to Clarks in the US. I thought the name of the shoe was fitting to our current lifestyle too! Although both a actually made in China, with all the walking that we are doing, it definitely pays to have good walking shoes!

San Gimignano

(The view from the parking lot we slept in)

(Trattoria Chiribiri)

PS - Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good picture of this walled city. But, we did pick up some great postcards. We just can't post them online. It's definitely worth seeing though!

9 April 2008: We left Pisa towards Siena and were hoping to be there for the famous-colored sunset. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful purple hue when we were in St. Tropez, looking towards Provence. I swear it’s because of all the grapes and lavender in the area! But, we also wanted to take a few moments to stop at the medieval hilltop village, San Gimignano, known for its fourteen towers. I guess we really like seeing these “castle” towns. After parking and letting Kailani finish her nap, we wondered around, enjoying the cobblestone streets, local Chianti and olive oil tasting/purchasing and window shopping. There were a TON of tourists there being bussed in from surrounding areas on day trips! Luckily, later in the afternoon, the crowds thinned.

It was late afternoon, we were getting hungry and I noticed a sign for a restaurant that was open non-stop. Most close between lunch and dinner, and somehow we’re always hungry at that time. As we peeked in, this restaurant called Chiribiri, had a10 foot by 10 foot kitchen, a 10 foot by 15 foot dining room with 6 tables and 22 seats, and two gals, one in the kitchen and one serving. Very tiny! It smelled great and the menu looked good. We had to wait a few minutes for a table to clear, but it was VERY worth it. We chatted with a Canadian couple from Quebec at the next table over, who the husband ended up formerly playing for the NHL. Bob Mongrey (and lovely wife was Louise) played for the Buffalo Sabers and the LA Kings, pre-Gretzky. We hadn’t heard much of anything about how the Sharks were doing since leaving America, so that was my first question. We were happy to hear they made it to the playoffs, but checked a few days later to find they haven’t done so well from that point. Oh well! Back to food, we had an antipasto plate with a couple different brushettas and hams. Sean had the wild boar stew and I had the minestrone. Yes, I’ve been craving soup a lot! Dinner, with a carafe of vino rosso della casa (house red wine) AND dessert/cafe (coffee) set us back a lot less than an average lunch. Overall, this place was awesome!

We were so fat-dumb-and-happy that we changed our minds and slept in the parking lot for an early night rather than driving into Siena late. The parking lot was overlooking a beautiful valley full of vineyards and there was a bottom “platform” where there was nobody parked. Although unlike France, there were no signs prohibiting campers. Actually I think the sign actually allowed campers, but not sure if they meant “overnight” campers. So, we tucked ourselves away in the corner, hoping that someone wouldn’t knock in the middle of the night telling us that we couldn’t be there. We got lucky and woke early for a drive to Siena.

Pisa

8 April 2008: We left Levanto in the morning, originally for another overnight vineyard stay just south of Cinque Terre and the town of La Spezia. The weather was a bit drizzly and a lot less of a drive than we thought. As we climbed up, the street where the vineyard was twisted around and got smaller. I wasn’t sure what we could do there for the day with the weather like it was, and Sean mentioned the area wasn’t what he expected. So we decided to make more tracks and proceed to our next destination, Pisa. On the way into Pisa, I saw some signs leading to a Green Farm, so we detoured. Right in the farm’s parking lot were electrical and water hook-ups for RVs. It would have been a great alternative to the winery stay, but the farm appeared to be closed (for the season?).

Arriving in Pisa, it was not what I expected – a bit dumpy and industrial. But maybe we entered into it from the wrong side of town, I’m not sure. We still had the afternoon left, so we proceeded toward the leaning tower of Pisa. As we entered the square where it was, we were overwhelmed by a huge row of souvenir and trinket stands. I gave in and got a few… I was expecting a crumbling tower. But it was fully made of marble, just leaning to one side. There were a couple other buildings to see, and we did find a nice shopping street to browse around and have a drink. Later, we had dinner at some touristy restaurant that was nothing to talk about, but was open early enough to fill our stomachs. Overall, I see no reason to ever visit Pisa again. But at least we got to see the tower.

Cinque Terre

6 April 2008: We are staying at a campground in the seaside town of Levanto, Italy. We even saw a couple surfers suited-up with boards in town, wandering toward the waves. Yes, we were jealous, but there was not a board-rental shop in sight anywhere! The campground was a bit rustic, which made me wonder about the toilet/shower facilities when we arrived. But to my surprise, they JUST rebuilt it. And, as a matter of fact, are still finishing. They are open-air, which is good and bad. Good for airing out smells, but it’s a little bit cold getting out of an early morning shower, but not too bad. They did a great job in the way of aesthetics and technology: sensor vessel faucets, individual trough sinks, (almost) rain showers, also on sensor, and toilets that automatically flush and sanitize after you’re done.

Levanto is the gateway to Cinque Terre (pronounced CHINK-weh TAY-reh). Literally meaning “the five lands”, this region is a national park in the region of Liguria/The Gulf of Genoa, with five tiny isolated well-preserved villages and no tourist auto traffic. Visitors hike the trails between towns, or do like we did, take the train into town and between the villages. After a lazy, rainy morning of breakfast in bed and watching Finding Nemo for about the hundredth time, the rain cleared up and we started with the furthest town and worked our way up. We were very lucky as the weather even got pretty warm and sunny in the afternoon. We got lost in tiny labyrinth-like corridors in residential areas with steep, steep stone stairways. I can’t imagine being elderly or overweight and living there! But, it definitely worked up our appetite!

We also literally ATE our way throughout four of the five towns on the first day. We ate much of the region’s “cucina tipica” (local specialties), as listed in the Rick Steves book that we picked up from the “free library” at B&W Campers. First, we started off with a morning foccacia walking to the train station in Levanto. Originating in Cinque Terre’s region of Liguria, locals say the best focaccia is made between Cinque Terre and Genoa (which we passed near the France border). Then, a mid-day snack of fried calamari from Te la Do Io la Merenda (means “I’ll give you a snack”) topped off with a café-flavored gelato in Riomaggiore. Then, Kai woke from her nap, so we got another cheese foccacia for her. We followed up with a strawberry sorbetto for Kai in the town of Corniglia. Then, we had a wonderful dinner at a tiny little restaurant, Trattoria del Capitano in Vernazza. Here, Sean had the Tegame alla Vernazza, made with accuighe (fresh anchovies…looked and tasted more like fresh sardines), potatoes, tomatoes, white wine, olive oil and herbs. He also had fresh pasta with pesto, made with basil, half Parmigiano cow/half Pecorino sheep cheese, garlic, olive oil and pine nuts. This is also born in this region. Basil is supposed to really love the Ligurian climate.

The next day, we started off in Vernazza again. Since we arrived right before sunset, ready for dinner, we wanted to see more of the town. We woke up our calves by starting with a climb up more stone steps all the way up to the top near one of the town’s towers for a breathtaking view. The waves, which were way mellow the day before, picked up quite a bit, so we headed back down to town to sit right in front of the harbor and watch the waves crash over the breakwater. It gave us a great show!

Next, we headed to the last town, Monterosso al Mare. We strolled around and picked up a bottle of another cucina tipica, sciacchetra. This dessert wine is made from near raisons. For a regular wine, 10 kilos of grapes yields seven liters. For sciacchetra, 10 kilos makes 1.5 liters. By then, the atmosphere of Cinque Terre had really sunk-in, and we were completely on slow time. We spend the rest of our afternoon at a café while Kailani got some more time in their local playground. (PS: Thanks Christina, for recommending that we visit this place!)

By the way, we are at least getting by with speaking Italiano, at least so far. Especially in Cinque Terre, there are a lot of Americans as well as tourists in general. So, the locals all seem to understand English pretty well. For us, Italian seems like a mix between French and Spanish, with a vowel at the end of every word.

The French Riviera to Italy

4 April 2008: From our St. Tropez campground, we took the scenic coastal route towards Cannes and stopped off for lunch. It seemed like I shot off about a hundred pictures, the scenery was so beautiful. But, we’ll see how many actually turn out since we were driving. Cannes wasn’t exactly what I expected. It looked a bit run down to me. But we didn’t really take much time to explore it either. After a late lunch, we took more time driving than expected, so we decided to spend the night at a campground near Nice instead of heading further.

The next morning, we did another scenic coastal drive. This time from the campground near Nice to Monaco, along the Moyenne Corniche. There are three Corniches, the Basse Corniche (Low Corniche or Corniche Inferieure) which goes right along the waterfront; the Moyenne Corniche (Middle Corniche) which runs above that with breathtaking views of the Mediterranean; and Napoleon’s crowning road-construction achievement, the Grande Corniche (High Corniche) which caps the cliffs from almost 1,600 above the sea. This is where Grace Kelly was first filmed speeding through in the Hitchcock movie To Catch a Thief (which Sean and I must see now). During the filming of that movie was when she met Prince Rainier of Monaco, and later she married him and became Princess Grace. Coincidentally, she was also killed in a car wreck on the same road. Again, I gave the camera another workout. It is VERY apparent that there is A LOT of money in this area! We stopped off halfway along the trip to the very cute hilltop town of Eze for a nice lunch. (It looked like a great place to stay, but don’t know how much that would set you back.) We really got lucky with the weather the past few days!

Then, with Kailani napping good after lunch, we motored over the French border to Italy for 2-3 hour down their expensive but fast autostrada (freeway/tollroad) for a late night arrival into the town of Levanto. Again, the border crossing was almost non-existent. But, there was a sign indicating that you were now in Italy. We were very surprised how mountainous it is when driving through the Italian Riviera. Between those mountains were canyons with heavily populated towns along the coast. I read in one of our books that the Italians don’t mess around when it comes to engineering their freeways, and it’s very true. We went through tunnel after tunnel, over several bridges and through even more tunnels. (It’s not easy to catch up on guide book reading when you’re going through them!) But, why mess around when there are so many mountains, right? I’m pretty nervous about conversing in this country as Sean and I know virtually no Italian. But, I guess we’ll see….

St. Remy, Les Baux and St.Tropez

Farmer's Market in Saint Remy

A view of Les Baux

Caves de Sarragon




...and hanging out on the beach near Saint Tropez



02 April 2008: From Sernhac, we headed down the street to St. Remy. They had a Wednesday morning market, like a California farmer’s market, which I love to go to, but much more. Originally, I thought we’d do more visits to markets, but haven’t been able to find them as easily. Not only did they have food, but handmade soaps, clothes, baskets, ceramics, etc. We bought edibles de plus (a lot)! Like, about three times what I expected or what we needed! I loved the locally made stuff. It’s also nice to be back in France, where biologique (called organic in the US) is more easily accessible. Ecologica (what it’s called in Spain) was really rare and hard to find in Spain. (And, no raw goat milk has been in sight since Amsterdam!) I prefer knowing what I’m eating, especially since we eat out the other half of the time. Anyway, the highlight must have been the artesian goat cheese made in the Pyranees. When I bought it, I was surprised how much it cost, but it was gobbled up within a day.

With a camper bursting full of food, we headed down the street to Les Baux, a castle town on the top of the Alpilles Mountains. Before we got there, we made a pit stop to Caves de Sarragan, for some tasting at the Sarragan Winery. Like several others around the mountain, the HUGE cave was originally dug for the stones to build the city of Les Baux, but made a great winery because it maintains a very low temperature, even in the summer. Although I don’t think their wine was much to talk about (especially with the Rhone Valley right around the corner!), we did pick up a bottle of Cremeux de Bacchus aromatize a la Lavande and some Sauvignon Blanc. The first is similar to Crème de Cassis, except it was made from lavender instead of cassis. They had a ton of other flavors, mostly fruits, but since we ARE in Provence, I got the lavender. Spanish sangria, which was my drink of choice in Spain, has been replaced by Kir (Crème de Cassis mixed with white wine) or Kir Royal (Crème de Cassis mixed with Champagne) since back in France. So now, I can make lavender Kir’s right from the camper! Yum! The Provence region of France, is where I have for a long time dreamt of visiting. Wine and lavender are two of my favorite things in life. So, I guess I can’t go wrong here!

Les Baux was a very cute castle town with narrow, cobblestone streets filled with cafes and touristy knickknack shops. There were also ruins that you could pay to see. It was very similar to Carcassonne. We were amazed how they could dig stones out of the mountainside so high up, and build this great city. The views were amazing as we sipped our drinks from a café.

We headed back toward the coast to a campground near St.Tropez to spend the night. We were way past due on laundry and it felt like we hadn’t showered in about a week (although I think really only 3 days). This campground, Camp du Domaine, gave us a spot RIGHT at the edge of a secluded, almost deserted sandy beach. Except a couple tanned, leathery old men in Speedos (which I noticed) and a couple topless women (which Sean noticed, don’t ask me why!) there was just beautiful blue Mediterranean water, silky sand and great sunny weather. It was soooo awesome!

We had a great time playing at the beach the next morning, especially Kai, that we HAD to stay an extra day. I actually got to do a few yoga moves on the sand, the first time on our trip (except chaturanga), even a couple handstands. Kai joined me for a couple down dogs, which I couldn’t help but catch on the camera, it was so cute. Sean and Kailani also build awesome “fish” and “turtle” sandcastles. OK, there was a minor incident where I locked the keys in the car, but luckily was able to squeeze my way through the small window in the top bunk. I guess all those tapas and drinks aren’t sticking to me that bad! We almost can’t bear to leave this place! But alas, the rest of the world waits us!

Barcelona to Leucate to Sernhac (Provence), France

Sean duct taping the car back together

Where else can you find a sign pointing you to a ski area OR the beach? Only outside Leucate!


Here are a couple pictures from the Cite’ de Carcassonne, although postcards do a better job of the entire city, than we can.


The Scalesse's horses (unique to Provence)


31 March 2008: We got the GPS working and headed off to the Barcelona airport with time to spare. So as far as I know right now, hopefully Caitlin got home safely. (I haven’t heard from her yet.) From there, we headed back into town to conquer everything we couldn’t do the day before, with much luck. Though the tapas, sangria and everything else was great, we were pretty ready to leave Spain!

I know I mentioned how windy France was on the Atlantic coast. It was the same on the Mediterranean too! Just as we reached the Spanish-French border, it was so windy, that it blew the trim off between the driver’s window and the windshield halfway off! We had to pull over and duct tape the part back on. (Thanks Santa…for the duct tape for Christmas!) Going this way, we actually did experience a “border crossing”, but still very uneventful.

We ended up going to a free camperstop in Leucate, right on the water, but really just to eat dinner and spend the night. It still pretty windy! The next morning, we talked to another camper from Germany, who was there exclusively for the windsurfing, apparently like everyone else there.

We headed up to the Cite’ de Carcassonne, noted in one of our books as the most complete and best-preserved walled city in Europe. Some people think too restored, but whatever! Yes, it was a tourist area, and we had to pay 10 Euro/$15 USD for 24 hours worth of camper parking, but still we thought it was beautiful. (Though, I suppose we could have spent the night and experienced the city walls all light up from our camper.) It was like walking into a medieval castle, just as it would have been back in the day. Inside, there were small, twisty, windy roads to walk through, with shops and restaurants. There was another area where you could see the ancient ruins, but we didn’t feel it was worth paying to see. We liked what we saw already. If anyone is if heading toward the Provence area, I’d definitely recommend a visit here. They also have several nice hotels, including a hostel, which you could stay right in the Cite’ if you wanted to.

From there, we proceeded to a camperstop noted as a “farm/winery” in the Provence region that you can spend the night at, which I just discovered as an option for overnight stay in one of the tour books that came with the camper rental. Boy, I would have loved to have known this earlier! There was another winery in Saint Emilion that we could have stayed at! Oh well! Anyway, we were a bit nervous when our GPS lead us to a spot that had no signs for camping. We drove back and forth, re-programming the GPS, hoping it made a mistake and would send us the right way. The only thing we finally saw was a faint sight of a camper off the side of the road, over a non-descript wall. We pulled in, and finally someone came out, who of course only spoke French. At least, it was the right place. The gal hand-signaled for us to go to the maison (house) when we were settled and plugged in, to pay for our night.

Apparently, I was a bit mistaken. We were actually invited into a typical Provencial family home, along with two other campers, for a night of great regional wine, quiche, olives, tapenade; dynamic, yet limited, conversation; and were given a tour of the house and everything! Paul and Valerie Scalesse of Mas du Puits Blanc had 7 children, ranging from age 6 to 33, 3 cats (which Kailani just adored!), we’re not sure how many dogs, 2 white horses (I don’t remember what the breed was, but native and famous for that region), cherry and apricot trees, grape vines and I’m not sure what else we missed. So, if in the area, they offer relais camping-cars et chambers d’hotes (I believe, that’s camping cars and rooms) and are located at: 3215 route de Beaucaire, 30210 Sernhac, France. Phone number (I think) is: 04-66-01-62-17 and 06-17-84-30-05. And, their GPS is E 4 56’ 78.58”, N 43 90’ 66.93”. This night was truly one of the best nights we have had on our trip so far!