Lucky children

Midday, light sunshine, in the middle of the Spanish hinterland, Christine's parents are driving behind us in their motorhome. We park on the side of the road to buy a new gas adapter at the Ferretería. The smell of burning in our motorhome, black smoke, fire, nothing works anymore. Ever since the bush fire in Panama was put out, we have known that we are a pretty good team when it comes to protecting our belongings from flames. But we did not expect that we would have to do that on this trip too. We are confident and, considering the circumstances of the event, we are immensely lucky. Lucky kids!

After that, it's time to clear our heads, and a hike along a river in a national park helps immensely. It's beautiful here! Thank God we can use the infrastructure in Christine's parents' motorhome and only have to sleep in the burnt-out ruins. In the long run, however, the situation is unsatisfactory, which is why we contact various workshops in Spain, but they all put us off until April or May. We think "ahead" and finally find what we're looking for in Graz. Next week we're told we can take our Womberta to the workshop. So we set off, 2600km in 50 hours, past the farmers' protests in France, spending the night in Italy in sub-zero temperatures, always hoping to be able to drive back the same way in a few days. In the end, we remain hopeful, as the repairs drag on for over 3 weeks. But we always focus on the positive things. We meet many of our friends, there is a parade on Christian's 40th birthday (some say it was the carnival parade that takes place every 4 years) and we enjoy being cooked for by the mothers again.

At the end of February we'll finally be off again! We want to take it easy, drive slowly through Germany and France to Barcelona. Before the fire we wanted to go to the Algarve and Gibraltar, but we've given up on that idea, it sounds too stressful to us, after all we have to catch a ferry at the end of March. Our first destination is the Black Forest, but we actually get 150 km. Somewhere around Altötting there's a BAM, rocks hit the solar panel. After a short breather and some incomprehensible muttering that sounds something like "that can't be it now", we remember our motto: There are no problems, there are only solutions. And lo and behold, 2 workshops in the area offer us help. One of them even has the panel in stock and invites us to just come by, which of course we do. About 4 hours later our new panel is on the roof and we spend the night at the adjacent Rottauensee in Lower Bavaria. How beautiful is it here? We like it so much that we even stay here for another night. A blessing in disguise, we're lucky.

Then we cover kilometers, past Munich and Ulm to Tuttlingen and Donaueschingen. As Danube children, we visit the source of this river and take a leisurely walk to the seepage. The Black Forest that follows also puts a smile on our faces; we decide that we will take a special vacation here.

On the way to France we ponder where the trip should really go. Andorra? So far we have always driven past it, there are mountains up there, it is the beginning of March, but hey, we have heating again! So our route is clear. We drive through France toll-free, via Clermont-Ferrand towards Toulouse, until the Pyrenees rise up before us like a huge wall. Yes, we are right in our assumption. The further south we go in France, the shorter our sleeves become and as soon as we get into the mountains, the heating becomes our best friend.

We spend the night just before the border in the middle of the snow and drive to Andorra early in the morning. There are well-visited ski slopes to the left and right and at an altitude of around 2500m we are treated to a wonderful view of the mountain range. Andorra itself also delights us. The small winter sports resorts with the deep valleys and small streams remind us a little of the Alps.

Microstates all have something in common: you get through them quickly, which is why we are back in Spain after just one night. The cool north had already cast its spell on us in October, which is why we approached the journey south with little planning. However, after February at home, several days of heating in the motorhome and the snow trip in Andorra, we tend to go back to summer, sun and cactus and we decide to go on holiday first. The campsite in Peñíscola is quickly booked and we spend 3 wonderful days in the small tourist town, which invites you to stroll and try various local specialties with its cute old town.

So, now we are here, Catalonia, the furthest possible destination from home in such a short time. Sun, beach, wonderful! Shall we? Somehow the idea of doing a road trip within a road trip for the almost 3 weeks until the ferry comes to mind. Next destination: Algarve, which is only about 1000km away anyway. A working holiday has been announced to visit the entire area from the Atlantic to Gibraltar in 2.5 weeks.

So off we go, across Spain to Portugal. Oh Portugal, we missed you! Spring has already arrived here in full force. Various plants are blooming everywhere, the greenery is green, the scent of flowers is in full swing! Even if it is only for a short time, we have probably caught the best time for this region, we were lucky, lucky children. We visit the entire southern coast, from the border to Sagres. In short, we can say: the Algarve is one of the most beautiful places we have been to on our entire trip. The raging Atlantic, coupled with the steep cliffs and the sandy beaches hidden between them, let us feel life intensely. We sit and watch, watch and sit, listen to the surf, feel the wind and the salt on our skin and walk along the coast to places where we enjoy peace and quiet. That is what happiness must feel like, lucky children. Only the exploration of the hidden caves with the speedboat brings Christine briefly closer to death, which is not surprising given that she was later diagnosed with a middle ear infection (she is now well again, she was the bravest Stini of all time).

After 7 days it's time to say goodbye again, next stop, Huelva in Spain. We would like to see the museum about Christopher Columbus (from here our colleague went to America), but unfortunately it is closed. So we continue south to La Línea de la Concepción, the neighboring town of Gibraltar. The place became known through the massive hashish smuggling from Morocco. But everything to do with it (hashish, speedboat, police operation, shooting, ...) is hidden from us and so we can use the proximity for a nice day trip to Gibraltar. We ignore the Rock of Gibraltar because of the dog and take a leisurely stroll through the town to the southern lighthouse. A strange experience, we think, after all, you first walk across the runway of the airport and then you are in a town that is simply British, in terms of atmosphere and unfortunately also in terms of pricing. But we will have fond memories of this small area and will approach the next ones in a sporty way. Tarifa is basically a Mecca for kite surfers. Sandy beaches, rough seas and loads of people flying through the air strapped to umbrellas with boards on their feet. Really cool to see and the town itself looks cozy, a surfing spot. If it hadn't been for the fires, we would have come earlier and stayed here much longer, but as it is, well, maybe we'll see each other again one day.

Time flies. We also visit Cadiz, a beautiful old town with narrow streets and good food, where we witness a procession. It is now Holy Week and, so we read, the Spanish are "big fans" of Easter. Wow, OK, we can attest to that, 1000 people, a procession of pointed hats and a float with figures. Cool, unexpectedly we can tick off the Easter in Spain item after all, lucky, lucky kids. By chance we also meet Mr. G., who we know from La Línea, which of course has to be sealed with a sider. We also follow a tip from home. There is supposed to be excellent seafood here, which Christian and Lilli can confirm after extensive testing.

We drive slowly through the highlands of Andalusia, white villages on green hills, beautiful to look at. At the end, Spain shows its most beautiful side once again. For us, it's nice and slow (tranquilo, tranquilo as the Spanish would say) towards the ferry port, so we commute comfortably north. At the French border, we turn onto a coastal road that offers wonderful panoramas. We explore a small town (Collioure) and stock up on wine at an organic winery in the Camargue (Southern France) before we get to Toulon, from where we take the ferry to new adventures.

Where the ferry goes and what new adventures await us there will be discussed in the next post.