Europe

Our Top 7 Visited Places in Portugal🇵🇹🇵🇹

Definitely one of my favorite countries on the Europe trip! 🌍 🌍

 1.Faro😍

A MUST SEE for me personally. Faro is beautiful. Especially at night, it exudes a romantic charm.🌹

2. Praia de marinha🤿🐠

A perfect snorkeling spot!

A shiny, golden beach, straight out of a picture book. Add to that the turquoise water. Enchanting. 

Pictures speak louder than 1000 words:Pictures speak louder than 1000 words:

3. Kayak Tour – Lagos 🛶

If you're ever in Lagos: Don't miss the kayak tour!

I felt somewhat transported back to Australia.

The huge stone cliffs, in shades of golden brown, reminded me a bit of the Twelve Apostles along Australia's Great Ocean Road.

Impressive rock formations. 🤩!!!

At our next campsite, our camper was literally surrounded by wild boars🐗. A whole family of wild boars!!! We had never experienced anything like it in our entire lives! We could watch them for hours from our window. Especially the piglets were sooooooooo cute! One of the best animal experiences on our trip. Definitely!🙌

4. Cabo de Sao vicente🌭

The last sausage before America!

At the southwesternmost point of Europe, we quickly grabbed a sausage!

5. Lisbon 🚞 🚞

Lissabon  ,,🎶 Ich will nach, ich will nach , ich will nach Lissabon. Um von da , um von da, noch einmal anzufang‘ 🎶.

Who doesn't know that song?

So what would Portugal be without having seen Lisbon?

This city has its own style. Whether you're watching the big bridge from the harbor, examining the graffiti on the wall, experiencing a crazy party night, or cozying up in a small retro cafe. Here, you'll find everything.

But what I liked most about Lisbon was meeting up with an old buddy again🎊. I hadn't seen him in 10 years! Now he lives here happily, together with his girlfriend❤️. It's always nice to find out how the lives of old friends have been going.📖

As the saying goes, you always meet twice in life!

6. Cascais👩‍🍳

A small romantic town with many restaurants, narrow streets, a lively main square, and great lights.

7. Porto🥰

Porto is definitely one of our favorite cities!

Reason for that: The great live music by the water, the beautiful lights, bridges, and many alleys❤️.

❤️

Portugal has truly enchanted us 🧙‍♂️ The beaches are simply beautiful! Although, I must say, due to the Atlantic Ocean, the water was quite cold 🥶 The campsites were always breathtaking, free, and super easy to find! At first, we were afraid of being chased away everywhere, but there was no trace of camper bans here…🙏

NEXT STOP: 🤷‍♀️

❤️10 Impressive Places in Spains❤️

& Stopover in Gibraltar

1. Serra del Montsec

A night in nature🏕

After great effort, we finally made it to the top!💪

We camped here at an altitude of around 2500 meters!

For me, it was the very first time sleeping without a proper tent, right in the middle of nature.

We set up a hammock with a tarp between two trees and made ourselves comfortable.🙂

All the setup made us pretty thirsty, so we went in search of water!

Just half a kilometer further, we found the first stream.

YAY! Water!👏

We had a special bottle with us, which I can really recommend to any nature lover. With this bottle, almost all impurities are removed from the water. You simply click once on the lid to turn on the UV-C LED light. After just one minute, the water from nature is safe to drink. How cool is that? It's a bit expensive, but you'll have it for a long time! (The bottle is called: Quartz Bottle)

2. Barcelona☀️🌴

Oh beautiful Barcelona.

The narrow streets in the city center, the sweetly decorated shops, the expansive beaches, the street music on every corner.

Definitely, I would also recommend going up to the Riesenrand. From there, you have a beautiful view over the entire city!🎡

Of course, there are also many shopping opportunities! Whether in the store or right on the roadside.🛍

Here you can find everything, whether real brands or fake products. It's funny to see that as soon as the police pass by, people suddenly fold their blankets into a bag and dash away very quickly.😆

In Spain, it was pretty hot! In the camper, the thermometer rose to up to 45 degrees Celsius during the day.😅

Scorching heat! Quite foolish when you had bought a delicious watermelon the day before and had to discover the next day that it had completely burst🍉. We can count ourselves lucky that it was in a wooden bowl, otherwise our whole camper would probably have been underwater. The bowl was almost filled to the top with the fruit water. YUCK! And it stinks, I tell you! With gloves and a bucket, we emptied it bit by bit. Disgusting mess🐷! It stank so much, was as slimy as anything, and we had to throw away our bowl.🤢

Well, you learn from mistakes!

Two weeks later, we left Barcelona and immersed ourselves back in nature 🌿:

3. Valencia🍹

Speechless. Just speechless. These stunning architectures of Valencia really blew us away! 😯

See for yourself:

We whizzed through almost every city with our e-scooter🛴!

Totally cool! Here in Valencia, there were even charging stations!

Shopping is of course also possible here! Colorful!🛍

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4. Costa Blanca⚓️

Ohhhh how beautiful the coastline of the province of Alicante is! Totally in love!🥰

During our exploration, we even came across flamingos.🦩

How awesome is that!!!

The next days, we snorkeled endlessly🤿! I have never in my life seen so many huge fish in one place😍. It was simply indescribable! We had a snorkel mask that covered the entire face. I can only recommend it! Of course, it's not suitable for diving, but that wasn't really necessary here! Huge schools of fish swam around us, in their various colors.🥰🐠

The clear water provided excellent visibility.

Just perfect!💕

The cave was also particularly cool!!!👻

Nothing is better than watching a fantastic sunset after a long day of snorkeling!🌅

After we continued driving, we found a new campsite along the way.

But OOPS😧. It didn't take long, and we were chased away. There was an overnight ban 🚫. No problem!

We could still admire the turtles in the water!🐢

Besides, our new campsite wasn't bad either!😌

5. Marbella🌺

A perfect day to stroll through the city and admire the beautiful colors of the flowers!

6. Alhambra🏰

Alhambra is a really pretty city castle located in Granada. Especially great were all the flowers!💐

Gibraltar⛰

Hike up to the top

Wow. Gibraltar was definitely worth it! Gibraltar is a British overseas territory consisting mostly of a large limestone rock. Right on our arrival day, we climbed the 426-meter-high rock in quite a heat.🥾

The best part: Sweet monkeys crossed our paths multiple times.🙉

When we conquered the rock, we arrived quite sweaty!😅

But we had an amazing view!😍

In the underground tunnels of the rock, many ancient stories are hidden 📖:

An incredible light show underground. Definitely a highlight in Gibraltar!💥

7. Tarifa🏝

A dream for kite surfers🌊

Oops. Where have we landed here?

Beach party despite Corona? In Tarifa it was possible!🍾🎊

At every beach bar, you could hear the sound of drum music from afar. The sun shone stronger and stronger every day. The sand was bright yellow, the water clear. It didn't take long, and we were invited to BBQs or parties by other campers.

A huge mile full of like-minded people 😃.

The surf fever quickly caught on, so Max immediately bought himself a new kite surfing equipment and spent days on end in the water.🌊

Definitely still on my MUST DO list - but at that time, I had no experience at all, and other things were the focus for me.

You arrive in Tarifa and are overwhelmed by the so-called "Beach-Vibes", "Party-Vibes", and "Surfer-Vibes".

Great place!

8. Cádiz⛴

Port city in the region of Andalusia

It's time😍. Janet turns 26 years young. How time flies….. Max was super, super sweet and distributed 26 red balloons throughout the camper for me. Additionally, he woke me up early in the morning at my birth time and surprised

I contemplated the candle on my muffin... But what does one wish for when one is infinitely happy?🤔

9. Gijón🌊

Fantastic views of the sea! Many skyscrapers and wonderful sights!

10. Santander 🏦

Santander. The bank. We know it!

We took a look at the city. Once again, we zipped through the streets with our e-scooter, and what did we see: magnificent trees, the vast sea, small beaches, impressive sights, well-kept houses, and a clean city. Beautiful! 😊

Next Stop: Portugal

What could be tastier than good Brie cheese with crunchy baguette? Perhaps a fresh crêpe filled with white chocolate! 

I loved France not only for its food but also for its impressive cities, beaches, and mountains.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

In Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, we found a campsite on a mountain. Except for a few donkeys in the background, there seemed to be no one else around. Haha. That would have been nice! After just a few minutes, a Frenchman approached us. He wore a loose, half-buttoned shirt and shorts. His hair was grayish, short, and a bit tousled. With a loud "Boooonjoooouuur," he greeted us loudly, trying his best to stand upright and suppress his swaying. A blind person could have guessed from his first sound that this man was definitely drunk. To our misfortune! The Frenchman talked and talked. Things that were not particularly interesting and, BY THE WAY, not understandable to us (due to his language). After hundreds of remarks, he started speaking English. That didn't make it any better. Now he told us about the donkeys he owned, his non-existent wife, and his life. Somehow, one could feel sorry for this man... When he finally got closer to our camper, we decided to look for another campsite.

And OFF we went.

Welcome to Saint-Tropez

Our campsite was only a 10-minute walk from the center. What more could you ask for?

Off to Hyères

In Hyères, it wasn't easy to find a campsite. We first drove up the castle hill: That was not a good idea!

Then it was back down again backwards, winding. What fun!

Finally, we parked on a meadow with a view of the castle. Not bad either!

Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer

After the beautiful sunset, we made some fresh pizzas with our Omnia oven!

Via Ferrata

The scariest Via Ferrata

Like in a horror movie! For some, a hanging bridge is probably already a scary experience, but the fog here tops everything!

Even though I didn't really see much: I knew it went verrrrry deep down!

No Risk – No Fun.

Nîmes

Bullfighting in the amphitheater

For the first time in our lives, we visited an amphitheater where a bullfight took place. 

With mixed feelings, we finally sat down in one of the many rows. After being supplied with beer, it started. At first, we only saw the fighters in their white clothes standing in the middle of the amphitheater.

 What now? No red cloth? No. 

Suddenly there was a short warning signal, after which the big bull, somewhat cautiously, marched into the fight with his powerful horns. The goal was now for the white men (fighters) to touch the bull's forehead and to do so without getting injured.

It got exciting!

After a while, someone finally managed to touch the animal's forehead. Oh my goodness... Now quickly. He ran for his life and "SLAP" - he collided with the barrier. Our breath stopped. In seconds, he was pulled over the railing by several staff members. Lucky again, I'd say! The bull also collided with the barrier shortly afterwards. That could have gone wrong! The game was so exciting that I couldn't look away for a second. "Deux Euro". "Deux Euro" echoed through the speakers. Every time the bull's forehead was touched, the player received 2 euros. Risky 2 euros. Life-threatening 2 euros. The game continued. Occasionally, the bull slammed into the barrier with full force. It also happened that the bull protruded half over the railing because he had such speed that he struck over. Horrible to watch. Only the next day, traditionally, the head of the animal was cut off alive with the help of a knife. The horns were then pulled out and proudly handed over.

Shocking tradition. We agree on that.

We don't need to be part of such a "game" again. 

Montpellier

On the way to Montpellier, a large truck drove in front of us, from which a big stone hit our windshield.

Great!

The windshield cracked bit by bit. So it was off to the workshop as quickly as possible. Fortunately, we were ADAC members, so we received reimbursement for a hotel night worth over 100 euros + transportation.

Crazy. One phone call and everything was arranged! It's definitely worth being an ADAC member!

The next day, with our repaired windshield, we found a new campsite in the middle of nowhere. After a quiet night, I prepared breakfast. Suddenly we heard a strange noise from outside. We opened the camper door and behold:

As if out of nowhere, the white horses appeared. It was like a dream. A magical world. Indescribable!

Cassis

Right by the Mediterranean Sea is the beautiful fishing harbor with the pebble beaches and clear water.

Quick Conclusion:

France was a great experience. Every city here just has its own charm, and it was once again totally easy to find good & free campsites! Perfect.

Marignane

In Marignane, we scored a great (and as always, free) campsite right by the sea.

Plus, there was also a great sunset with pink clouds.

How beautiful!

But now:

"Good night!"

Next Stop: Monaco

With our camper van, we definitely stood out here! Italians mostly drive small cars, like Fiats or similar vehicles. That's more than sensible considering the narrow streets. Often, we couldn't even make it around the corner or had to take a completely different route.

So, never trust Google Maps 100 percent. It will lead you to the most bizarre places.

When we crossed the border, there was no check at all. I had read online beforehand about what to consider before entering: negative COVID test, entry form, and so on. None of it was checked. Just like when entering Switzerland or Liechtenstein.

But that doesn't mean that COVID is not taken seriously here. Some of the citizens take it more seriously. So, it wasn't uncommon to see joggers running alone through the forest wearing an FFP2 mask. Even when cycling up a steep hill, they don't forego protection here. Restaurants, shopping centers, and bars were open again as usual. You didn't need a test to buy a new pair of shoes or enjoy your pizza in the restaurant. A piece of normal life returned.

What is Italy without a delicious Aperol Spritz? One of my favorites in Italy is definitely the small treats that you get for free with your drink.

Lago Maggiore

A Place of Relaxation

Lake Maggiore is one of the most beautiful lakes in Italy. If you want a relaxation vacation, this is the place to be.

There are many small mountain villages, and there is a quiet atmosphere. For us, it was almost too quiet.

Venice

The City on the Water

For Venice, you first have to buy a ticket for the water taxi. Otherwise, you can't get there! Instead of cars, boats drive here. Eventually, we made ourselves comfortable and set off. It was like in a picture book. The houses on the water are colorful, have many small windows, and stand close together.

An incredible panorama!

In the city itself, we walked around and visited the sights:

St. Mark's Square, Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Basilica, Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge, Burano, and everything else that was an absolute MUST.

We also met Max's family, with whom we enjoyed delicious pizza right next to the water and explored the area together.

Mailand

An endless long bar mile, delicious & large pizzas, and endless sights.

Milan is a BEAUTIFUL city and definitely worth a visit!

Boccadasse

It was also beautiful in the Boccadasse district in Italy. The pastel-colored houses near the water were very impressive!

Rocche del reopasso

Harness on and up we go!

Once at the top, we had an incredibly beautiful sunset!

A little hanging out does good too!

Italy also has great beaches!

Ponte dei Salti

Ponte dei Salti is also known as the "Roman Bridge". A simply impressive stone bridge with two large arches.

Next Stop: France