W26. Happy camper.

On Thursday morning, I had my alarm set to 06.02. I woke up, brushed my teeth, made a quick coffee. We ran back and forth to the car, filled it with every piece of luggage. Tent, sleeping bags, camping stove, ten pairs of shoes (why every hobby we have requires special shoes, I do not know, but it is getting ridiculous). It's packed to the degree Tom felt sad we could not pick up a hitchhiker if we met one.

At 06.58 we rolled off.

Our first two nights we checked into a small camp site in the Pyrenees, Panticosa Lodge, so we could break up the long drive with a hike. That turned out to be one of our better decisions!

We got lucky with the weather and for once got to hike in blistering sun instead of rain, like we almost always do. (Like last year, when we did a 4-day hike and it rained 80% of it. 🙃)

We hiked up to a refugio for lunch, and then back down another route, where we didn't see a single soul. Until we spotted my animal – marmot!

The next day we drove through France. First stop: coffee and croissant.

We took a small detour to a cute village for lunch, Brantôme. Accidentally, it turned out to add quite a few hours more, but I dare say it was worth it. Enjoyed a fancy lunch, walked around in the heatwave, and had an ice cream.

A few hours later we made it to our chosen camp site. Had a chill evening and dinner was crepes at a small restaurant, which I'm pretty sure was the living room of this old couple?

Everything is cooler in France.

Last week ...

... I went to the last writing meetup in a while. 🥲 These biweekly Wednesday meetups has felt like a small treat to myself the past couple of years and will miss them while I'm away.

... I joined another private calisthenics class with Tom and got to work on skin the cat. My favorite cali move, which I one day will manage to do properly.

... we spent most of our time in the car or on camp sites. And honestly, it was such an upgrade from doing our usual hotel route. I think the combination of being in nature between drives and being able to do simple camp site food instead of mediocre roadside restaurants made a huge difference.

... we had a stop in a quaint French village.

... 2400 kilometers later we arrived in the Netherlands to pick up the camper van we we're lucky enough to borrow for our next activity.

This week ...

... we're heading to Fusion, an alternative festival in Germany!