Let's go somewhere - summer roadtrip

My parents have a Volkswagen van, sadly not one of those really cool old-fashioned ones but a semi-new camper version, that really needed to go out, and I took this hard and awful task upon me this time. So I drove from Amsterdam to Prague with my dad, who flew back home from there, picked up my boyfriend and off we went.

First to České Švýcarsko, also known as 'Bohemian Switzerland', a beautiful national parc by the German border that houses the largest natural rock bridge of the continent and is absolutely fabulous! The walk up takes a little over an hour but is definitely worth it, and there's a sper cute restaurant up there built into the rocks so have a nice lunch.

We were stupid, didn't pay attention when we parked the car and just put it on a little spot where some other cars stood, so when we got back there was a wheel-clamp, we had to try to call the police to take it off again but there was no cellphone-reception and eventually I got my very first ever parking-ticket.

Next stop: Trebon region [Třeboňsko], probably the most popular tourist destination in Czech Republic and a sophisticated system of connected fish ponds that basically look like Canadian lakes. We spent a wonderful day on a paddle boat, walked around and barbequed. Actually hoped to go fishing but this seemed impossible with our lack of knowledge and equipment.

By the Lipno dam and corresponding lake a little further south we found the end of the world; to our big surprise the road that we were folowing around the lake suddenly made a sharp turn and went into it. A little research tought us that there was a ferry to the other side twice a day. The amazing sunset convinced us to stay on the parking place for two nights, we took a canoe from the waterpolice to the other side for groceries [the dog didn't like this trip at all] and found a nice stretch of brand new asphalt to practice longboarding.

Time to visit some friends in the Austrian town where we met and spent last winterseason, Zell am See. Walked up Schmitten and went skinny-dipping in one of the waterreservoirs, then the shitty weather came in and after spending a whole day playing chess in the car, we decided to move on.

The Garda lake in Italy is big, beautiful and packed with tourists but we found a nice little parking just above Torbole with a post-card view and only a 5-minute stroll down some stone stairs away from the water. Went for a run to the ruins of Penede castle and back, did some night-swimming and just sat on the beach and looked athe clear blue water.

My boyfriend had never been to Pisa before and since we practically passed it we decided to visit the famous leaning tower quickly on our way to the beach. After spending a couple of hours stuck in traffic by the ugly resort-towns on the Versilian coast we found the cute town of Tellaro, just south of Cinque Terre and definitely as beautiful but not so busy. Ate sandwiches with mortadella on the beach, tried to convince my dog to go swimming in the ocean, practically scraped our feet to bits trying to climb on the rocks by the water without shoes on and had a romantic dinner in a tiny side-street restaurant with distant views of the sunset.

Time for the final and most exciting part of our trip: meeting some friends in the tiny town of Fressiniere, amidst the French Parc national des Écrins, to go rock-climbing. My all-time favourite part of this country with high peaks, glacier fields, woodlands and creeks. Climbing all day and then coming 'home' to the campsite for a nice barbeque, some slacklining and reading in a hammock made the perfect end to our 3-week trip.

Oh and we tried to teach my dog to jump thru a hoop, it didn't work out.

#europe #italy #czechrepublic #austria #roadtrip #france #travel