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Scudamores On Tour

April - August 2019
With our eldest starting school in September, we are following our hearts for one more big adventure before term times begin. We hope to explore as much of Europe as we can taking in mountains, lakes, rivers, beaches & islands across 8 countries... Read more
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  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 1

    And we're off!! Dover to Bruges

    April 1, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    A quick pit stop before we sail across the channel.

    So after 3 hours of ‘when will we be at Pat’s house?’, we arrive in Broadstairs for an overnight stop with Sarah’s Aunty, Uncle and a quick hello to a cousin then down to Deal for a quick hello to other Aunty, cousins and new baby cousin, Willow...and then it’s straight onto the ferry at Dover, bound for Calais.

    Smooth sailing, kids enjoy the luxurious sofa beds aboard, and we hit the road again to make it to Brugge for dinner.

    Find a great place to stay a few mins from the city, figure out (just) how to add water to the Moho, a quick dinner (pre made spag bol from home) and then hop on the bikes to see Brugges by night. Try to order a German beer, barman looks confused and suggests a Belgian choice, Amelia lucks out with a deluxe ice cream bowl, complete with edible flowers!

    The city is as beautiful as Sarah remembers, the buildings, houses and little canal streets are so unique, we love that everyone seems to bike everywhere and it feels so relaxed. First night out of England is a success...    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 3

    Lacher See - quiet camping

    April 3, 2019 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    After a quick cycle tour around Brugges, including some delish food from the market, we manage to turn a 3hr journey into 5 on our midway stop to Heidelberg, and head to a campsite at Lacher See...lovely to have space for the little ones to run free, although the sheer drop into the lake was a bit hairy.

    A bit of rain, and we have to skimp on electricity here for fear of being charged a small fortune (who knows how much 4kw hours equals in Moho usage?!?!) so we decide to cook the pasta in the shower block.... free electricity!    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 4

    Rainy but beautiful Heidelberg

    April 4, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Anyway, onto Heidelberg, where we free camp & Amelia and daddy (already kicking himself he didn’t have the weight limit in the Moho for a four wheeled toy) are in luck..right next to a skate park.

    After a mini tour to try and find this famous castle, we stop for beer and pizza and decide the cloud is too low, we’ll try again tomorrow. Some great parks on the way home for the kids!

    Another quick cycle tour in the morning and we realise that we could see the castle all along...at this point I’ll point out that we are both going old school with phones - just photos and texts to save data for work use!! It’s quite refreshing looking at actual maps in towns and tourist info spots (and taking one or two wrong turns).

    Lots of Japanese tourists join us in Heidelberg so after one last skate, we head off to the Black Forest...not quite sure where we’re heading when we reach it, so definitely flying with the wind...

    In other news, the ice cream tally is well underway, Toy Story is the in-journey entertainment, and we are slowly (and painfully) figuring out the dimensions of the motorhome (thinking about starting a head bumping/toe stubbing tally to boot!)...    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 5

    The Black Forest

    April 5, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    So where to stay in the Black Forest..there are several parts of the trip where our research was limited, and this was one of them. We realise that when I write Black Forest on the itinerary, we could’ve done with a bit more of a pointer...it’s pretty huge.

    Anyway, after the 1st unsuccessful stop in an eerily quiet little village, we chance upon an absolute gem. A wonderful campsite in Hoffen, and although it’s pricey, it has extras!!! A lovely play park, free WiFi, and free train journeys to neighbouring towns.

    We decide Bad Wildbad sounds like a cool place to visit, and after a lot of faffing (ahem!) we manage to make the train, only to arrive and realise we’ve left the pushchair behind...lucky it was free, back on we get and return with said pushchair to the little alpine town & take a trip up the mountain.

    Somersberg was well worth a visit with a great treetop walk, views of the bikers downhilling and a ginormous slide!! Amelia practised saying she was 6 the whole way up!!

    We decide to make our first 2 night stop!! Lovely to have a day with no driving, and the kids enjoyed the extra time in the park!

    Change of plan for our next route, to take the scenic route down the forest to Lake Bodensee for our next stop. Although it’s not quite ‘swim in a lake’ weather, we want to explore this mammoth lake...

    We visit a little lake/boat town, find another incredibly engineered play park, and then find a spot to free camp - and as luck would have, another day, another skate park!

    On to Lindau next...    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 6

    Lake Bodensee - Lindau

    April 6, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    After finding a spot to park at a decent price, we get on the bikes to cycle along to Lindau and onto the island. Amelia surprised us both by managing to cycle the entire way there, around, via Lidl and back...15km for a 4yr old on actual roads is pretty good going!

    We take in the sights, add to the ice cream tally and get some good glimpses of the snow covered mountains through the clouds. There are a few hairy moments as we start the cycle around the little headland, the cycle paths disappear and the roads narrow, plus some roadworks thrown in, we are pleased to reach a lovely park and then find an off road cycle track for the rest of the tour.

    Found a lovely traditional restaurant for dinner, remember why we don’t eat out much with an almost 2 and 4yr old and hit the road for the mountains the next morning.    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    1
    Day 7

    Princess castles at Fussen...

    April 7, 2019 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Some great views of the mountains as we drive across to Füssen, both kids excited by the sight of snow, and we find another great spot to pitch up.

    So the big attraction here is Germany’s most famous castle..the stuff fairytales are made of, Neuschwanstein, Walt Disney’s inspiration for his iconic castle. But of course, no stopover would be complete without finding a new skate park first. And this one is possibly the best we’ve seen, Nic is green with envy at not having his board/bike/scooter with us but Amelia makes the most of it for all of us!!

    Backpack on and it’s a 45min walk up to the castle, and this is really incredible, to think how they built this, and are still working on it, on the side of a mountain - apparently it was built for art not architecture, and it doesn’t disappoint.

    Amazing views; you can see why Mad King Ludwig II wanted his castle in this spot. Great views over to Hoeschwangu Castle, the lakes surrounding Füssen, gorges and waterfalls and a pretty hairy bridge...well worth it for the view of the castle but we both made sharp exits off the bridge with those wobbly planks, Amelia and Coen oblivious to the fear of it collapsing any minute!!

    Time to hit the road again, and for the 1st time, weather scuppers our plans. We arrive in Garmisch Partenkirschen in a haze of cloud, and drive around aimlessly wondering what we are looking for, and then remember it was the luge.

    Big sad faces though...the rain means it’s closed, and with our other plan of taking a lift up the mountain totally out the window due to low cloud, we check the forecast and make the call to move on. We’re gutted to miss this, especially after seeing the info board for the luge, it looks so much fun..maybe we’ll make it back there one day.

    We did manage to make Coen’s day though when the man driving the digger at the luge took him for a spin...    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 10

    A quick dash to Austria - Innsbruck

    April 10, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Disappointed at leaving Garmisch, we head to Innsbruck and are pleased to see plenty of snow still in the mountains.

    Our first time at the wiggly mountain roads brings us to a quiet little campsite with no one else to be seen. It is not yet camping season in Austria so it is eerily quiet and we only need an overnight stop before we head on. Not long after arriving and then every 15 minutes, we find out why there may not be any other guests...sitting next to a church, the enormous bells ring every 1/4 hour and at 7pm we are treated to what sounds like a drunken bell ringers celebration...smugly thinking that must be him going home for the night, imagine our dismay when 15 mins later, they carry on their cycle. This went on until 10pm, and began again at 6am, and the ‘drunken bell ringer’ as he is now known, gave us a reprise at 7am...time to move on briskly!!!!Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    Day 11

    Beautiful Salzburg

    April 11, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Although Nic has never heard of The Sound of Music, we make Salzburg our next stop in order to figure a plan to find snow.

    A bus ride into the city makes the trip worthwhile, beautiful architecture, a city full of art and music. Lovely little alleys lined with boutique shops, cafes and restaurants, colourful buildings and the old town bearing the castle walls and palatial roofs popping up through gaps.

    Another win here..we find some English people to ask about snow conditions of various resorts. Now armed with snow info, we find a very helpful Tourist Info lady who gives us a few more tips of things to do and see, and head back to route plan.

    Looking at the map, we realise we have to double-back on ourselves, but time is not an issue, so we make the call - hopefully a salt mine and then ski resort, will we see any snow though?

    Learnings from another city...the Japanese tourists seem to think our children are local tourist attractions and take pictures of them at their will!! Amelia is starting to learn to smile and wave as they stare wide-grinned at her freckles.    Read more

  • Scudamores On Tour
    1
    Day 12

    Salt and Snow!!! A hop back to Germany

    April 12, 2019 in Austria ⋅ 🌫 8 °C

    Leaving Salzburg, we head off to find salt. Neither of us are sure why we’ve been recommended this, so we’re intrigued. We actually cut back into Germany for this part, as we’ve been told that this particular mine will allow Coen in (bit cruel to keep leaving him in the Moho! ;-) ), to a place called Berchtesgaden. So apparently the rock here is made up of 50% salt (in case you’re wondering why salt mines).

    When our time slot is called, we don our mining suits (the kids look adorable while we look ridiculous!) and hop onto a little mining train. Not quite sure how Coen will react, we’re pleasantly surprised that he doesn’t once try to jump off the train or dive down a lift hatch. We are taken deep into the mines, with a translated tour of every step of the process, a ride down two amazing miners slides, a salt cathedral, a grotto and then a boat across a salt mine lake, seeing how the process has evolved over 500 years (from digging 6cm a day with a hand axe, to 2m or 6m nowadays (depending on whether Nic or I heard that detail correctly!). The kids make it through the whole tour unscathed (ok, Coen did try to jump off the boat!) and we are super pleased we made that stop.

    Now to find some snow to dip our toes in...
    We’ve been told that if we head to Saalbach/Hinterglimm and ‘just drive as far as you can up the valley’ then we will be in snow. It’s getting late and we know we need to find a stopover but we can’t resist checking it out (just in case there’s a motorhome stop that no one else in the world has found) to make sure there is definitely snow.

    Yep, definitely snow, but locals confirm - definitely no where to park Moho! Head back down and find a lovely campsite, a gem in the mountains, free WiFi (blogs finally get released!), surrounded by snowy mountains and lake Waldsee - which to Amelia and Coens utter amazement is teeming with toads!! Thousands of them. This totally occupies Amelia for the two days and nights we are here, and although Coen does try to jump in the lake a few times, it’s worth it to see their faces. They see the toads spawn, dead ones, mating ones (piggy backs) - circle of life in one hit.

    So next, snow day...to be continued...    Read more

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