I shall begin where I've left off. We departed mid August on yet another cross European road trip; South of France Cote d'Azur, Northern Italy Madonna di Campiglio, Oetz and a visit with Tim Starr (Jakub's Canadian kayaking friend) in Sankt Johann in Austria. Finally, we then spent one week in the Czech Republic. We hung out at Lipno Vltava river for the Devils Extreme Race and whole bunch of other competitions and races. Then we spent some quality time at Jakub's parents place, visitng friends, going to concerts and finishing off at our friend's wedding. It was a relatively busy, action packed trip.
Cote d'Azur - this was supposed to be "my" part of the trip as Jakub suggested, and frequently reminded me, because of course, in our family, I am the one who is obsessed with the ocean and sun tanning (not!), so I was (felt) responsible for making this part of the trip work out. Believe me, if I knew what was coming I would have rather gone skiing instead. But at the end it worked out well thanks to our "global positioning system", some patience, and skillful negotiation on my part :) yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic here. When we arrived at the C'ote d'Azur (near Antibes/Juan les Pins), it was clear that the peak season is insane here. We haven't even reached the oceanfront yet, and already the traffic jams and oppressive heat have begun. Luckily for us, this was during the European heat wave, so if you stepped outside for about two minutes from your air-conditioned car, you were drenched in sweat wishing for an ice cold beer and a shower. We were stuck in a slug-paced traffic jam at noon trying to figure out where the ?#@& we're going to camp in this zoo of people. Thanks to our GPS, I pressed a magic button that showed me where the camps are. We hit the first camp, but alas, no pool there and the location was not quite too appealing. So we tried camp #2. Unfortunately the French usually have their siesta between noon and 2 PM so it looked like the camp was deserted, but thankfully a lady came out and off we went on her buggy to find a site for us. It was perfect - shaded by figtrees, close to the restrooms and a 5 min walk to the pool. We then spent our days either in the pool, or in the ocean, which almost didn't feel refreshing enough. We hung out at a sandy beach in Juan les Pins one day where me and J got sunburnt. Many beaches are packed with suntanning chairs and umbrellas which cost about 20 Euros a day!! And there is no room for anyone else on the beach - just mostly these empty chairs that nobody rents. We also went for an evening stroll in Antibes which was a nice change from the intense heat. And then we took off hoping to get away from the heat, not realizing, that it is scorching all of Europe and even at heights of 2500m, the temperatures were too warm.
Madonna di Campiglio - we drove to Arco first thinking that we could get some climbing done as this is a renowned climber's paradise. Unfortunately we came to the conclusion that the heat we thought we'd escape was in Italy as well. We stopped for dinner in Cremona and at 9PM it was still 30C!!! So more like Crematorium rather than Cremona. It was an amazing city though with a stunning 12th century Romanesque cathedral which was illuminated by the setting sun (but I didn't bring my camera). We had a pizza for dinner with a view of the cathedral, but managed to spill some wine and ring an alarm in the bathroom - so we felt the restaurant was a bit too fancy for our table manners :). We concluded that it would be treacherous to try climbing in this. (We had an experience with heat and climbing last year in the Okanagan at the Skaha crags mid-summer where I was practically slipping off holds due to sweat on my hands.) So we merrily drove on past Arco. Plan B was to do an easy via Ferrata at a higher elevation where heat was not such a nuisance. However, by the time we got a ferrata guide (only Italian verson, go figure) and found the campsite - 50Euro per night!! it was a bit too late to get organized, so we wedged out and prepped for the next day. The only intriguing thing that we noticed that evening was the Dutch family camping beside us, that orderly sat at their camping table and read their books for 6 hours straight. The next day was our big day. We took the gondola up to the ferrata route and began the ascent. Anna had some issues with going uphill so Jakub helped her out a bit. Once we reached the ridge, we descended down and traversed the mountain range so this part was relatively easy as it was mostly horizontal. I showed part of the route (once we were past the ridge) on this photo:
We had a blast, and the kids loved it. At one point when Anna had to hike uphill, she picked up a flat piece of rock and pretended to call the police and told them to come and get her parents which are forcing her to do such strenuous exercise. We had a good laugh and the views were breathtaking.
Austria - we spent one afternoon at the Aqua Dome thermal spa in the Otztal valley after Jakub ran two sections of the Otz river. We had a dinner barbeque invitation at Tim's place. Tim and his family live in Sankt Johann in Tirol, in the middle of a ski hill and frequently use the gondola to get home. It is quite an amazing location as you can see the valley, mountains and the town below. We watched the sunset by the bonfire while Tim was burning some bits of furniture he needed to get rid of. The Austrian sausage and meat was to die for. We then opened a 5L box of wine and the evening went on. I recall Jakub and Tim had a heated discussion at one point about sheet lightning and it was fun to listen to. Tim is a real good story teller. At 4 am we fell asleep in the little guest hut, lulled by cow bells.In the morning Tim, Jakub and Tommy went canyoning as a part of Tim's canyoning permit requirement. It was a tiny little canyon but Tommy had enough of an adventure going through there. I think he was happy to see "the light at the end of the canyon" :))
Lipno - our next stop was Lipno (southern Czech Rep.) where the Devils Extreme Race was taking place. This is the biggest Czech whitewater festival as it is only at this time that the dam releases water only once a year. Jakub got to see alot of old familiar faces and had a good time on the river. Even though I have not paddled for 8 years the river looked quite fun and everybody was having a really good time out there. I also met up with my dad so we hung out at the river and watched kayakers go by at the more exciting rapids. But with the kids it was a bit more challenging to make it to all the events so we missed the kayak cross - which was probably really fun to watch - so perhaps next year. Saturday there was a downpour so we went to an IQ museum with Jakub's cousin Lucy and her family which is where you explore science and find out little trivia bits, like where the F word came from....Wedding PHOTOS HERE Kids at grandma's pool PHOTOS HERE
Friends and Wedding - is the last little theme of our trip. We hung out with our friends, went to the zoo with our kids, went to a Visaci Zamek concert (Jakub's most favourite Czech punk band), and also went to our friend's Domino and Marta's wedding. So this was the social bit of our trip.
My next post will be on September happenings and separate posts on biking in Grenoble and my climbing update.
Cheers to all!
Petra
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