Day 17: 100th post, Family Camping Problem in Germany

Yipee Hooray! It’s our 100th post. After a few weeks stay with family and friends in Poland we continue our family camping road trip, this time amidst the spike in coronavirus cases all over Europe–specially in places we intended to visit. Uggghhh!

And today, the first day of our return trip, and after 3 years, 45 camping sites, 106 days of family camping road trip across Europe we finally hit a little problem–NO CAMPING AVAILABLE ANYWHERE near our target area of Saalburg-Ebersdorf with its picturesque Saal river in Thuringia (southern) Germany.

Road trip with kids: avoiding coronavirus hotspots and making the best of it by exploring new places in northern Spain and Portugal.

Specifically, all campsites closed at 5 in the afternoon or close to it? WTFunnyfrog? 5 pm? Oh well.

We had gotten so used to travelling with only target destinations as guide and being flexible on specific campgrounds that we did not think arriving at 6 would be a problem.

The closest we came close to sleeping in the car for the night was somewhere in France between Bordeaux and Paris. We were near a futuristic theme park and decided to find a camp at 8 in the evening. The first 2 we found were no-gos. But half hour later, we found an excellent one with a very friendly receptionist called CAMPING FUTUR and still enjoyed a beer before the sun was completely gone.

On the road again part 3: on the return trip home from Poland to Spain.

Not this time though. It took us 2 hours, 6 campsites, 4 pensions, 6 hotels and tens of kilometers of extra driving before a roadside highway motel–a very nice and clean one–came to the rescue at 79 euros a night! OUCH!

That’s 69 euros for 2 people plus a 10-euro addition for a 3rd child and Kaj was effectively free.

No home at sundown… time for the back up to the back up to the *nth* back up plans.

That’s about more than the cost of 2 nights of camping in this area or 3 in camping municipal in France or nearly 4 in Belgium.

And we cannot even run around FREE, breath fresh air, not even heat up our prepared food. So, the kids ate cold pasta and carrots! “Ya esta!,” says Kaj. [That’s it!].

Our sugar-charged free electrons, trapped in a motel.

And that’s why we go camping! Hotels, flats, apartments, airbnb stays are no longer affordable for our lifestyle. Other than saving money, there are also many practicalities of camping with kids.

So, lessons learned. We’re calling ahead and checking openning hours, just in case… at least for the next couple of legs of the trip and especially while in Germany.

Next stop: Camping to see the biggest wsterfalls of Europe?

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