Camper Van – CopperLioness Roams

The Beach and the Way Home

CopperLioness — Sun, 08 May 2016 20:06:16 +0000

We chose the campsite in Torre La Sal because it had a heated pool and was on the beach, but it was definitely the campground equivalent of the boring concrete boxes that line the Spanish Coast. Rows of identical spaces in straight lines, with little between them. And, like the concrete boxes, it was full of mostly retired and tanned Dutch, German and British couples down for the winter. And while some of the couples seemed to be getting out...

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To the Coast via Toledo

CopperLioness — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 20:38:47 +0000

Now completely done with cities, we decided to head for the beach. Well, maybe we’d hit just one more old city along the way – Toledo was supposed to be pretty impressive, the whole old city being a World Heritage Site – so we’d just stop there for a bit. It’s an ancient city influenced by all of the cultures who have held sway in Spain – the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors and the Spanish. After finding parking and...

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Day in Madrid

CopperLioness — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 21:29:37 +0000

The other side of switching to Spanish time and getting to bed late, is that we’re really getting a late start in the morning. Of course, as a night person, I’m OK with that. I’m actually pretty sure that my culture that best matches my body rhythm is Spanish. So, after catching two busses into the centre from the campsite, we were just in time for a late lunch (on Dutch time, perfectly normal lunch time for Spain). We decided...

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Pretty old stuff in Burgos and Segovia

CopperLioness — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:26:35 +0000

Figuring that the kids have about one cathedral in them per trip, we chose the one in Burgos. It’s a good choice, a World Heritage site, with enough ornateness to last us pretty much the entire trip. And the fact that we again had audio guides helped the kids keep interest for much longer than is normally the case. L was bored a lot sooner than K, who actually likes beautiful places and looking at pictures of Jesus. She’s actually...

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Spanish Time

CopperLioness — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 15:24:03 +0000

The problem with being Dutch is that everything is very well regulated. Everyone eats at 6 pm and has the kids in bed at 8 pm. It works really well, as long as you’re in the Netherlands. When you go elsewhere, it’s cultural jet lag. Nowhere is it more true than in Spain, where no one eats until 8:30 at the very earliest, and kids don’t go to sleep until at least 10 pm, later on weekends. But our kids...

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Alone with the kids to Bilbao

CopperLioness — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 20:34:29 +0000

This year we had a three week May vacation so we decided to head to Spain in the camper. But as usual with our camper vacations, we didn’t get off to the start we wanted. The original idea was that I would leave on Monday with the kids and get to the Bordeaux area of France. I would then stay there on the beach for a couple of days before meeting Ivo in Bilbao on Friday. But then the delays...

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Route Map

CopperLioness — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 05:51:37 +0000

A route map of our trip to Spain, with the posts – predated so it shows before the trip when you select the category. [nwm_map id=”3″ zoom=”4″]

Camping in Flevoland

CopperLioness — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 11:56:03 +0000

We had gorgeous summer weather for the end of September, so headed off to Camping De Altena (one of the Natuurkampeerterreinen or natural campgrounds) for the weekend. There were only a few other campers on the site, which was spread over six big grass fields, each surrounded by forest. We arrived Saturday at lunch time and just basically ran around (at least the kids) for the rest of the afternoon. Then, after a leisurely morning, we packed up, moved the van...

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Morning in Mainbernheim

CopperLioness — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:26:40 +0000

Woke up and had the van ready to go by 9, without really rushing, and with packing things up in their stuff sacks since this was our last morning, a time we’d never achieve in a tent. Then our breakfast, one of the kids’ favourite: yoghurt and granola (crunchy muesli for the Europeans): Then, as we’d promised Sprocket, we got a bit of time in at the playground outside the medieval city walls: Yes, as DutchBoy read there, and as...

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Run through Regensburg

CopperLioness — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:50:19 +0000

We woke up in rainy Lienz at another almost abandoned parking lot by a athletic facility only open by appointment, another find from our guidebook (though, having lent the non-Germany volume of the guidebook to our new friends since we only needed it one more night, I was going by my notes – I’d noted down only the GPS coordinates, which turned out to be wrong and led us down a dirt road to nowhere in the rain – I’ll...

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