Our blog

Finally, the weather was on our side again! After several grey and rainy days, Lithuania decided to show us its sunnier side. Perfect timing for our next stop: Aukštaitija National Park. A friend had recommended the area for hiking, and she was absolutely right. Lithuania’s oldest national park, with its dense forests, rolling hills and more than a hundred lakes, is a little slice of paradise for nature lovers.

After our rather extraordinary stay in Kernavė, including a birthday party we will probably remember for a long time, we continued on our way. Unfortunately, the weather hadn’t improved one bit. The sky was still grey, and the rain clouds seemed to have decided to keep us loyal company on our journey through Lithuania. So what do you do on a rainy Saturday? Exactly. You occupy yourself with the universe.

Some days you set off expecting nothing particularly exciting, only to end up with one of the best stories of your trip. Our visit to Kernavė was exactly one of those days. A bit of history, a lot of rain, a wonderfully eccentric campsite and a birthday party that had us wondering more than once what on earth we’d got ourselves into. But let’s start at the beginning.

After the busy streets of Vilnius, we longed for a few calm days in nature. Trakai National Park is only a 30-minute drive away, and we had heard so much about its beauty. Unfortunately, the forecast wasn’t great, with lots of rain on the horizon. However, we decided a long time ago that we can’t only visit places when the sun is shining. Otherwise we wouldn’t get very far, would we? So, embracing the rain, we picked one of the few car parks as our home for the next couple of days and, given the late hour, headed to the only restaurant open in the area.

We headed to Vilnius with great expectations. Many people had told us how great the city is and that its old town is second to none. First, however, we needed to buy new trekking shoes for Kathrin, as her old ones had finally given up the ghost. This proved surprisingly tricky: the store we had picked turned out to have no decent parking. So we drove in circles for 30 minutes through chaotic traffic and countless roadworks.

Kicking off our spring/winter trip, we arrived in Wrocław. We had heard many good things about the city and were very curious about it. Since it was Kathrin’s birthday, we felt we needed a proper night out.

Nice, probably one of the most famous French cities and probably one of a few that come to mind when thinking about the Côte d’Azur. We usually don’t go for big cities, but this one made us curious. We booked a campsite for 4 nights a little bit outside the city some 45 minutes from the city centre by public transport. At least that was the advertised travel time. In reality it was more like 60 minutes and plagued with delays and traffic jams. Anyway, we made it to the promenade and started to take in the city.

As we mentioned in our last post, there was one more highlight waiting for us before heading to Nice: the Cascades du Saut du Loup. A fairytale-like waterfall hidden away in a narrow gorge.

Sadly, all good things have to come to an end and so did our stay at the fantastic Lac de Sainte-Croix. On the bright side, there was still so much more to explore in Provence and we decided it was finally time to find out what all the fuss about Nice was. Since Nice is a big city, that meant booking ourselves into a campsite once again. Our research showed that most campsites are located some distance outside the city, which meant commuting in every day. So we decided it would make the most sense to visit Nice over a weekend, giving us a couple of extra days to relax in the countryside or explore yet another tiny and lovely village. That village turned out to be Bargemon.

What is the one thing everyone immediately thinks of when you mention southern France, specifically Provence? Correct! “Herbes de Provence” – your favourite herbs mix from your local supermarket. No, just kidding! It’s the lavender fields, of course. Endless fields of lavender and the scent of it everywhere. And let me say this right away: the scent really is everywhere. And it’s absolutely wonderful.