Legoland - Germany
02 to 13/08/2018
2 adults + 2 children - 12 and 1,5 yars old
Itinerary
02/08 - Lisbon - Urt
03/08 - Urt- Lyon
04/08 - Lyon
05/08 - Lyon - Bern
06/08 - Bern-Interlaken-Kandersteg-Bern
07/08 - Bern-Legoland
08/08 - Legoland
09/08 - Legoland-Neuschwanstein-Innsbruck-Vaduz
10/08 - Vaduz-Torino
11/08 - Torino-Girona
12/08 - Girona-Madrid
13/08 - Madrid-Lisbon
Our Stories
August 2nd
All prepared to go out and to start our holidays in which we would drive about 5600Km by car...
We left early because we had everything ready. We just needed to put things in the car and start the journey. We had a long day ahead with many kilometers of road.
The first stop was already in Spanish lands in a gas station to have lunch with the sandwiches that we took, in the shade of some trees and a hammock that sheltered us from the heat. We just wanted to make a quick stop and thanks to the heat and the dust that every car and truck that passed raised, we were "forced" to speed up even more.
On that day the final destination was Urt, where we already had in mind to stay at the camping "Etche Zahar" that André's parents know and where they stay regularly. It is a camping with lots of shades and very private spaces and with some bungallows for rent. In addition to the space for tents has a reception area with a small market and a swimming pool that on this date was under maintenance and so we could not use.
We arrived at the end of the afternoon and our first challenge for the trip arrived: setting up the new tent we bought for this vacation! It was a success!
We had dinner in the tent and went to sleep because the next day we had another long day until we reach Lyon.
August 3th
Dismantle the tent, pack up and proceed to Lyon. This was the plan and it was followed strictly! Only with gas and food stops and we arrived in Lyon at the end of the day to search for aplace to stay. We found the camping "Les Portes du Beaujolais". It is a camping with excellent conditions located about 30 km from the center of Lyon
As it was August and France is one of the countries where people camp the most in Europe (and also the one with the best conditions for campers), the camping was almost full and we only managed to find a place with little shade, but the truth is that facilities are very good. It has a check-in area with a market, a bar where there was entertainment for campers every night, a pool with slides that delight the youngest (and the adults too to relieve the 40 degrees that were in that day), also has a grass field where everyone can play football and other support structures for campers. The bathrooms are in very good condition and have several individual showers that allowed to avoid the queues as it is a very large camping site.
August 4th
The first day without a trip was scheduled to visit Lyon. What we didn't expect was that the temperature would be so high. It was, without a doubt, the hottest day we got on this trip.
In the morning we went to visit the city center of Lyon but the heat was unbearable for walking and so we just went to the central square and some streets in the area (where there was shade because it was impossible to walk in the sun). We had lunch in a super touristic restaurant where we paid a lot and ate some regular food that we don't remember anymore, and after lunch we went to see the castle and the Roman coliseum before returning to the campsite where we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the fantastic pool that exists there.
At dusk, we cooked in the tent before going to rest.
August 5th
Switzerland was waiting for us!
We set up the tent and arranged everything to go towards Bern. The trip was relatively short and so we stopped for lunch already very close to Bern and the "TCS camping Bern" in Eymatt (about 8 km from the city center of Bern and with very easy access) where we stayed.. Located on one of the banks of the river Aar and with direct access to the river is a camping with very good infrastructure. The only problem, like everything in Switzerland, is the price. It is all quite expensive compared to Portugal's values.
It has a market and a bar / restaurant right at the entrance where we ate on the first night, bungallows for rent, the toilets are not big but they are clean and there is also a washing machine and there are also several services such as a sports area with a futsal field and a beach volleyball court, and also an area with animals (goats, chickens).
That afternoon we went to enjoy a bit of Bern and the city enchanted us. It is not a very big city but everything is very well maintained and the central area is very beautiful. Worth the visit!
August 6th
We planned this day to get to know a little of Switzerland and decided to go to Interlaken and the Swiss Alps area to get an idea of the mountain landscapes so typical of Switzerland.
And how beautiful it is! We passed through some impressive landscapes during the day and beyond Interlaken we went to Kandersteg which is a small village in the middle of the Alps with just over 1000 inhabitants where we stop for lunch and a walk.
When we arrived in Kandersteg, we parked and looked for a restaurant for lunch. It is a small and very beautiful city and a well-known holiday destination in the area, sought by those who enjoy nature walks.
We took the opportunity to have lunch as soon as we arrived and stopped at a restaurant right in the center of the village. When we were getting ready to ask, Francisco asked where the toilet would be and the restaurant employee indicated to him in good Portuguese where it was. We came to discover that in addition to the employee, the owner was also Portuguese and with his family lived there and managed this restaurant! It is not something unprecedented because in Switzerland there is a large Portuguese community, it was just a curiosity that in a land as small as Kandersteg we ended up choosing a Portuguese restaurant.
This area is also known for having a cable car to take tourists to Lake Oeschinensee. To go down, there is a giant slide that is also well known (Rodelbahn). Unfortunately, we were unable to try any of them because the price for getting up and down by cable car for each adult cost around 30€ and for children 15€. In addition, it rained when we arrived at the entrance to the cable car that left us drenched on the way back to the car!
It was time to return but it was a day well worth the trip.
That night André's parents came to us and we ended up having dinner with them at the hotel where they were staying.
August 7th
We left Bern early because this was the day to go to Legoland in Germany
We would still have to cross a few kilometers in Austria and that crossing was expensive ... To ride on the motorways in Austria you need a sticker attached to the car's windshield that is valid for 1 week, 15 days, 1 month or 1 year as needed. In our case, we only wanted one for 1 week as we were only going to be in Austria for a couple of days, not now but a few days later. The problem is that unlike Switzerland, where as soon as we cross the border, there is a policeman stopping all foreign cars and forcing the purchase of an annual sticker, also mandatory here, and with no alternative of not paying, in Austria the purchase it has to be done before entering the highway. We entered the country on the highway and the idea was to stop at the first gas station to buy the vignette (which we did) but when we stopped to buy the vignette there were some policemen who told us to stop and who fined us for not having the respective vignette . As much as I tried to explain, it was no use and the few kilometers we made in Austria showed us that Austrians are neither friendly nor flexible. After all, we were there to buy the vignette and if we hadn't stopped to buy it, probably nobody would tell us to pay and we would pass by without a problem. Anyway ... Bad will of the policemen!
We continued our trip because we had to look for a camping site and we had some difficulty finding one with availability. We tried 2 between Austria and Ulm which is the closest main town to Legoland but both were fully booked. We decided to go to Legoland to see if the camping there would be available or if they knew any in the area. We couldn't get availability at the local campsite but they gave us a list of several campsites in the area and we called until we got availability at one of them. We stayed at Campingplatz Kammelaue in Kammeltal, about 10 km from Legoland park.
It is a family camping, small and with minimal amenities. It has a small "beer garden" at the entrance to the park and is designed in essence for caravans rather than tents. Despite this, they have a small area where they allow you to camp with tents. The toilets are small and this can create some queues but they are very clean and tidy. It is very convenient for those who want to visit Legoland and the prices are very affordable.
That night, after setting up the tent, we went to Ulm with André's parents who had also traveled here and had dinner in this city where we also took the opportunity to look for a laundry to wash the clothes for the trip. We found one in the city center and we ended the day there waiting for the laundry to dry!
August 8th
Legoland! This day was totally dedicated to enjoying Legoland park.
It is a more child-friendly park than Disney but turns out to be a very well spent day for those who took two children (one with 12 and the other with a year and a half). Both managed to make good use of the park and the diversions that exist there. In our opinion, 12 years is the limit to enjoy the park with some "illusion". Most of the attractions are more dedicated to children between 6 and 12 years old and even Francisco ended up not enjoying many of them. As for Maria, the park with jets of water and fountains, made her delights and made it worth the visit.
It was a fun day!
In the evening, and before returning to the tent, we went to Gunzburg for dinner since this is the closest city to Legoland. We ate on a terrace in the city center and then went to rest.
August 9th
We had arrived at the final destination of this trip and now we had the return. Still, we had a long way to go and the next stops planned were at Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the best known and most visited in the world, Innsbruck, and Liechtenstein, the seventh country on this trip that took us to visit 8 different countries. Italy still needed to wait for the next day!
We left the campsite in the morning and took about 1:30 am to Neuschwanstein Castle. We parked and went to the entrance to try to buy tickets. It was about 12 pm and they were selling tickets for the... 17:30 visit. We had to settle for the exterior view of the castle and decided to have lunch before continuing the trip.
We ate a typical German sausage that was great and headed towards Innsbruck!
We arrived in Innsbruck in the middle of the afternoon and spent about 2 hours visiting the city. We left the car in a parking lot in a shopping center in the city center and went for a walk through the central area and have a coffee before continuing the trip to Liechtenstein. This central area of the city is very beautiful and has incredible views of the surrounding mountains. We spent a little time here but you can see that it is a beautiful city and that the area is worth a longer visit. A quick stop in the capital of Tyrol, which took us to the scene of the movie "Sound of Music"!
We then proceeded to Liechtenstein, where we camped that night at the Mittagspitze AG campsite.
This is a camping site built along a mountainside (like most of the country) and therefore has several terraces with bungallows, tents and roullotes. it is very green and with many trees and the idea we have is that it is in very good condition. The only problem ... the waeatger we caught! We arrived at the end of the afternoon and the sky promised rain soon. Fortunately it looks like he was waiting for us to finish setting up the tent to start raining. It never stopped until we left the next day. We got a very wet idea of Liechtenstein. :)
We had dinner inside the tent and went to rest to continue our trip to Torino the next day. The landscape was spectacular, but the next day we were leaving early in the morning with the expectation of Italian pizzas and ice cream.
August 10th
We left early because the trip was long to Torino.
We went back to Switzerland, where we took part of the itinerary off the highway and caught a lot of traffic which delayed our arrival in Torino a little.
We arrived for a late lunch and looked for an Italian pizza that we all liked so much. Disappointment. It was a normal pizza and worse than many that we eat in so many other places.
We went for a short walk through the city before going to visit the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile which was one of the scheduled stops.
Torino is not a spectacular city and apart from the Mole Antonelliana with its uniquely shaped tower, little else remains in our memory despite one or another beautiful monument that exists in the city center.
We then proceed to the Automobile Museum, which has one of the rarest and most interesting collections of its kind, with almost 200 original cars dating from the mid-19th century to the present.
After the visit, we went looking for a place to camp and found Camping Torino Mill Park just outside the city, and we stayed for the night.
The park has two zones and since we were only going to stay one night, we were told that we would have to stay in the area closest to the reception and the one with the least shade. The truth is that for us it was just for sleeping and going out in the morning so it didn't make any difference.
The toilets are not great and the showers do not have much space and for those traveling with a small child they are not at all comfortable as there is not much space to leave clothes and towels.
We didn't see much more details about the camping and we just realized that it has a children's area and little else.
August 11th
These days were the way back and with few stories to tell.
On this day we had the opportunity to cross the second largest road tunnel in Europe: the Fréjus tunnel on the border between Italy and France. It is 12.9 km long and allows you to avoid having to climb and descend some of the highest Alpine peaks in Italy and France. Expensive cross but we "gained" a lot of Km doing this.
We just stopped for food and gas at service stations until we reached Girona where we stayed camped at a campsite close to the highway that had individual spaces to set up tents and had a bar and swimming pool that we did not take advantage of because we arrived at night and left early in the morning. The toilets are not the best we have had, they had the minimum conditions for those who were going to spend just one night.
August 12th
The next day we went to Madrid and decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Santiago Bernabeu hotel. We had some points in the IHG chain that allowed us to stay a free night at this hotel and we decided to enjoy it.
Lunch was on the way and for dinner we decided to try a Foster's Hollywood that was close to the hotel. The kids loved it!
August 13th
The last day had arrived.
On the way there was a stop for lunch at a restaurant that is already beginning to be a tradition ... The "Retiro dos Amigos" on the way out of Elvas towards Lisbon. In addition to allowing us to see the Aqueduct of Elvas, which is a fantastic work and deserves a trip to this border town, it is a restaurant with that “homemade” flavored food and with generous doses that feels so good when we are returning home!
The holidays were ending and we were already looking forward to the next trip!
