A journey full of discoveries
Austria – Slovenia – Italy – France – Spain – Portugal – A wonderful visual and culinary experience: After four days on the road, three overnight stays and travelling through picturesque landscapes, accompanied by rain and bright sunshine, we finally arrived in Lisbon. The journey was an exciting experience, with lots of road traffic, but in between we were also alone on the road. And a realisation that gradually became apparent: It’s not that far from our old home to here in our new one.
The departure
With the car packed to the brim, we set off on our journey on Sunday morning. The farewell was with a laughing and a crying eye, of course. The last weeks and days were full of emotions. So many people wanted to see us again, tell us “you can do it” and give us one last hug. It was really overwhelming and an incredibly positive energy. Of course there were also tears. And although we weren’t “out of the world”, we all realised that personal contact would be different now … The best thing about saying goodbye is that we tell each other again from the bottom of our hearts how much we like each other and will miss each other, and how important we are to each other. Unfortunately, we all say this out loud far too rarely in our lives. Our parents are super understanding and have supported us every minute and talked us through it, even though it’s certainly a bit harder for them that we’re leaving … A small consolation for my parents was that there will be a reunion in Lisbon at Christmas.
The journey
We spent the first night in Savona, Italy. A delightful little town by the sea, where I must have eaten one of my best pizzas ever. We divided up the stages quite well, about 800 kilometres per day, and then decided where to spend the night depending on the traffic situation and our motivation. We booked the rooms at short notice and everything always worked out perfectly. We then travelled along the coast on the old road – it was fantastic. In Nice we enjoyed a cafe on the promenade and a short walk and then we continued our journey through France. This trip was a bit of a drag, lots of traffic, bad motorways in places and lots of rain. But we were rewarded with a wonderful dinner in the medieval fortified town of Carcasonne. We should definitely go there again and plan a few more days. Our next stop was Valladolid in Spain. A super beautiful city with lots of history and sights. If Lisbon hadn’t been our destination, I would have stayed there 😉 The tip from the concierge at our hotel was the icing on the cake: a tapas restaurant with one course better than the other … For that reason alone, we have to go there again.
The last few metres
The last section to Portugal felt completely different. Somehow the journey was quieter, there was less traffic, I had the feeling that we were quieter too … I was curious to see what awaited us, how it would feel to live there in Lisbon.
Arriving is another story …
A few photos of the trip
