We started our day in a french bakery („boulangerie“) with coffee and a very delicous pain au chocolat with a view of the village – simply perfect☕🍫.
As we drove to the highway we also got a look of the Volvic castle. Our drive today took us 450 km and we ate our lunch at a pretty highway stop with a lot of green. In the afternoon we arrived at our house for the night – a beautiful chalet in the middle of nowhere. We checked in and walked around in the forest. The farmer who owned it has six cute hourses, the dogs Athos and Ux and some goats! Laura & I played Volleyball 🏐
And we enjoyed the silence of the countryside with the brook near by. After a wonderful dinner with pasta and salad we watched the sunset, showered and fell happy into bed! ✨📌🦋🌍
We started early from Genova and began the ride at 7 a.m. with a beautiful scenery and the last sigths of the ocean. Through the Frejus tunnel from Italy to France – through the Mont Cenis Massiv about 11 kilometers.
In Villefontaine we visited an old friend of our mother Cathrine and her family. We got a pretty nice lunch with salad, delicious Ratatouille and a lot of variations of Ice Cream.
Then we drove another 2 1/2 hours to Volvic our next stay over the night. After diner we walked through the city and explored a little of the old french village.
Today we woke up early and started driving west at 8 a.m. It was a 400 km drive and with some stops for coffee or ice cream with the beautiful scenery of the Mediterrane Sea really enjoyable!
🌊In the afternoon we arrived and checked into our gorgeous apartment on the 5th floor and rested a bit. Then we explored the city and first saw less cleaned up parts and a lot of construction zones. We arrived at the walking ways and promenades and got good views of the giant habour. At the lighthouse the view was even better and we luckily reached it before the closure and could get a look over the whole city. On the way back we took another route that was cleaner and more revived with beautiful buildings, a lot of small supermercatos and vegetables/fruit stores!
Laura and I cooked for dinner Pasta and made a salad 🥗🍝! After a shower and some talking about our last experiences we fell into bed :)✨
At 8 a.m. we loaded our luggage into the bus and after breakfast we drove into the city. Johanna, Gerlinde, Sarah and I went to a flea market where we buyed second hand clothes. I found a linen shirt. We walked by the Colosseum and through a parc into the quater of Monti where I enjoyed a mozarella zucchini lasagne. Then we checked other Vintage and Second Hand stores and shopped some snacks for diner. At 3 p.m. we took a train to the Saint Paules Basilica outside the city wall. At 6:30 p.m. the mass with over 3000 other pilgrims of Germany started. The atmosphere was amazing and we sang loud and clapped and danced. Probably this was one of the best masses of my entire life! After this wonderful experience my sistwr and I said goodbye to our group. With our parents we drove outside the city and fell asleep in a nice apartment 1 hour away from the city. In conclusion we had wonderful 5 days in Rome, connected as a group and now can return with amazing memories! ✨📌❤🌍
Today we could get up a little later and after a good breakfast we visited the German Cemetery of the Vatican that only german speaking country members can visit. It was really interesting to see that the oldest graves were from the 14th century. Then we explored in small groups the next few hours – we went into the german pilgrims center with AC and met a former priest of our church there. Moreover we walked around Trastevere again and ate such delicious panini at Sto Bene. In the afternoon we rode a train out to the beach but without AC in it. So it was hot in the crowded train. But as we arrived at the Beach Cristoforo Colombo in Ostia the water was welcoming cold! ✨📌 The end of the day we stayed in a pizzaria with giant pizzas that tasted amazing! On the way back Anna and I talked to a woman from Chicago. And we sang Bibi und Tina songs and our theme song of the week at the bus station.
After a breakfast at 8:30 a.m. we drove with the bus to the new Rome and saw the Spanish stairs, the Trevi fountain and stayed at the Placa de Spagna. Then we tried the best „gelateria“ (Ice cream) of Rome and it was delicious!! Anna and I also ate tasty Roman fried rice balls! ✨📌
Then we walked through less crowed quater of the city. It was really fun because we explored the more secret parts of Rome like hidden libraries. In one we even left a message under a loose stone with our number 🙂
We had to wait long to reach the place in front of the St. Peters Basilica and there we watched (as we arrived) an audience of the Pope. Our dinner was a yummy panini.
Through the last days we exchanged a lot of pilgram fan articels and today Anna & I even exchanged T-Shirts.
We ate breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and then drove with the train into the city center. There we made a ralley around 6 popular places in Rome with the App Actionbound. We went into beautiful churches including the Lateran, Santa Maria Mangiorro.
Our lunch we had in parc near the Colloseum and then walked to one hill of Rome to the St. Sabina and walked through the quatier Trastevere. After a long day and over 22.000 steps and a good dinner (Cacchio et pepe) we are happy to fall into our beds.
We started our journey in Munich at 9 p.m. with a small mass and then headed out (with a group of 40) with a travel bus in direction of Rome. We stopped at a playground and had pretty much fun.
We knotted bracelets and Anna improved emergency drawing in the bus.
At around 12 a.m. we arrived at our hostel and checked in and had lunch. Then we headed out for a big mass with 5.000 other mass servers and it was sooo overwhelming and amazing because the Basilica of St. Peter’s Basilca was full with young and motivated people for this week. Later we ate dinner at a good restaurant 🍴✨📌🦋
Today I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and ate a big porridge with almond butter and a lot of fruits. Very positive and energized I started my day with a wonderful blue sky and the warm sun, the chirping of the birds and the cherry blossom trees in the Olympic Parc. Then I rode my bike to the house of a friend of mine – Julio – and together we drove to the river Isar. 🙂
There we rode along the whole way to Freising on a lot of beautiful ways through for example the parc „Englischer Garten“ at first and later on through more rural areas. After a bit it begun to rain and we had the chance to test our rain gear for the whole moring. Sometimes there was just a little bit of rain but when there were sudden big amounts of rain. We took our smartphone and played a playlist with old radio hits loud and that boosted our mood quite well – and our rain gear kept us dry :)) ✨
We made a few small breaks under bridges and big trees where we had a small time without rain.
Then we headed to a mall near Freising where we ate lunch and shopped food for the rest of the day. On the continuing way something really unexpacted happend: After a few kilometers I felt awful driving at a slow speed and we had to make a decision. In fact I was ill in the beginning of the week I thought I were completly healthy in the moring without any doubt till this moment where sudden tiredness and uncomfort set in. So the illness wasn’t completly away and after 45km for me it suddendly triggerd the symptoms to come uup again.
Even if I wanted to it wouldn’t have been good to continue. So I talked to Julio and we decided together that it would be better to return home for me – to a warm bed for the night.
The way back home felt weird and wrong and I was so sorry that the tour should be ending so soon, espacially because I was so excited to camp the first time on a biking trip and going on a longer bike trip with Julio. But you just can change the things you can change and I couldn’t heal myself from one moment to the other…
So we took the S-Bahn (train) back and at home I slept for 2 hours straight after a cup of tea. Beeing at home now I can say: it was absolutly the rigth decision to quit this test trip – even it felt wrong, weird and I was mad in the beginning of the decision.
But: The test trip ended so unexpected and not quite good that hopefully our big trip to the Bodensee will be marvelously wonderful!! :)) ✨✨✨✨📌📌📌📌
And my last words for today (then I’m going to bed): Even when it was shorter than expexted and without camping outside and a tour the next day – riding to Freising was a lot of fun and I’m even more excited for our big trip that isn’t so far away anymore ✨📌
