Today was our last long travel day for awhile. We got up early and caught a bus to take us to the ferry that would take us across the Baltic Sea from Sweden to Germany. The bus ride out was about 20 miles and on the way, we drove past the Mothership ~ Ikea.

We also saw our first windmill!

I will also say I was impressed to see seat belts on all of the buses (not that anyone used them).

We got checked in for our ferry ride and had about 30 minutes to wait. I had a small wander around the ferry building and thought this stairwell was cool.

We took another short bus ride to get onto the actual ferry. The driver actually drove onto the boat. Once we got off, there was no instruction on where we should go and he left us to wander thru the semi trucks that were parked below deck and find our own way to get inside.

Once onboard the “Nils Holgersson” it was very much like a cruise ship. Cat and I worked out at the gym, then showered in the cabin and then went to watch a movie and play in the kids area. We squeezed in a short nap as we are still jet lagged and woke up as we were pulling into port.

Our cabin:

View from our window

At the end of the cruise, again we were given vague directions on how to get off the boat and found ourselves here:

Someone found us and rerouted us to the bus.

Howard and Cat both ended up with truck grease all over them.

We caught one more train from Rostock, Germany to Berlin

We checked into our hotel and went out looking for a place for dinner. Our goal when eating out is to find:

A) something local that speaks to the cuisine of where we are.

B) a place that has something appealing on the menu for the 3 of us.

C) a good vibe to the restaurant

Our intention tonight was to find somewhere that had Wiener schnitzel which is the local fare of deep fried veal.

Instead, we stumbled upon an amazing Spanish restaurant that featured all of our favorite tapas from when we lived in Santiago de Compostela. We dined on garlic shrimp, calamari, jamon serrano, chorizo, lamb sausages, queso, and most importantly Pimientos de  Padron which are amazing chili peppers that were our favorite! The meal was a walk down memory lane and enabled us to share a lot of memories and stories of our time in Spain with Cat. Such a great night!

To end the post I do want to add a few points to ponder…

It’s been 18 years since our last big backpacking trip.

      A) I don’t need half of what I packed and will be purging during this leg of the trip.

      B) I don’t remember this many aches and pains from carrying a pack 18 years ago.

      C) traveling as a family unit is such a different experience than being a couple wandering thru the unknown. You need to take things slower and think things thru a bit more. You can’t just hope for the best with a 7-year-old in tow. That also translates to the fact that I’ve needed to hand over the navigation torch to H as I have already gotten us lost a few times. ;(

     D) I would never have guessed that Cat would be such a great traveler at this age. She is flexible, tries new things and brings a different perspective. She already has the travel bug and is planning where she wants to go on our next trip!

      E) As a family unit we travel well together. This trip is so much fun and really what life is about!