Back

Home Sweet Roadtrip | Day 102 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Apr 12, 2023· 2 minutes

Viareggio was a lovely rest; oh, did we enjoy sleeping in our own beds. We chose this spot because there was some street art at the harbor and some sculptures on the mole.

When driving long distances, one of the exhausting elements is under-stimulation, and we are well aware we have to find time to do something awesome or at least remotely interesting.

We are on our way from Rome to Normandie, where we will live for a month with like-minded people. We have to cover 1500 kilometers in four days.

habour-6

On our morning walk, we were blown away by the yachts. The city was full of them; under construction and renovation, they were all over the place. Arriving the night before, we had even been driving right behind one, maneuvering through the narrow streets.

The street art was by different artists. One outstandingly interesting was *the octopus* as it was worked with the door's structure painted on as if it transcended some cage.

habour-5

A lot more interesting was the experience of the sculptures at the mole as we had to walk in rough weather to get there, with big splashes of whales coming over the wall culminating in a huge one soaking us. I was lucky enough to get the photo just as the wave went over the sculptures AND to save the camera when we were all hit by the massive body of water.

habour-9

Adding to the day a helicopter landed right next to our parking, a somewhat rare sight.

Randomly a private helicopter landed as we were getting ready, contrasting our van life to extreme wealth even though I find my van life already extreme wealth. How can we wrap our heads around the contrasts of this universe?

Our day continued with driving and a lot of it. In La Spezia, we did basic shopping and had a surprisingly good Flower Burger.

Later we all fell asleep in the van, almost also the driver, so we stopped for espresso (four for the driver) before the Alpes. In the last light of the day, we entered the Mont Blanc Tunnel and came out in France. Four months in Italy had come to an end.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

# 102 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here

More images from the day

habour-3

habour-7

habour-2

habour-4

 

Dive into our podcast as we discuss Christmas' deeper layers and explore the complexities of Christmas. We are focusing on personal values, family dy…Read more
What does it mean to be happy? Often, we don’t stop to understand it while it is ongoing; we trot along and live, only to realize how much we had the…Read more
Two hours of planning and negotiations of who was coming and who was not finally got us out walking. Not far, and not all of us, as some are down wit…Read more
Life is this. The moving around. The people we move for. Reaching out to the opportunities, taking what is, and appreciating all the big and little g…Read more
I scored eight out of ten on the travel score sheet of my son-in-law, as I had brought a knife in the packed lunch - the knife took my two last point…Read more
Goodbye, Mexico City. That was fun! And exhausting. We want to come back, but we are also eager to leave. It is intense to visit the huge cities. Read more
The central story of this day is the earthquake. Thank God we have no pictures. Because there was nothing to take photos of. Except for a lot of peop…Read more
It is nice to sometimes just have a practical day. We needed papers to travel with the dogs, so Silke and I walked to the local vet; smiling, profess…Read more
The classic pilgrimage to the main art museum, the cathedral, the central square, and the Aztec ruins took us through a rich array of experiences. Th…Read more