Stand Up (Paddle Board) if you love your Lakes

(Carys)

I slept in the spare bed last night because it was too hot and sweaty to share the double bed made from the sofa with Bryn. It was roasting in the apartment. Well definitely have the air con on tonight


In the morning, dad went for run and I did some suitcase-sorting. When he got back, I went to the shop and bought some breakfast items, including peaches, milk, bread, yogurt. We made it up into a nice breakfast.

breakfast is served

When we were ready, we drove down from the apartment, and around the lake. IT was still just as jaw-dropping, as the sea was still sparkling in the sun. It was not as scorching as yesterday - still very hot though.

follow that bus

We walked along the pretty lake front where there were cute hotels and nice harbours with lots of boats. In search for a water sports activity to do, we found a campsite offering paddle boards to rent. After paying to have an hour, we were led onto a wooden jetty where we got onto the paddle boards.
We took it in turns, and all had a go. The water was warm and relaxing. The paddling was really good fun. Bryn and I did some jumping and diving in too.

After the hour was up, we gave back the equipment, and had a little drink the campsite bar where we also played some card games. We ended up walking back towards the car, looking for an ice cream shop

During our walk, the wind picked up and we started to think that it might have been a tornado or typhoon approaching - or some sort of extreme weather incident; people started to pack up and go inside inside, put down parasols and get out of the water. It got so strong that it even blew my hat off a few times, It was very strange.

there's a storm a comin

We found a small cafe to have some Italian gelato, but (being difficult), I chose to have a biscuit because I didn't fancy an ice cream and I'd also had one whilst in Austria. The wind had settled down when we came outside, so we kept walking the way we had came. We passed the car and went ton have a drink in a bar - which also happened to have WiFi. I thought that worth mentioning.

no wi fi but good SUP

wifi and a SUP

Via the supermarket where we bought some things for dinner, we drove back to the apartment. We also bought some snacky bits and bobs to have on our travels. Dad cooked us some pasta and mum showed us how to make a meal out of our ingredients. We put pesto, salad, tomatoes and ham (for the meat eaters) into our pasta, and it tasted delicious - just as good as any meal you could buy in a fancy restaurant.

simple starts

magical middles

happy endings

Our apartment is lovely now that we're not sitting in the stifling heat.

(Lloyd)

Awful nights sleep, why I didn't find the air con switch last night, I do not know. Tonight, writing the blog, sitting on Juliet's balcony, with the a/c on full tilt, we are in a different property.

this is the life

Anyhoo, still made myself get up and do a run, hopefully to sweat out the cold, and also measure yesterdays walk. Jut shy of 5 mile round trip, nice and casual on the way down, puffing like old smokey on the 2 miles back to Costermano. Hit the shores of Lake Garda as part of a morning run, always good to do, unlikely to get this on Relive with current wi fi restrictions, but you can see my strava efforts here.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2577818377#kudos

Carys had popped out to get us some breakfast delights, which we consumed whilst working out where to get to on Lake Garda today.



The choice was simple, recommended by my adventurous parents a couple of weeks back when they kindly did a recce mission to Lake Garda a.k.a known as their own holiday.  The village of Brenzone was to be our port of call for watersports and I knew to trust their judgement.  In many ways, they can take credit for much of our more adventurous travelling, holidays to Russia, Yugoslavia and the Lake District in teenage years perhaps opening the interest in both the unusual and exciting destinations I am keen that my kids get a taste of now.  Add to that their open mindedness about the world, and avoidance of Britain is best mentality, and I like to think their approach can live on in future years and generations, even Bryn :)

seriously don't let that bus get away

Brenzone 

So I took the plunge with the old driving today, and me and first gear, whilst not quite as one, had a few less arguments.  Around 25k to Brenzone and we parked up looking for watersports, no jokes please...

parked

Found Stand Up Paddle Board renting at St Denis campsite at the very reasonable price of 20 Euros for 2 boards for an hour.  We all had a go, Carys training us all after recent Guides tutorials at Llandegfedd resevoir.  Bryn as ever, a duck to water, and myself a slightly tipsy duck. But not too many duckings overall, and to be honest, the water so clear, cold and refreshing I didn't care when I did. Chrissi had a go too, always good to challenge and see the world from a different place. There was one point where I was stood on the board drifting on the Lake, gazing at the mountains all around and thinking, this is exactly what I live for, moments like that.

kids caper

big kids caper

getting to grips

expert

Bryn spoling Chrissis photo shoot

We took some time to dry off, rehydrate, eat icecream, drink americano, and generally chill after our exploits.  The weather suddenly worsened like someone had flicked the switch in the Trueman Show, but it didn't turn into a full on storm.  When our parking time ran out, I drove back along the coast via Garda and back to Costermano, enjoying the views, and activity we could see on the lake as we went.

wind picking up

americano and wifi

And so to home, collecting a stack of local produce from nearby supermarket, sampling the beer, sparkling fizz and creating pasta dish from our goodie back at the recent Tyrol run along with a bit of local parma ham, salad and pesto.  Don't get better than that, cooking in our little home away from home, listening to the buzz of Italian below in the courtyard, and blogging on Juliets balcony.  This is what it's all about folks.

Lake Garda is 370km squared, we thought it was big so Bryn looked it up. Caspian Sea 371,000 km squared puts it to shame and all other 'lakes' Lake Superior 82,414 km squared  second biggest in world Lake Windermere 14.73km squared at least gives Garda something to get excited about.

Came across this in my research, pointless trivia but hey ho https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-25-largest-lakes/