Day 151 - A Bike Ride to Peschiera, Gelato Regrets and Our First Game of Padel

Another pretty standard start to the day. We were up around 8, coffees going, and the usual breakfast routine. Emmett had taken on the job of running down to the shop to grab bread rolls, ham and cheese, which he’s been loving. It’s a small thing, but he takes real pride in it.

After breakfast, I headed up to tennis with Emmett. I spent most of the time chatting with the Norwegian dad and Emmett’s British mate’s dad while Emmett got stuck into his lesson. Back at the house, Kia was tidying up and Maddie was cruising around on her bike, just doing her thing.

Once tennis wrapped up, Emmett took off on another adventure. I went to the gym, Kia went to her exercise class, and the kids were out riding and playing again. We all regrouped back at the house for lunch, and then decided to head out for a bike ride together.

We rode about 7km south along the lake to Peschiera del Garda, and it turned out to be a really good little trip. The ride itself is beautiful, right along the water, flat and easy, perfect for the kids.

The town is pretty cool. It’s still fully enclosed by old fortress walls, with a moat running around it and the lake protecting one side. You can walk along sections of the walls and look out over the water, and inside it’s all narrow streets, canals, old buildings and little shops. It feels properly historic without being over the top.

We wandered around for a bit, checked out the streets and canals, and then grabbed some gelato. I made the mistake of not getting what Emmett got. His tasted like a Dr Pepper cherry flavour and it was unreal. Definitely a bit of gelato envy there.

While we were there, Kia got a message that our Norwegian friends were heading to a big supermarket, so we had to race back so she could go with them. Having access to a proper supermarket makes a big difference compared to just using the one on site.

Once we got back, Kia headed off shopping and the kids and I went down to the pool. It had been nice and warm all day, but as soon as we got in, the sun disappeared behind the clouds. Still warm enough to swim, just not quite as good.

I finally went down the slides with the kids, which they’d been asking me to do since we got here. We played a bit of Marco Polo, mucked around, and then I got out to sit in what little sun was left and chat again with the Norwegian dad about a bike ride we might do later in the week.

Not long after, Emmett reminded me I’d promised to take him to a bike track just outside the resort that I’d seen on a run. So we jumped on the bikes and headed over, only to find it locked up. Turns out it’s only open Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Bit of a letdown.

Next door though was a pretty cool little setup, like a mini road system for kids with roundabouts, stop signs and proper markings. So we stayed there and had a bit of fun. We were riding around playing tiggy, and Emmett got me to do a wheelie.

That didn’t go well.

I went to tap the back brake to bring it down, but forgot that in Europe the brakes are reversed. Grabbed the front brake instead and went straight over, landed flat on my back and nearly choked on my chewing gum. Emmett thought it was hilarious.

Then he tried it and did exactly the same thing. Ended up under his bike. We both just lost it laughing.

We rode a bit more along a nearby bike path, then realised Kia and I had been invited to play padel at 6, so we had to get moving back.

We’d never played padel before. We thought it’d be similar to pickleball, but it’s not. The walls come into play, the angles are different, and there’s a bit more going on. Took us a while to get the hang of it, but by the end we were actually having some decent rallies.

The others had already been playing for a while, so we jumped in and ended up getting a solid hit in. We’ll have to return the favour later in the week and book a court ourselves.

It was a good laugh though. Same as tennis with this group. Lots of running, lots of mistakes, lots of laughs.

On the way back, there was a massive storm rolling in. Dark clouds, lightning everywhere, looked like we were about to get smashed. But we only caught the edge of it in the end.

Back for dinner, into bed a bit earlier, and that was it.

Another full day. Lots of movement, plenty of laughs, and just a really good rhythm at the moment. We’re definitely going to miss this place when we leave next Sunday.