1115, Wednesday 30th May, A1 between Milan and Bologna.

Smiles all round this morning because the sun has come out. It’s a glorious day and we left Switzerland behind and are motoring to San Marino or thereabouts, via Bologna. Looking forward very much to the drive down Italy’s Adriatic coast – it should be beautiful. I made sure to pack my Italian book to look things up while we are passing through. Where is my Italian book? Safely packed in my crate of books buried under all our worldly goods! I had to resort to texting Cressida for some help in the essentials – how to say “I would like a cup of tea please!” We had wonderful pizza and chianti last night in a little restaurant in the little Swiss-Italian border town of Chiasso where we stayed over. Very pretty indeed, we went for a walk last night after we’d checked in and witnessed a stunning sunset over the mountains.

The final picture is the view of Chiasso, bathed in early morning sunshine as we set out on our way to Italy.

Tuesday 29th May, Switzerland

1755. We left Germany, back into France for a while, then entered Switzerland at Basel. Currently in the Gotthard Tunnel, 17km long, driving THROUGH the Alps. Scenery is stunning, little villages on the hillsides like something out of a fairy tale or a chocolate box. (Speaking of chocolate, we working through a box of Lindor Dark!) This country is absolutely beautiful. I’ve lost count of the photos I’ve taken through the window: here’s a selection! As we drove, we climbed and eventually we on a level with snow on the mountains! 1830. Exited the Gotthard Tunnel to find ourselves in Italian-speaking Switzerland. Rain has stopped but still overcast. Less than 100km until we reach our target for today and find a place to sleep. David said “campsite” with a smirk, but if Sat-nav could find us another Etap, we could stay there!

0915, Tuesday 29th May, Saarbrucken, Germany

Yes, we arrived in Germany. Reached our target of 525kms by mid-afternoon and decided to detour across the border from France to Germany. It had started to rain and David, very wisely I thought, decided we should stay in a hotel tonight rather than camp. With the help of our trusty little Sat-nav, we found an Etap hotel. Our room was identical to the one I had in Birmingham in April! I had been practising how to say “we would like a room please” in my best pigeon-German, but when we arrived in the hotel lobby, reception was closed and there was a machine which booked our room for us and gave us a code number to get into our room. Hours passed before we actually saw anyone! We opened the bubbly, and had a well-deserved nap. Sat-nav informed us that there was an Italian restaurant 0.6kms away so we changed the setting from “automobile” to “pedestrian” and off we went! Saarbrucken was deserted. I don’t know if it was a holiday yesterday like it is in the UK, but it was a ghost-town.

It is still raining now. And we have a puncture. All that good karma from yesterday has bitten us on the ass. And what with all our pruck in the back of the van, it’s too heavy for David’s multi-purpose 2-tonne jack to lift. I know, let’s call the AA. We spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to make the woman understand our predicament, and eventually she seemed to get it right at her end. Here we are, finally waiting for roadside assistance.

Sure, it’s all good fun.

1030. The nice man from the breakdown company has arrived. How I wish Monika my German teacher was here to help me tell him “our jack isn’t strong enough to lift the van”. Of course he would have brought his own jack if the incompetent AA woman had listened to David when he told her this in the first place …

1320 hours, Monday 28th May 2007, Luxembourg

Countries passed through so far: France, Belgium, Luxembourg.

Made perfect time on the journey from Pembroke in Wales to the port of Dover, despite lashing rain the entire way! Stayed in a cheap and nasty B&B in Calais, but let’s face it, all we wanted was a bed and a toilet, and there was even an Irish pub next door for a Bailey’s nightcap. Anxiety that all our worldly goods might be nicked from the van during the night caused us to get up and be on our way again at 0730.

Kms to destination (Brindisi, Italy): 2100
Kms to complete each day: 525
165 kms until today’s target is reached.

Looking forward to reaching a campsite, settling down and cracking open the bottle of bubbly we’ve been saving.

It all feels a bit surreal … the last 5 or 6 weeks have been a blur. First of all, David went on his reconnaissance trip to Zakynthos for almost 3 weeks, and if I wasn’t working at the museum, I was packing like a mad thing. Then as if I didn’t have enough to think about, I decided to move universities and was gathering up all the paperwork for that. Bless him, David was left alone to finish all the packing up and organising while I galavanted off to Crete for a conference on the ancient novel. It wasn’t all fun and games in the sunshine though, as I picked up a stomach bug which clung to me for 8 days. I was home long enough to put laundry on then go to bed. When I got up next day it was time for the adventure to start!

WE LOVE SATELLITE NAVIGATION!

On the Road at last

Sunday 27th May 2007, 12 noon, somewhere in the Irish Sea off Wales

Well, here we are. On a boat. Not the boat we were meant to be on, but at least we’ve started. After making good progress on the new motorway just over the Irish border and being stationary in the car park that is also known as the Dublin ring-road, we pulled into the departure area at Rosslare Harbour, just in time to see the ferry pulling away. There were tears, and a lot of swearing.

We had missed the ferry by 15 effing minutes.

Our bad luck continued, and while trying to park the van at the b&b, David managed to suspend the back passenger wheel in the air as the van perched precariously on the edge of a ditch in the car park. A tow from a friendly employee at the b&b sorted out the situation and the evening was spent with David comfort eating and drinking, while I nibbled at the blandest starter on the menu, still trying to fight off the stomach bug which I caught a week ago. Anyway, here we are on an alternative route to mainland Europe. The ferry is by no means full and we found a spot to sit where we can both stretch out on the seats and catch a few zeds. David is still asleep beside me. No he’s not, he just pointed out, he has woken up. By the time we reach France, we will have lost a day, but will have landed in Calais rather than Roscoff.

More later .......