I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted. It's been a busy time without much to share, except perhaps for our road trip from Puglia to UK and back - no less than 2600 miles (and that's not counting the miles driven in error!). Why you ask? Mainly, to get the MOT sorted for another year, and, seeing as we were making the trip, to transport back all sorts of things we have found difficult to buy in Puglia: for the house, wooden shelves, memory foam mattress toppers and decent paint, and for me, dilutable squash, lime and lemon curd and a few month's supply of decent chocolate!
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| Car full to the brim! |
Notable stories from our outward journey to UK include us having driven 12 hours and being just 5 minutes from our halfway resting point of a hotel in Lucerne, when we were the second car behind a toppled trailer which had spilled 4 panicked cows onto the motorway!
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| Cow chaos! |
Being the second car meant we had options: it was a 3 lane road, so we could have driven round the first car which slowed, ignoring the farmer's request to stop, and headed on to our destination. We didn't, as we could see one of the cows had made a run for it and didn't think that leading a procession of cars down into a tunnel with a loose cow was the responsible option! We may have chosen differently had we realised it would take quite so long to resolve the situation!
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| Return of the runaway cow |
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| Heart sinks: cordon = not going anywhere for a while! |
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| Strike a pose! |
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| So near and yet so far! |
So we waited and waited as the emergency services came, cordoned off the road, drew over the skid marks on the road with chalk, took lots of photos, brought in a new trailer, ushered the cows on board and then eventually let us head on our way. I felt grateful at least that, being the second car, we had front row seats to the spectacle, which was not the case for all the long queues of cars behind us!
Our next hold up was at the end of the next day at the Eurotunnel: 5 hours' wait following a train that had broken down in the tunnel earlier that day!
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| At least the sunset while we waited was pretty! |
Our way back with the car to Puglia was slightly less eventful, although, I do want to have a little rant about our hotel at our halfway point, this time in Lugano. Mr RR had accumulated enough points on business trips to earn us a free night, so we got an upgraded room and after a long day and a nice meal out, headed to bed about 11. About 10 past 11, a light just off the bedroom in front of the main door switched on for a minute then off again. Weird we thought. 10 minutes later it happened again. So I got up and looked for a light switch that controlled the light. Couldn't find it. I took the key card out of its holder, thereby deactivating all the electricity. Light stayed on. At this point, Mr RR is sound asleep and the idea of phoning reception and requesting a new room held zero appeal, so I switched the bathroom light on, thinking at least this way the room would be in semi-darkness all night as opposed to alternating between pitch black to lights on every 10 minutes, and tried to get some sleep.
Come the morning, I was incredulous to hear the lady at reception explain to Mr RR that she knew about the light: that it was on a sensor as some people like it if they have to get up in the night and that we should have phoned reception to get someone to come and deactivate it if we didn't like it! Short on sleep and frustrated that no-one thought to mention the quirky lighting set up when we checked in (we have both travelled a lot - this is not normal even in the fanciest hotels!), we firmly explained it couldn't have been operating on a sensor when we were both nowhere near it but in bed, but still no apology came. Nul points Lugano Holiday Inn!
Still despite all these hiccups, (the less said about the 2 hours heading the wrong way out of Calais the better!) we were on the whole, even-tempered throughout and when you're stuck in a car with your nearest and dearest for 4 days, that and a safe arrival are perhaps all that matters!
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| Thankfully the only Asse on our trip - boom boom! |
P.S. There's always something new when you head out of your usual environment. This time round it was this little beauty found in our Lucerne hotel buffet. Think chocolate spread but with a hint of malt and crunched up maltesers mixed in. I must confess I smuggled a few out in my handbag!!
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| Ovomaltine - ohsogood! |
