As I was laying in bed I suddenly had a panic moment when I thought "damn where is my money belt". I had taken it off when I was staying at the last hotel and left it on the desk in the bedroom. I was convinced that I had left it at the hotel. So I started thinking about how much money was in there and whether it was worth 2 days lost time to go back and get it. So angrily I got up and as I was packing away some clothes I came across the belt in my clothes pannier. I remembered then that as I was about to go out in the evening I saw the belt on the desk and decided to put it away in the pannier out of sight. With Alzheimer's kicking in I had totally forgotten that I had moved the belt. And so after recovering my composure I finally broke camp and set off again a "happy chappy".
Stopped for petite-dejeuner at a lorry transport stop. Asked the woman behind the counter whether they had a menu? Non! Do they have eggs! Non! When I turned my nose up at croissant she came from out the back with half a baguette on a plate with two huge knobs of butter. So breakfast was bread, butter and coffee. It was the kind of place where overweight lorry drivers stand at the bar drinking ridiculously small and strong cups of coffee, staring at strangers imagining they must have just come from Mars!
Still having troubles with my Tomtom getting it to charge, beginning to suspect it is not the cleanliness of the contacts, but the springiness of the left most contact. Not sure yet exactly how to resolve this problem.
Later looked more closely at the unsprung contacts at the back of the Tomtom and decided that one in particular looked tarnished. Cleaned up this contact well and device now up and running again.
On towards Basel in Switzerland, and then on towards northern Italy just at which point I will have to come off the pot regarding whether to go down via Italy to Greece, or whether to swing east to Slovinia and then Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. I noticed on the map that the ferry from Brindisi to Greece is shown as a nine hour crossing!
Decisions! Decisions!
Stopped again for a rain break, and then on towards Luzerne.
Luzerne is very nice, expensive looking properties along the side of the lake.
The picture below shows the sheer cliffs rising from the lake and a huge crane that looks to be delicately balanced on the edge of the cliff side.
Just after Luzerne on the road to Meiringen there are great views looking back down the Lungren valley.
Studied the map in more detail and I am beginning to get a bit worried about the time it will take me to get down to the bottom of Turkey and over the ferry to Cyprus. I will have to pick up my pace a little and cover more than the sedate 200 miles a day.
The hotel where I am staying is just at the start of the road up to the Grimsel Pass. Bedroom not much to write home about, but the views from the window are great.
Tomorrow I do the Grimsel, then the Furka and finally the St Goddard Pass before aiming to make it at least to Bolzano. I have decided with the shortage of time I should go the Slovinia, Romania, Bulgaria route.
More later
TOR
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brindisi to greece! that is the exact awful ferry i was telling you me and jo took when we were interailing. They just kept adding more and more people on board. It felt like the titanic! Def more people than life boats. I was more than relived when we got off. Heehee! Good memories. Wonder if jo remembers it too??? Stay safe. E xx
ReplyDelete“It was the kind of place where overweight lorry drivers stand at the bar drinking ridiculously small and strong cups of coffee, staring at strangers imagining they must have just come from Mars!”
ReplyDeleteHow anyone could ever think that about you Geoff is beyond me ;-)
Graham