What can you say? It was really hard for us to go back home again. Alexandra couldn't imagine to stay on a camping ground for such a long time when she was still in Munich. But as the end of the trip came closer and closer, she was the one who wanted to delay the departure every day. She really loved it. Thus, we postponed our return journey one day after another. At the end we stayed at the camping ground for three weeks and drove back only because Robert had to retunr to work again. We decided to break down our equipment the last possible Friday. And this was absolutely right. Because as soon as we had stored all our equipment in our caravan and in our car a heavy thunderstorm started over Grado and flooded the whole camping ground. It would have been a real mess to pack the wet equipment.
On our way back we got stucked in an annoying traffic jam. While waiting we experienced some weird stories. This stories you can only tell when you are doing a trip. But let us tell:
We had to pass the "Katschberg Tunnel". It is approximately 5.500 metres long and has only two lanes for both directions. If there is too much traffic they start with "Blockabfertigung". This means they switch on a traffic light and only a certain amount of cars is allowed to pass the tunnel. Thus, a dangerous traffic jam inside the tunnel can be avoided.
That is the good thing. The bad thing is that you stand in a long line with lots of other cars and wait. In our case this meant 15 kilometres traffic jam and 90 minutes stop and go. Robert got so angry about it that he jumped out of the car as soon as there was no movement. That was a good idea. Because he looked at the caravan he discoverd that one of the three roof-lights got loose and was open. But before Robert was able to close the roof-light the cars started to move again. In the meantime Alexandra sat down in between the two kids to entertain them a little bit. After the discovery of the open roof-light we were driving for about one kilometer. As soon as the traffic jam stopped again Robert went to the caravan. While leaving the car he mentioned that Alexandra had to continue driving in case the cars would move again. The minute Robert was gone Fiona told Alexandra to start driving: "Papa told you to drive. He will complain about you if you don't do this. Why don't you drive? Papa told you. He will bluster." And so on.
Meanwhile Robert had opened the caravan's door and closed the roof-light. While he was in the caravan he had the idea to bring something to read back to the car. It would shorten the wait. In the moment Robert wanted to leave the caravan again he realized the cars were moving again. What would Alexandra do? She climbed from the back to the driver's seat, started the engine, and followed barefooted the line of cars. Robert stayed in the caravan.
After some while they stopped again and Robert could return to his beloved ones. A few minutes later - Robert was just reading his magazine - somebody knocked at our window. Meanwhile it was dark and rainy. Robert was prepared to hear another bad news. When you travel with such an old caravan you always expect that somebody tells you your trailer is broken or whatever. However, it was not us who had problems.
The man outside told us he was right behind us with his wife and two kids. They just (actually one hour ago) went to a close restaurant for dinner. Now, they had realized that they had forgotten their bag with all documents, money and cellular phones at this place. "Do you have a telephone?" he asked. Well, Alexandra had just called her mother. So we tried to call the restaurant. We knew at least the number because the unlucky fellows had taken a flyer from the restaurant. What happened? First, it was the wrong number. Second, the battery of Alexandra's phone became empty and third the cars moved again. At the beginning the poor guy tried to walk next to our car. But as soon as he had to start to run Robert asked him to come into the car. Finally we could activate Robert's phone and call the restaurant. All the stuff was still at the restaurant waiting for the unlucky family. Robert said goodbye: "Hope, we could avoid any marriage problems." - "Yes, we couldn't agree who left it." The man replied.
Poor guys. They still had to wait at least one hour until they reached the next exit. From there they had to drive the entire way back, pick up their valuables at the restaurant and join the end of the endless queue again. Let's hope everything worked out fine for them.
For us at least, our trip to Italy with a caravan had a happy ending. We returned safely and relaxed to our house. We had a great time together because we all love each other.
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