At dawn it was time for a cup of coffee. How great is it that we can just make that in our own car. It was also time for a shower. Since we’re still spending our nights at campsites for now, we’re making full use of that luxury while we still can.
After a nice breakfast the moment had come: the Fernpass. A beautiful route through the rolling Alps. For me, Bodhi, a familiar road, because as a kid I drove through here often on the way to our holidays. At a viewpoint Tess and I looked at each other and thought the same thing: time for a cuppa with our faces in the sun. Because what’s the rush?
After sitting in the sun for an hour or so, it seemed like a good idea to drive on, because the Alps in early October turn out to be pretty chilly. On the weather app we had seen that the weather in Bolzano, northern Italy, looked fine, so we drove that way. We had done some shopping at the Lidl with the idea of cooking a meal up on the mountain with a nice view. Long story short: we drove over the mountain roads for hours without any luck. So back down we went, to eat a hummus sandwich in the car and make a plan for the evening.
During our hummus sandwich Tess got a text: “Happy New Year’s Eve!” Huh…? we thought. Tess thought about it a bit longer and said: maybe he says that because it’s my birthday tomorrow, so tonight is the last evening of my year. “Shit,” I thought. “Then we have to push on to Venice.” A few weeks earlier I had promised Tess I would take her out for dinner in Venice for her birthday.
It was still 3 hours and 15 minutes of driving to the campsite near Venice that was on our ACSI discount card. If we kept going a bit, we might just make it before reception closed. We washed down the last bit of hummus with some water and went looking for the green “autostrada” signs towards Veneto.
Later that evening we arrived in Cavallino. A familiar place for me, because those childhood holidays I talked about earlier were spent right here at this campsite. Unfortunately the Italians at reception were long gone, so we folded open our roof tent in the car park in front of the campsite. We were asleep before midnight.