Thursday, 01 October 2009

There's something clearly amiss in UK Service Stations that's well and truly present in German ones. The first stop we made en route to Bologna was at a service station that was surrounded by corn fields!  Have you ever seen that anywhere else? I certainly haven't...

I walked into the corn field, and although it was in broad daylight I still found that I got flashes of horror/suspense films that I've watched.You know the ones. The innocent victim -usually a girl - is being chased through the long corn by a killer/extra terrestrial sort of affair.  Then there's that moment where for some reason she stops, as does her pursuer.  Her eyes dart from left to right, in front to behind seeing nothing but the long corn.  Then there's that silent suspense where you hear nothing but the whispering of the sun dried foliage rustling in the breeze.  It was this very noise that made my walk through the corn today a bit eerie. It actually does sound like whispering.  I kept thinking I could hear words(?)

We made it to Bologna, after 13 hours in the car, for a much needed rest.  However, though I'd planned to go straight to bed, we ended up having a lovely meal over a bottle of wine, followed by a walk through the village we were staying in.... would have been very romantic if it hadn't have been just me and the Tour Mole.

The Tour Mole started the driving today from Bologna to Rome.  Now I don't want to generalise, but I'm going to anyway.  Everything you've ever heard about the outlandish behaviour of Italian drivers is absolutely correct!  I don't wish to be unpleasant here, BUT....The Tour Mole's driving is.....well, suffice to say that he isn't the world's greatest driver! At the best of times it's hairy, so driving in Italy in excess of 90mph creates in me a feeling of.......mmmmm, how can I explain it?  Well, if you tied your Granny to the roof of a Rally Car doing a circuit in the snow, her emotions would begin to capture it.

We stopped off in Florence this afternoon for a coffee... what a beautiful place!

Here's some pics of our journey....f

The ubiquitous kick starter


The whispering field


I was tempted to take this....but I didn't


Coffee Break in Switzerland



Speaks for itself



Gotthard Tunnel - 10 miles long, cut into the Swiss mountains