After leaving John's on Saturday morning, we decided to take the route to Italy the scenic way. Daddy thought that we would be driving through the Alps. Turns out we were driving over them. It was fine at first, just driving into the Alps, a few waterfalls and we kept seeing big ski lifts. We were driving up a mountain, a very zig-zaggy one, and the campervan kept slowing down. We ended up pulling into a very small lay-by on the edge of the mountain to 'cool the engine down'. We took a few pictures of the pretty mountains and lots of the mountain in the distance with the snow on top!! When we got back into the van and started crawling along, black smoke started coming from the exhaust, and mummy began to lean away from the edge of the mountain!!! John said that at the top of a mountain, there is a really beautiful lake. We got to a sort of car park and we spotted the lake. It was really pretty! If you've seen the Simpson's Movie, it looked like the poster that Homer has of Alaska! It was a clear blue lake and the mountains surrounding were incredible! There were mountains in the foreground and background, and the pictures I got are amazing! When Bethan mentioned going down to the lake, that's when things started to get hairy. Mummy said that we would definitely not go down to the lake, because the mountain would be just as steep coming back up as it would be going down. But, daddy always likes an 'adventure' (challenge) and we drove down to the lake. It was worth it though, the view was amazing and the water was so blue! It was freezing though, so we didn't stay for long. Daddy told us that there used to be a village where the lake was, but people flooded the village after the war, partly to create a reservoir, but also because there was a big massacre going on.
When we got back in the campervan, we started the big treck back up the mountain, with mummy once again leaning away from the edge and telling daddy to slow down! We eventually made it to Italy, and we got beebed at twice in 5 minutes, because the driving here is so confusing! People got through green and red lights, so we just wait until we get parped at, then we move!!
we stayed at a hostel on the Saturday night. That wasn't too bad, but men have a seperate floor to women, but Edie was allowed to go in a room with daddy. We were sharing a room with three French girls, it was quite scary, but we stuck with it! Me and Beth shared a bed top-to-tail, because we didn't want to go on a bunk above a stranger! I was reaching over Beth's legs to get something and she kicked me right in the face! Next thing I remember, was running to the bathroom like a lunatic and trying to hold my head up. When I reached the toilet cubicle, I locked the door, but in doing so, had to stop holding my nose. Blood went everywhere, and I tried to stop it with toilet role, but it just kept on coming. Mummy came in to help me, and we finally go to bed at midnight. I am NOT sharing a bed with Beth again! She can be really aggressive!!
On Sunday, the whole city was dead. They really take their rest day seriously, and we were slowly driving around to try and find a map so we knew where to go! We were also trying to find a garage, because the campervan was getting dangerously bad. We were trying to get to Genova that day, but the van was never going to make it. We sat in McDonalds for lunch, and discussed if we should try and carry on to Genova. Mummy didn't want too, but the rest of us thought it a good idea to at least try. Genova was about an hour from Alessandria, but we gave it a go. The problem with the van was that the engine kept going out when we tried to pick up speed, like it was being choked or something. We ended up driving on the hard shoulder with our emergency lights on!
On the way to the main road, we saw a hotel that was a four star, but seeing as it was the only place we could find to stay, we were going to go there, but there was no exit to come off at, so we had to carry on. When we had got to a point where carrying on would be silly because we would be stuck in the middle of no where, we decided to turn around. On the way back into Alessandria, there was another four start hotel that we passed called Marengo, and we had passed it already that day and hadn't seen it! We parked and asked if they had 2 rooms or a family room, and they had two rooms basically opposite each other. We booked in and there was a double room and three singles in another. It was amazing! Me, Bethan and Edie stayed in the 3 bed bedroom, and mummy and daddy stayed in the double room. The best thing was, there was a garage next door that daddy took the van too on Monday. The only thing was, the van was too old for them to look around for any problems, because nowadays, they plug a laptop into the car and the laptop diagnosis the problem. Daddy asked the receptionist if there was another garage, and luckily, there was a VW one not far away. So he went there and it turned out that they would look at it! Finally, things started to look up!
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