After the holiday weekend our tail lift repair was successfully completed (€200) we were able to start the journey north towards home. In Italy, Covid restrictions meant masks had to be worn indoors and we also had to be prepared to supply proof of vaccination in order to have a restaurant meal. Once we left Italy and drove north there were no mask requirements, just the odd soul choosing to wear one.
It was early May and, as we travelled north, we marvelled at the vibrant scenery around us; green hills covered with mature trees coming into full leaf, lush meadows sprinkled with dandelions and other wild flowers; yellow gorse and wild poppies lined the roadside with fields of bright rape providing the backdrop.
We drove from Italy to Switzerland, briefly entering Austria to reach Germany. We paid €35 at the Swiss border to cover road tolls and wondered why the UK couldn’t make a similar charge for foreign vehicles as they entered our country.
We stayed for two nights in southern Germany by Bodensee (Lake Constance) with Eva and Karl whom we had met during our recent travels in Morocco. They had a hillside three-storey house at Tettnang set in a cul de sac. We parked outside, our huge vehicle looking quite obscene against the suburban backdrop – but the neighbours didn’t seem to mind. It was the season of white asparagus (Spargel) and we bought some from the local growers to eat with boiled potatoes and home-made hollandaise sauce – delicious but not quite as good as our British green stuff.
