We got a cabin, it was the most claustrophobic experience of my life. \u00a0we smuggled the dog on board, as did all the other dog owners, saving ourselves 100 Euro and made our way to our allotted coffin which was internal and right in the middle of the ship. \u00a0There were two single beds, a toilet, shower and a wardrobe in a space about the size of Vanley. \u00a0It was midnight and I was quite tired so I went to bed with Sunny and R went to find a bar!<\/p>\n
The ship was like a rabbit warren with tiny corridors, hundreds of doors, each space identical. \u00a0I have no sense of direction so knew I would get lost if I left our cabin, Sunny is no search and rescue dog so he would be useless. \u00a0There was no phone service on board and only one cabin key, we had, I thought, nineteen hours on board this monstrosity. \u00a0 I spent the hour that R was away lying in bed imagining that I was on the Titanic trying to work out how long it would take to drown if the cabin filled with water, I took into account that the sea was quite warm therefore hypothermia would be quite unlikely and the map on the back of the door was incomprehensible.<\/p>\n
R returned and immediately went to sleep. \u00a0I must have dropped off too because the next thing I knew it was 4.30 and R wasn’t in the room. \u00a0He had disappeared and the ship was quiet, the engines weren’t making much noise and it was rocking, a lot. \u00a0I’m not one to panic in the sea, but the walls were closing in. \u00a0I thought on my feet, I don’t want to drown in my PJ’s (they didn’t match) so I had a quick shower and got dressed, had he fallen overboard? Unlikely as there was no window, I sat there for about an hour and a half until he returned.<\/p>\n
He’d woken at 4, noticed the change in the movement of the ship decided it was going down so went scope out an escape route, he made it to the deck and decided to work out how to get to the lifeboats, got near the edge, thought he might fall and came back to save me! \u00a0 We managed to sleep again for about an hour but couldn’t stay in the cabin any longer so went up on deck, there was a swimming pool and bar, casino and dining room and god knows what else but to us it was entirely hideous, the deck smelled of exhaust fumes, not a nice place to sit at all. \u00a0Luckily it was only 17 hours and with \u00a0much relief we returned to Vanley and ate the sausage rolls our friends had given us in Corfu, ambrosia compared to the utter crap on offer on board.<\/p>\n
We had arrived in Italy tired and grumpy.<\/p>\n
We drove on roads worse than Corfu to find the first, second and third camperstops we had chosen were closed. \u00a0It was getting late so we decided to get on the motorway towards Bologna and stay in a service station because that’s where we saw the most camper vans. \u00a0We tried three, no vans but the fourth one had loads of lorries and good lighting so we gave up and stayed the night, we had hoped to find other campers but no luck. \u00a0An eventful night, someone was casing our van at 4 am and the truckers were very noisy but we survived. \u00a0We got coffee and left early. \u00a0R decided to leave the motorway so we pulled into the next services to change the sat nav, it was full of campers, everywhere, we should have kept going.<\/p>\n
The drive was beautiful, we stopped and had a look at a walled village, passed the most amazing houses and farms and decided that the Emilia-Romagna region is the most beautiful so far. \u00a0We arrived at Lake Garda, the sun is shining the site is spotless and the scenery is spectacular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We got a cabin, it was the most claustrophobic experience of my life. \u00a0we smuggled the dog on board, as did all the other dog owners, saving ourselves 100 Euro and made our way to our allotted coffin which was internal and right in the middle of the ship. \u00a0There were two single beds, a … <\/p>\n