Car broken?

Finally summer again! This time we didn't wait long and went to Sicily on the first day of our vacation.

The weather forecast was "promising". 42° on Wednesday. But most of the time, food is not as hot as it is cooked - or so we hoped. I also installed the MaxxFan 2000 Pro XT Turbo fan. Nothing could go wrong now!

But as usual, the beginning is not always easy for us.

A few days before departure, our ferry from Genoa to Palermo was cancelled. I quickly called and asked what was going on. There were "organisational reasons" and I could have my money back or take the next ferry. The next one was on the same day, but instead of 10 a.m. it was at 9:45 p.m.

That was OK for us, as we always get going late anyway. The only problem was that there were no cabins available on the changed date, only armchairs to sleep in. What the heck, we didn't want to wait three days for the next ferry with a cabin.

Shortly before departure, we played it safe this time with regard to the weight of our motorhome and weighed it on a weighbridge just around the corner from us. Unfortunately, not all the windows were closed and the wind ripped the toilet window off.

But that's not all. Apparently we had also stomped on a nail, screw or something similar on the rear wheel the day before and the tire was almost deflated. That's not good news at 11:30 on a Saturday and all the garages in the area were closed, either on vacation or otherwise absent.

But what the heck, they'll have to get it fixed in Palermo and pump it up every 6 hours until then.

On Saturday at 8pm we finally set off. We had completed the first 400km by 1:45am. We slept in a parking lot somewhere near Verona and then quickly continued on. We were in Genoa at 2pm.

Konstantin wanted to visit the aquarium, and since we still had a good 7 hours until boarding (the ferry was delayed by another 2 hours), this was a very good way to pass the time.

There is no space in Genoa and finding a parking space, especially with a camper van, is no picnic. But after a few extra rounds of the harbor, we managed to get a spot.

The aquarium in Genoa is one of the largest in Europe. Large sharks, rays, dolphins, manatees, ... everything that the heart of our potential future marine biologist desires can be seen there.

We were finally on board at 11pm and shortly after midnight most of us were in dreamland. Konstantin and I slept like drunk teenagers, Anita and Julius less well. So we lounged and feasted on board the next day.

I hoped that the air in the rear tire hadn't completely gone after 24 hours. The breakdown service doesn't seem to tow cars on the ferry 😉. So I was in pole position when I sprinted to the cars after docking so I had a few more minutes to pump it up. 0.8 of 5.5 bar wasn't much, but thanks to the Makita compressor it was pumped up again after 10 minutes.

Now nothing could stop us from exploring the chaotic streets of Palermo.