Grade 2011 - Tag 1

Part 3 of the Grado Trilogy

Subtitle: "The Big Feast"

Saturday, 18.6.2011

I get up a little hungover and yes, Lisa is already up of course. We still start our day calmly and relaxed, at some point we have breakfast and slowly pack our suitcases. We are travelling with a lot of luggage again (4 books, lots of children's magazines, a remote-controlled car, 2 monster trucks, 2 kites, camera, wallet, drawing pad with pens). However, it turns out later that it is still not enough.

At 12:00 we set off. A short and then longer farewell to mum, a quick trip to the ATM and then onto the autostrada. This year we are going on a rally to Grado . Bettina, Christian and Ella have already been on Elba for a week and by this time they have already docked on the ferry back on the mainland and started the rally. Off to the north - a presto.

The motorway is clear, there are still 333 km to go. Heading south - a presto.

Lisa is extremely well behaved and draws on her drawing board (magic board) and by the time we get to Klagenfurt we have already heard the second run of Big Time Rush. In Villach it starts to rain and before we reach the border we make our only stop - to go to the toilet and have a snack.

The K's were already at the gates of Bologna. So we continued south in the rain. The traffic had gotten heavier, but it wasn't a problem. After the Val Canale, the rain stopped and suddenly it was warm outside: Udine 27 °C. Ferrara 28 °C.

Lisa is now fully awake and chats until we arrive, at 4 p.m., which is a leisurely 4 hours and 344 km.

We look for the agency, buy some postcards and move into the apartment. The apartment is more "old-fashioned" than the one from last year (one floor down), and there is no passage between the kitchen and the living room (and therefore one less opportunity to walk around), but it offers enough space for all of us. In our room, Lisa finds a 1-cent coin on the floor, so we stay there.

We air the room, unpack our suitcases, rummage around a bit and then we're standing in front of the ice cream parlor, licking our first holiday ice cream in the "Bar Gelateria Bomben" (standard price for a scoop in Grado: 1.20 euros). At 6 p.m. Bettina, Christian and Ella are there too. It's a funny feeling: this time they're the latecomers and we meet them on the street in front of the accommodation. We're greeted with Styrian beer and the children are already running their first laps.

Then the men go hunting and very late in the evening there is excellent spaghetti con ragu and then, true to Italian tradition (at 10), the young people go to bed.

And therefore also for me ;-)