|
Friday 31st October
San Remo - Genova - La Spezia - Parma - Imola
The next morning we woke to find
it was raining and miserable. The view from our hotel window would
have been magnificent apart from the weather!
We decided we'd made the right decision not to stop the
night in Monte Carlo, and decided to press on and get some miles in and
hope the weather cleared up.
Apart from a bad case of wind at our first fuel stop on
the mountains overlooking the coast, it seemed to be clearing a bit and
the views from the Italian coastal motorway were breathtaking.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Then the weather started to get worse - and
worse - until eventually we seemed to be driving through the rain clouds
with spray on the roads so bad we could hardly see the Mini in front, even
with foglights on. |
|
|
|
|
|
We reached Genova, where several motorways merged, and
took the wrong exit through the motorway toll booth. At this stage
Sput took one exit and Binky and Jojo took another. Again thank
goodness for walkie-talkies - although we did an entire circuit of the
town trying to find them. They told us they were parked up by a green
hexagonal building, which we could see but not get to. We passed
right by it on a flyover which seemed to go the length of the town before
we could get off. Eventually we all decided to meet up at the next
services on the motorway, which we did.
The road from La Spezia up to Parma was not a nice
journey. The rain kept up and visibility was terrible - not helped
by lots of roadworks going on in the tunnels, meaning the motorway was
single track and potholey in places - we seemed to be plagued with slow
moving lorries. Eventually we made it to Parma where we joined the
motorway which would take us to Imola.
|
|
|
A stop at services just outside Parma gave us
our first meeting with other Jobbers en route to Imola, a
rather unusual sign by the food counter, and a Maxi-Cappucino which Max
couldn't resist! |
|
|
|
|
| Back on the road again for the
last leg of our journey. The weather started to brighten up a bit
and it was sunny when we arrived in Imola at the Molino Rosso.
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
We arrived just before 5.00pm and were told
to go straight to the garage to get the cars scrutineered, to save time
the next morning. We also gave them a quick bath to get rid of the
motorway grime.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After that we booked into our
rooms and got changed for the first night Halloween party. We met up
with Rog, Von, Stacey and Kev (Teams 22 & 23) who had left the UK a
day before us. Also Big Jim and Co. and the friends who had
travelled through Switzerland and heard their tales of the snow.
Happy travellers ready for the start of the Job the next morning.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
