Lindley and Richard left by train with their luggage to head to CDG to pick up the rental car. Mom, Kelsey and I left the apartment shortly after as it was being turned over in two hours to another renter. We had our luggage so we didn't go far, we went to the coffee shop two doors down expecting a two hour wait.
An hour later we got a text from Lindley that their train had broken down and they were waiting for another one. Then we got the text that Richard's cell phone had been pickpocketed while they were on the train. Lindley saw the guy, she'd heard her own bag's velcro being peeled and smacked the guy away, he just turned and hit Richard's pocket instead. Front shirt for the phone, right trouser for what he mistakenly thought was his wallet.
It is a wallet shaped structure, but Richard uses that pocket to hold his spare phone battery, headset and charger cords!
So ALL the guy got was the phone and phone accessories. The credit cards and passports were safely in Richard's other pocket. The trip could go on.
Kelsey needed a butt pillow, she suffers from cysts if she spends too much time sitting. No pillow was to be found in our small shopping area, but I did locate something just as good, two slabs of facial tissue travel size that she could use as a pillow in her 3rd row seat in the van we were finally able to obtain. Silver lining. They had give our original rental vehicle away because we were so late picking it up, but were finally able to find another large vehicle.
Once in Italy we stopped at an Area Servicio to get gas and snacks. It had a full service station. After loading back into the car once we were complete, a garage mechanic approached us and motioned that our rear tire was flattening. I did NOT like the look of that guy and suggested we go to the next rest stop to see how the tire did.
We did and that guy said the hole was on the sidewall, not repairable but that a great repair shop was one more mile up the highway, so he filled us up with air and sent us on our way. One more mile on the freeway and we found a mechanic. That's when we learned that the "hole" was a knife thrust. Good call on trusting the gut on that bad mechanic Lauren. This final guy was great, but he was going to have to change out two tires, OR, we phoned AVIS and found out we were 10 minutes from the Milan AVIS rental car place! Just drive on over and switch the car out for another van! Silver lining:)
Traveling through Switzerland's gorgeous Alps we had two trip routes to get us to Lugano, both roads were closed in late May either due to the passes being impassable or it's now construction season in the mountains. OR, go find a loading train filled with cars and let them drive you under a mountain to Lugano! Silver lining and it cut 45 minutes off our trip!
Venice is very expensive to stay in, so as the Hotel Hunter, I was about ready to give up and look for something an hour's drive away when I tried one more site. Found a Boat and Breakfast for a very reasonable rate! Silver lining, who gets to stay on a boat while traveling in Venice?? We do!!!
Racing back to Paris we stumbled into a small town in Germany and were really hoping for a great "schnitzel and spatzele" meal. The restaurant I found on Trip Advisor was closed on Sundays. But Lindley went to Yelp and found a place 3 minutes walk away that turned out to be an awesome Beer Garden type place with great food! Silver Lining, we ordered a cheese spatzele and shared it with the whole table. Mmmm.
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