SUMMER HOLIDAYS, day 05: the not so glorious disappearance of summer

friday, 18 august. the forecast may still be going on about summer! summer! summer! only nobody else manages to believe it. torrential rain wakes me several times that night, and nothing changes in the morning. it really is quite bizarre: the radio keeps going on about sunshine here, hot & sunny day there, and on the campsite people keep saying they have spoken to friends or family in the west, in the east, and in between, and nobody has actually seen the sun! hm.

we don't pack up straight away - never fun, striking a tent in the rain. also, it keeps getting lighter, and sometimes the rain nearly stops - but only to increase again. and who knows what might happen the next day. somehow we have lost faith in what the forecast says. yeah really. sooo - during ten not-so-wet minutes, we throw our stuff in archibald's (not quite archie yet) big belly, and we decide to visit our friend alex in south tyrol this weekend rather than next.



as we head towards lienz in east tyrol, the rain eventually stops. we cross into italy and drive to meran via sillian - toblach - bruneck - brixen - bozen. we stop somewhere along the way, a very sunny spot and i suggest drying the tent by putting in on archibald's roof. genius eh? it works too. the whole dripping thing is dry in no time. we get in touch with alex who says he'll be home around six. excellent.



the further south we go, the more vineyards we pass, and eventually we enter apple country: trees stretch for miles and miles. in any case, northern italy is sunnier and much, much warmer than the area we have left behind. let's just hope it stays that way.

we get to alex' place in marling near merano about two minutes before he arrives, together with his father. alex is my old roomie - we shared a flat with birgit in vienna for a couple of years, and it was such great fun. he moved back to italy a few years ago, and this is the first time we are visiting him, though we have seen each other a few times in vienna. it's quite a beautiful area, it seems, around merano. mountains everywhere, of course. we look forward to exploring.



thanks to alex, we now know that this is where, geologically speaking, europe meets africa: the reddish rock you see is part of africas tectonic plate, to the left is europe.

laundry, food, catching up, making plans - that's what is on the agenda until bedtime.

pictures of day 05