One of my least clever ideas

We had to get from Zell am see in Austria to Riccione in Italy.

The six of us could travel by train with a couple of train changes.  Cost: About 600 euros.

Or we could hire a van in Zell am see and drop it off in Riccioni  Cost:  About 700 euros.

If we picked the car up in Austria and dropped it off in Austria we could save a 300 euro one way fee.

So.  Why not hire the car in Austria, drive everyone down to Riccione, one of us drive the car back to the nearest Austrian town then that person catches the train back to Rimini.  Cost:  About 300 euros and a bit of lost sleep.  On paper that is.

Happy days

And we can get away with less dismantling when packing up the bikes.

Sweet.

I'm not sure where it started to come unravelled.  Probably after lunch when it became obvious that the seven hour drive from Zell am see to Riccione was a gross underestimate and as we wound our way through the narrow Italian roads through the alps at 6pm it was obvious we weren't going to give 5:30 pm in Riccioni a shake.  We still had to drop David and Justine off in Venice.

We did that at about 6:30 then drove back onto the autostrada heading for Bologne then Riccione.  The gps estimated Riccione at about 11:30 when we got back in the van after some dinner on the road.  Not good.  So as we hurtled along at 115, giving out toll money in 10s of euros and the bmws flew past at 145, we came across signs to Rimini - our turnoff.  I'd chosen the wrong town for the gps.  Luckily in the right direction.  We ended up in bed by about 11.  Me for a couple of hours, Kim, Cassea and Christian for the rest of the night.

At 1 I got back in the car to head for Innsbruck.  5 hours.  Autostrada from Riccione to Innsbruck (well all but a few ks).  Cost: 59 euros.

Got the car back to Innsbruck, had a swimming session at a huge pool facility in the city then caught the train to Riccioni.

Got back to Riccioni at about 9:30 after getting just a little bit lost between the station and the hotel.

The day before Dave and I had caught the train at 6am from Zell am see to Innsbruck to pick up the car.  We'd driven back to Zell am see, picked up the crew then arrive at Riccione at 9:30.  I'd driven back to Innsbruck during the night then caught the train back to Rimini and a bus back to Riccioni that night.  Day and a half travel with not much sleep.

With tolls and fuel, which I haven't been game to add up yet, we would probably have been better off on the train.

We're catching the train to Rome.