Return of the missing car

 There can only really be one story in today’s post: the return of Nigel and his beloved car ‘Louisa’. Heroism, indefatigable-ism, sangfroid, grit, are over-used words and I shan’t use them here. Nevertheless, the old Gambier spirit was in evidence over the last few days. From sadness and despair, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, he stared down the twin imposters (all right, all right we get it! Ed.) Well, you know, he got back to the team, via David Ayre’s workshop (big shout out) and a long solo drive. Better news still is that his other half (should be other 60%, as she is more than half) is rejoining us tonight in our hotel in Merano (no, not the glass one, think confused Italians who prefer to speak German in northern Italy.)



Speaking of languages, we were totally confused by which schoolboy language we should attempt whilst we traversed Switzerland. As most of you will have guessed, no one could understand our complicated versions of “the birds in the trees sing, whilst the sun shines. Please may I have four coffees with milk on the side” in French, Italian, German, Schweizerdeutsch (as if). So it was a relief when we passed through the unmanned barrier which announced we had entered Italy only to be confounded by everyone here speaking German and looking a bit surprised when we try our Italian out. 








Tomorrow Austria. Now there’s a rallying cry. 

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