Making Aliyah: The end of the first week

Thursday 22 May 2008

Firstly, thanks to all the comments and words of encouragement that have been posted to the blog. Yaniv and I really appreciate your comments and we hope that you continue to enjoy our updates. Later on, I'll address some of the questions that have been asked so far.

But first, let me just fill you in on our past two days...

Its the 'Speckfest' (or, Pork Festival) here in Bolzano, our Thursday night stop-off point in northern Italy (the town is about half German half Italian), and as I write to you I can hear the band playing in the square close to our hotel. Needless to say, the 'fest' is hardly the main thrill of our stay here but the relaxing warm evening air is a welcome relief after two days tough driving through the mountains.

Credit goes to Yan for negotiating some of the hairiest hair-pin bends on our approach to the Swiss/Italy border on Wednesday afternoon. The day had actually started off pretty gently from Neuchatel (Switzerland) without too much cause for concern. But as the day went on, those hair-pins pushed the Rolls to its limits - uphill gradients of 18 degress plus, steam from down below as the clutch was made to work overtime (reader - please pray for the continued well-being of our clutch!), craned necks looking up the tight turns for oncoming traffic, and lots of words of encouragement and support from yours truly. After the tough journey, we arrived at our beautiful hotel looking over Lake Como, where we were given a prime parking spot in front of the hotel. As we sat in the pools and spa and enjoyed the hotel, the stresses of the day soon began to dissipate away. 

(Unfortunately, I am sad to tell you that Car umber 1, the 1923 Buick, did not make it out of Neuchatel and has had to pull out of the Rally. But worry not, its drivers - Mark (from London) and Ronny (from Milan) will be continuing the rally for the time being in a replacement (modern) car.)

After a quick dip in the spa this morning, we were soon on our way for Thursday's journey from Tremezzo. Yan and I drive alternate days and it was my turn today. The weather however wasn't so great, so as we drove up and down through the windy mountain passes, I had the rain to contend with as well - especially challenging when the windscreen wipers are hand-operated. Once again it was a great route today through northern Italy, and we made it to Bolzano in good time.

As promised, I'll now turn to some of the questions raised on the blog...

'Binyamin from Israel' - you raise a fair point about how we are transporting all our possessions. The car has some luggage room so we're each bringing quite a bit along with us in the car - admittedly, it's a bit of a schlep as we have to empty the car each night. What we weren't able to fit in to the car, we are having sent with some others.

'Louis the scooterer from Netanya' - thank you for all your words of encouragement! You seem concerned we keep a careful record of our experiences - don't worry, in addition to what you see on the blog, we're taking lots of pictures and I'm keeping my own diary. We love to hear from you, so keep reading.

So that's it for this week - we have completed 5 out of the 18 days of the rally and we and the car are  in good shape.  Tomorrow (Friday) we drive to Venice for Shabbat - for anyone who has been there for Shabbat, knows that this promises to be something special. You'll be hearing next from us at the beginning of next week.

Shabbat Shalom,

Aly