Hotel Panic!

Just when you think you have everything sorted and can relax for the next few months, something crops up that has you running around like a headless chicken, at least for a few minutes!

I was going through the usual early evening email check, when I opened one from my hotel in Peschiera del Garda.

"I`m writing about your booking, because during your stay the hotel will be closed for rinnovation, so I would like that your booking will be cancelled."

Are they sure? Renovating the hotel at the height of the holiday season? Smells a bit di pesce to me!

Panic ensues, as this is a very popular part of the world and we are looking to stay on 12th July, slap bang in the middle of the holiday season. Why else did I book these hotels way back in July last year? 

So, I jumped onto my favoured hotel booking provider and did a quick search for availability on 12th July. Surprisingly there were quite a few returns but I am a bit fussy. Not only do I want to be near to the town/lake, I also want a reasonable price BUT, most importantly, I want private on site parking for the bikes. The first couple I looked at, either only had double beds (NO!) or public parking, somewhere away from the hotel (defo NO!), so back to the search/map.

It wasn't long before I found what I was looking for. Within about 400m of the water, twin/triple bedded rooms, free on site parking and at a reasonable nightly rate. Sold!  In addition, it is just 140m along the same road as the one asking me to cancel, so if they aren't telling the truth, I'll be able to see straight away. I suppose I should be grateful they warned me though. When we booked in Wexford on the Reservoir Hogs Tour, that hotel shut down and nobody bothered to tell me. If it hadn't been for Grizzly's family spotting it, we would have turned up and had nowhere to stay.

Anyway, panic over. I have a bit of updating on the blog now but, I don't mind that too much.

Hotel Garden, Peschiera del Garda

And RELAX..............

Hands across the water and all that!

Over the last few days I have been trying to drum up some support for my blog. I'm forever banging on about signing up to receive email updates, which a few have done. It's so much easier, to view on the go, than opening the website.

Anyway, I've also posted the link to the blog to my Route 66 and Triumph Owners groups on Facebook, looking to drum up some followers from there. And it is Facebook that has prompted this update.

Earlier I was scanning posts when by chance, I caught sight of one from a guy on the Triumph Owners group, who posted a route map for a trip he is doing to the Alps and the Stelvio Pass in Northern Italy. His '11 weeks to go' caught my eye, so I posted the blog address and a message saying that I'm off in 13 weeks. There was a comment from an Italian guy suggesting the chap should visit Lake Garda. Now following the post trail, I made it known that I was going to be visiting Lake Garda, specifically Peschiera del Garda, on our tour. Now Lake Garda is pretty large so I wasn't really expecting much to come of that but blow me if the Italian chap doesn't live just 5km from where we shall be staying. He even sent me a route map to show me.

So, after a few messages backwards and forwards between us, we have arranged to meet up on the evening we are in town, 12th July, for a few beers and to exchange biking stories, no doubt AND I now have a new friend on Facebook, Lorenzo.

Lorenzo's Route from home to Peschiera

 

Oh how they must love me!

Hotels I'm talking about.

It's now almost a month since we laid Dudley to rest and probably only now has it sunk in. Besides the obvious upset that comes with losing a friend in such a way, there is the upset to the planning, in which I have been so meticulous, specifically, the hotel bookings.

I have had to revisit the bookings made last summer and scale down our requirements, cancelling rooms as appropriate. This hasn't been helped by the uncertainty that surrounds Biggsy's attendance on the tour. In some cases, it has been fairly straightforward, for example, where I had two triple rooms or four singles booked. With doubles I'm having to play a waiting game.

In one of the places I have booked in France, a farmhouse run by an English couple, they were letting us have a family annexe. The owner, Tina, is the only 'person' I have been in contact with when doing any booking, all the others having been done through Booking.com or individual hotel chain direct booking websites. I explained to Tina the situation we now find ourselves in and that we are still unsure if we will be a 2 or 3. Bless her, she has come back and said we can still have the family annexe, at a reduced cost and we can have either 2 or 3 beds, depending on our final requirement, with the cost adjusted to the number of beds. I'm so pleased, as the place looks beautiful, a real home from home and I wasn't looking forward to cancelling for a night in a Formula 1!, though I did make a contingency booking just in case. You'll find the B&B, Les Cheres Meres, at Day 15, down the page.

In Pisa, I have downsized our caravan! Yes, I said caravan or if you prefer, mobile home, though I expect they are all static. I had us down for a two bedroomed mobi on a campsite (check out Day 9 on the list) just on the outskirts of town. Hedging my bets, I have booked a twin bed caravan and a triple bedded one too, much to the consternation of a young lady at the site, who questioned if that was correct and my sanity probably.

Biggsy's attendance depends on him selling his house. When we saw him at the funeral, it still wasn't on the market but I believe Tetbury is quite a sought after area, so he may get lucky and sell it quickly. I'm meeting him for the Ride of Respect on 1st June, so that will be the cut-off point I think.

94 days to go!