Some interesting travel stories:
When we arrived in Milano, we were
upgraded to a Mercedes C class diesel with only 12 miles on it. I couldn’t have been happier. However, the car is 10 years newer than
mine and the controls are all in Italian and no owner’s manual. As I pulled out of the garage and
stopped at a crosswalk for pedestrians, it stalled. This happened again several times at lights. I noted an “ECO” button and indicator
on the speedometer. I turned it
off and it stopped stalling. Four
days later we had a guide with a Mercedes and I asked. He did not have one but suggested that
when you stop the engine goes off and when you put your foot on the gas it
starts. Sure enough, it actually
starts when you take your foot off the break. Who knew???? I
still have a steaming coffee cup icon on the display that I can’t translate. We are getting 38 mpg on diesel from
1.45 to 1.74 euro/liter (about $7.90 per gallon). By the way it takes a lot of conversion because the displays
are in liters/100 kilometers.
Driving into Parma on a Sunday, we
ran into a street fair that blocked a major street for about a mile. We spent 30 min trying to get around it
with no success so we backtracked and came into town from the opposite side (we
were staying on the duomo piazza, dead center). Well, we got hopelessly lost in the narrow one-way streets
of the old town even with GPS. When
we passed a carabineri for the third time we asked directions. With the language barrier and streets,
we ended up with a military escort to the hotel. Everyone laughed including the solders.
No comments:
Post a Comment