Witches of the Mulinetto

I didn't realize I hadn't taken a single picture on August 6th, so I'll write about that day here...

Saturday, 6 August 2011

As I mentioned on the previous blip, our train had a three hour delay due to very sad circumstances: someone had decided to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train. Not our train, but it happened on the same track as our train was on. So we had to wait for three hours at Eindhoven station. The train didn't stop at a platform, so we couldn't get out either. When we were on our way again it soon was time to turn the seats into beds so the girls could get some sleep. This actually worked surprisingly well and Martine and I also managed to get some good sleep.

When I woke up at around six 'o clock in the morning the train had stopped. We were in Switzerland and I think a new engine was placed in front of the train to take us into Italy. We drove on like crazy, in an apparent attempt to make up for some of the lost time in Eindhoven. Our destination Livorno was reached with a delay of just an hour and a half. Not bad given the three hour delay in Eindhoven. Another hour later our car was off the train and we were ready to drive to Torre where Molly's husband Mark was waiting for us.

As we left the station, our view to the left was blocked by a police car. We had to pull up a bit further to see the traffic approaching from that direction. As we did this, a man on a scooter came from the left. We immediately stopped but the man obviously got quite a scare and he hit the brakes really hard. He fell about 10 meters away from our car and continued sliding on the road for about four meters. I jumped out of the car to help him and when he was safely on the sidewalk I also got his scooter and helmet off the road.

The policeman, who had been inside the small police station during the incident, came outside and started to treat the incident like the scooter driver had crashed into our car and the whole incident was our fault. I tried explaining that even though he might have been scared because of our car, we had done nothing wrong. "That's your version", he said. The scooter driver was still shaking but appeared to be all right. An ambulance was called nonetheless and took the scooter driver off as if his life was hanging by a thread. He didn't give his version of the incident. Martine and I were flabbergasted: what the heck was happening?

Then a man approached and in perfect English he said he had seen the whole incident from his apartment window. He couldn't believe how we were treated and he was going inside the police station to give his version of the incident. After that, Martine, who had been driving the car, also gave her version. Since our version and the version of the witness appeared to be matching, we were told that the rest would be handled by the insurance companies involved. We were allowed to continue our trip. The scooter driver might try to "get something out of this" was the last thing we were told...

The rest of the trip went without any trouble. We called Mark when we were in Lucca. Thanks to the combined effort of our satnav system and Mark's directions we were able to find the Mulinetto without any trouble. Mark showed us around and then took us to the supermarket so we could do some groceries. A nice dinner marked the end of a very eventful day?

Sunday, 7 August 2011

After we woke up, the girls started exploring the Mulinetto. They soon found some brooms in different sizes and they transformed into the Witches of the Mulinetto, inspired by the movie "Foeksia de Miniheks" (Little Witch Fuchsia). The photo shows the three witches who have just arrived at a scene where something terrible has happened. It's so great watching the girls play together like that.

Because of yesterday's incident and the remark that the scooter driver might try to "get something out of this" and "the insurance companies would handle this", I felt I needed to contact the insurance company. To complicate things: our car is a lease car. It is owned by the lease company and the insurance is taken care of by the company I work for. This means that beside me, there are three other parties involved: my employer, the lease company and the insurance company. To inform all of them, I wrote a document that included a sketch of the situation and the contact details of both the scooter driver and the witness. As we have no internet connection at the Mulinetto, I called Mark and he kindly drove me to his home where I could use his internet connection to send off the document.

Of course I also called my dad as it was his birthday too. Happy birthday dad!