You wait for a post and three come along (almost) at once...

OK, dont get used to the consitensy of these updates. I am doing this one now because I have taken a shed load of photos because we have been up to quite a bit, the internet access is good and thought I may as well type it fresh. No one likes stale news do they!?

So, for the eagle eyed of you, in Lake Maggiore we did a lot of washing that was long over due. Even though we're away we (or me!) still have to do the chores! Had a couple of days just lazing as that was the plan for these lake stops. Ideal place for it really too. We had initially planned to stay here for 3 nights then head to a site in Milan to go there. However we were told by our Belgian neighbours (I hope that you are about to read my kind words about you!) who were very lovely indeed that we could get the train into Milan which is about an hour away and only cost us EUR 9 return. This saved us having to pack up and drive around trying to find this site, and as we were at a lovely location it just made sense to stay. So stayed we did.

We went into Milan by train (after using some of our freshly learnt Italian for "can we have two return tickets to Milan please) and had a half hour stroll to the centre. We went through the castle bit...



You may notice that I have made the pictures slightly larger too...i'm kind to you aren't I!



We then had our lunch in the gardens at the back of this which apparently is where the junkies and winos hang out! We then also headed to the Cathedral which is the largest in the World apparently (or Largest Gothic - I dunno) but didn't actually goi in here as you couldnt go in if you we're wearing shorts or showuing a bit of cleavage! Crazy business. We werent too fussed really anyhow. Here it is from the outside tho...



We walked around the shopping area as obvioulsy Milan is all about the fashion. Found a shop very suitably named...



All in all we didnt do a great deal more in Milan as the shops rule of the things to do around here really. It was a nce place but I thought it was going to be up there with the Londons, the Amsterdams, the Paris's and the Barcelona's but it just wasn't.

Our very lovely Belgian neighbours told us of a trip that they were doing whereby you get a train into Switzerland through the mountains and then get the boat back all the way down the lake. We thought that we wanted a bit of that pie so decided to do that the next day. It was an early start again (I thought we could put the alarm clock to rest for 5 months!) as we biked to the place where the train journey began whihc was 6 miles away. The train stopped at varios places where you could get off and back on but as we were talking on the train the conductor said "did you want Santa Marie Maggiore?" we said "yes" he said "you just missed it!" woops. We got off at another stop called "Re" which i think is too short a name for a place, had a look around there (there wasnt much going on!) and got on the train to go back to where we should have got off at. Here is a picture of Re anyway. The church in the background we went to go into and when the big door creaked open everyone was in a service of somekind so we creaked it shut and got the hell (probably not the best phrase!) ourt of there.



Our stop Santa Maria Maggiore was a very pleasant little picturesque place where it appeared that each building was a differnet pastel colour. I dont think that we missed outon anything tho with our little bit of train stop mix up. Here is the place in discussion...



Here is the train stop there too. The mountains were very big around here and it was a lovely train ride going through them.



Heres a picture that was taken out of the window on the train. Not the easiest thing taking pictures on moving trains...



So next up we were enterring Switzerland (our 7th country, this one we havent even driven in!) and it wasnt until we were buying our tickets that we realsied our passpoorts were at home so we were keeping our fingers crossed no one would check. Infact since leaving the ferry on the 15th May we havent shown our passports to any customs! Switzerland is a very lovely looking country from what we saw. It is somewhere I would definately love to come back to. I dont think that the van would be impressed if we took it there tho! When we got to our destination on the train we were looking about thinking "bloody hell, they say its expensive but I didnt realise it was THIS expesive" oh, they dont have the Euro as their currency do they...doh! Bought some fresh bread and brie for the boat trip to go with our thermos of cold wine (classy!) and boy did we get some jealous French people drooling over us with jealousy! We did have a coffee and a cake in Switzerland also, that was nice.

The boat trip was just over four hours as it went from the very top to the very bottom of the lake stoppingoff at other places. The whole journey was just amazing scenery. Here's a few of many we took...











Here's the Brie, Bread and Wine...



It was a long old day and when we got to the site it was a big Italian party! The site owner said that Italians venture down for the weekend and it was pretty crazy stuff. We thought if you cant beat em, join em, so got the wine in and ordered some pizza's. We ended up drinking with our Belgian neighbours (who I have only now realised we never asked your names...!) and had a great evening drinking , eating and chatting.

The next day we had a relaxed pack up from our 5 nights here and had Lake Como to head to. The plan was 2 days here then 2 days in Lake Garda. The site we wanted to go to was full in Garda (they e-mailed us) and as where we currently are is beautiful with lots to do we decided to skip Garda and stay here for 4 nights.

This is where we are...



Just the other side of the van is this view...



And it is just as, if not more amazing at night...



I think I could happily live here!

So, when at lakes what better to do than sit by them and swim and do sod all. So we did. However, to make up for this we have probably had the most calorie burning day yet!

We thought, "it'd be nice to go for a bit of a walk in the mountains wouldnt it?" so, one thousand two hundred and ninety one metres later we were standing at the top of Mount D'Erna. This was after a 7 mile bike ride to begin our walk. I have never sweated so much ever. These places came in very handy...



Becky liked me doing this because it reminded her of Maggie (a dog - great I remind her of a dog!) You can see my very military short hair cut also. I put the clippers on a lot shorter number than intended!

The place where we biked to initially was a place called Lecco, which is here (you can also see it from the photos of the views at the top of the village you can see)...





So, this is the bottom of the mountain...



These are pics of the way up and the views at the top...

















In the one above, you can see the car park in the bottom right corner where we started the main walk from, our bikes were still about a half hour or so from here!

It was properly like rock climbing in some parts and in other parts it had big loose rocks that werent the easiest of things to walk on. We could have got the cable car up to the top but thought that it will feel like a much better self satisfaction if we walked it. It was properly amazing at the top and having never really been anywher like this before I was really chuffed to have done it. It was a bit scary towards the end as we werent sure when it was going to end, both being pretty exhausted and noting that it was getting later and later and not knowing when the cable car would stop running to get us to the bottom but all was well when we got there.

We did get the cable car down, Becky and Cable cars dont really mix...





And then at the bottom we had a well earnt ice cream, a Smarties Cornetto infact.



This was not the end tho. We probably had a good half hour walk until we reached our bikes then we had our 7 mile bike ride back home. On the bike ride here we had to go through a tunnel thing for a few hundred metres and also had to on the way back. However on the way back we took the wrong tunnel which was infact 1km long pretty much pitch black and was the beggining of a motorway! I think we realised this from all of the ma-hoosive lorries horning at us and just avoiding us. It was very far from a pleasant bike ride back. I got the tom tom out and it said we had another 25 miles until a junction and we couldnt head back. A bit of panic rushed thruogh us i think you could say. We hid behind the barrier and I walked back a bit to where I thought I saw a fence we could climb under and throw the bikes over. If that place was not there, then god knows what we would have done, but fortunatly we managed to get out of there and away fro literally everysingle car that was beeping at us telling us what i imagine was italian for "get off the motorway you stupid english morons!"

So getting back was a big relief and we were pretty much physically and mentally exhausted. What would we do, why drink to celebate I suppose! So thats what we did...



We have both been feeling a little delicate today so just been recoverring from yesterday.

The hike up the mountain was absolutley awesome tho, and one of the best things we have done since being away (whether Becky thinks that I am not too sure!)

I did also spy a cat last night that I think makes Bubbles look like a bit of a slim jim...



He looked like Garfield, and I think that he has eaten one too many lasagnes!

Right, thats it totally up to date so probably will be some time till this is updated again.

Next stops are Pisa, Florence, Sienna so thats what you have to look forward to.

X

As promised...

Here is the rest...

Avignon was really cool and I enjoyed it lots. The whole biking into the places is woreking really well too. The only bad thing is the 30 odd degree heat which when biking makes it a bit sweaty betty. I am not complaining tho, tis marvelous weather the sun.

We have been doing a lot of driving and stopping off at places for rests and also to check out some of the cool places that we pass. Infact some of the best places that we hacve seen have been on the drives rather than when we have specifically visted them. The en route stop this time was a place called Gordes. I think that it is described as a medieval hilltop village. Pretty similar-ish to the Minerve place we went to but still totally different. Heres the view from the top...



and heres a picture of it from the bottom...



We parked the van pretty much at the bottom and walked up the proper steep roads to get there. I think at this time the accelerator cable was sticking on the van so revving at full revs when you change gear and the fact they were nearly 45 degree hills I dont think we would have made it. Some times you just have to resort to good old man (and woman - im not getting cought out being sexist) power.

Our destination from this stop off was a place called Cassis. We had to go almost past Marseille to get there so initially decided to go through it and stop off. As soon as we got in the centre of Marseille and seeing the "not so plesent" parts of it we thought if we leave the van parked up we arent going to find it so decided we could bike in or something if we wanted to go there. I wanted to but Becky wasnt bothered. Well see who talked who round when you keep on reading!!! So this was part of our scenery when we were driving from Marseille to Cassis...





An example of what I mean when I talk about the great drives and that. This also would be the way we would bike into Marseille if we did. Checked into the site and as this was the weekend of the Bastide festival for the French it soon got packed out, so we were pretty chuffed we got in and didnt have to find somewhere else.

Cassis itself was about a 20 minute walk away and we did this most evenings for something to do and as it was pretty nice in the evening. It was down a massive hill on the way in and up the massive hill on the way home so tired us out ready for bed too!

There wasnt much in Cassis itself; it is a coastal town with a port and loads of restaurants, but had loads of people on their holidays and a relaxed feel about it. Here it is...





One of the main reasons we were here was because between MArseille and Cassis the strect of coast is called the Calanques which is massive limestone cliffs with loads of tiny beaches all cut into the cliffs which is supposed to be amazing. It pretty much darn was amazing. You could walk along them most of the way I imagine and then find all of these tiny beaches whihc were really natural and unspoilt. Heres a picture of the views that we had whilst we were on our walk along the Calanques...









Whilst we were wallking, and at this moment I will add that the paths werent eay walking work especially in flip flops, it was very much this terrain...



Yeah, whilst we were walking we saw a group of naturists. Obvioulsy thought that this would be ideal blog material so took a picture. Im afraid you cant see much of the "you know whats"...



Here was the beach that we found and spent a bit of time at...



So, we went into Marseille in the end (Paul wins...he always does!!!) but by Bus as the ride would have been a bit much even for the Tour De France riders. I think Becky was thinking this will be rubbish whereas I held out some hopes for the place.

Heres some boats at the big port there...



We spent our time walking about. It took ages to get from one side of the port to the other, heres the other side actually...



A lot of the buildings and stuff that was in the "what to do in Marseille" panflet was pretty dissapointing. There was building work going on everywhere and like Arles dog poo everywhere. this time there was also broken glass, piss and rubbish so all in all not the nicest place. We did go into a Cathedral tho...



I took this photo pperfectly as the man wearing the FBI t-shirt walked past. FBI you may think, guess what, yes, he was a Female Body Inspector....! You can just about make it out. Legend.

We had timne to kill before the bus came and as we did lots of walking we deserved some wine, so thats what we did. In the evening there wsa a big fairground thing in Cassis (it was pretty tacky) but one stall sold these churro things which are kind of like long sticks of donut substance., We had 12 for about EUR 3.50 and had some nutella also...we felt very sick...then we had to walk up the steep hill...!

We left on the Monday which was their Bank Holiday Monday from the Bastide Festival and left bloody early. Got to our next stop at a place near Frejus. This was because we were going to go to St Tropez, but after reading things like "busy roads" "expensive" "like a party your not welcome too" "dirty beaches" we thought, nah not really much point is there. We could have got a boat there if we wanted too but didnt in the end. In Frejus we did check uot there Ampitheatre. It was built around the same time as the one in Orange, but totally different. When we got there it was a total "oh, is this it" feeling. Here is Becky at one end of it...



Although it didnt look as impressive, it was still really cool. There has been no renovation since it was built (as you can tell) but this made it 1. so much better to appreciate the one in Orange and 2. easier to imagine all the shows and stuff that went on here.

This was a shorter stop than planned and we headed for Cannes. We got to Cannes and literally just about missed driving slap bang square into an old dorris who crossed the zebra crossin on a red light...I called her soething I shouldnt have but she deserved it...silly Dorris. We walked into Cannes, and went through a massive graveyard, a bit random.

Saw this pretty coach in the car park, made me laugh a bit...



I said to Becky that we needent have bothered driving here, we should have spoken to the guys at Crusader Holidays and would have been sorted.

So, Cannes, was pretty much Money Money Money really. Expensive hotels, expensive food, expensive drink, expensive shops, expensive cars blah blah blah. Heres some of them for you...







I liked this number plate muchly....



Here is the beach at Cannes...



We did check out the place where they hold the Cannes Film Festival then got the bus back to the site for some swimming to cool down a bit.

We went in again the next day and climbed up the old part of the town that looks over Cannes. We are pretty dark in this picture but there are rarely pics with both of us in so thought I would stick it on here.



Here is as I like to call it "Becky Bill"...



From here it wsa to one site and the only site near the area of Nice and Monaco. I cant believe that in an area so popular as these there are no other choices. I think this is what annoyed me the most that this site we stayed at charged us a bleeding fortune and we were sleeping in their car park!!! The thing that took the edge off was the view, it was beautiful...at both day and night...





It reminded me of the bit in the film Hook when they are flying towards it! That was neither Nice nor Monaco tho that part but halfway between the two.

That day we got there we went into Nice first. It was very nice (no pun intended) When you were in the part of Nice with all alleyways it felt like you were no where near the sea, it was quite a strange feeling. A really lovely place. Here is Becky by the beach...



We got the bus to and from Nice becuase of the distance and also the fact we were so high up. The bike ride in would have been fine, but comeing back would have taken us ages. We also grabbed some wine in Nice again. Its a bloody hard life.

At the site we met some Geordies who were on their honeymoon so it was nice to have some people that we could chat to and have a drink with. They were away for 4 weeks and had come from Switzerland and Italy so we could find out nice places that they have come from. At one point th Geordie chap, Shaun said "I doooont like" and I was hoping it would be "Olives" but it wasnt. Never mind. I sniggered to myself.

Another day and this time we went to Monaco. This place was THE place for Money. I think before I was slighly dissapointed with the other stops on the South of France. I thought it would all be lots more glitz and that, but when you got into Monaco (which I didnt realise is a seperate country- well province, but Im calling it a seperate country so Country number 5 for us) it was in another league, the premier league. I think on this day near enough all of the pictures that I took were of cars that I could only dream of having. Get ready for the car pictures...









Just think how small their winkies must be to drive something like them!!!

There was always four cars driving ruond the circuit in which you could pay money to either be a passenger or drive them. The next day I did it, not in a Ferrari, oh no, in an Orange and White 1975 VW Camper Van...lap record i think not!

With the port, it was the same old story, big amzingly beautiful boats...





We did walk around the circuit that day and had lunch in the gardens behind the casino which were lovely. We sat next to an American couple who just whined and whined and whined all through lunch because he got told off by the security or something. It was very entertaining "This place just isnt for us, we are middle class, this is first class" he kept saying. MORON!!!

Here is one of the expensive hotels in the background...



This was ourt view from where we had to change busses.



The coast line is just so amazing around this part.

This was where we then left France, and we were both ready to leave and looking forward to Italy, going to Monaco at the end really made it a grand finale we think! Oh yeah, when I say that I drove around the lap in the van, we didnt actually make it because a police officer wouldnt allow camper vans to go round near the casino. Stupid rules, he did have a gun tho so I drove off. We picked up the course and went through the tunnel but i think I got a bit lost too. I think Lewis Hamilton doesnt need to be worrying about me beating him.

As we were on our drive we were saying how we wanted to see the Tour De France and now we were leaving we woulfdnt be able to, oh well. you cant see it all. Then as if by magic...the road was blocked, why??? Only because of the Tour De France. Were seeing some of this we thought, so out we jumped and 2 hours later saw some people on bikes go past. This was after the big street procession that they held with all the sponsorships driving past, such as this...





Here are some of the bikers...



With their concierge...



I am really glad we got to see it because chance are we will never see it again. It was one hell of a wait and they were gonebefore you knew it, but the amount of sponsorship that follows them and the rest of the people out cheering them on was pretty amazing.

County number 6. Italia. Italy. The old boot. Here we are now, and im nearly finshed with this leg of the postage. Our first place to see was Turino.We were only a couple of miles away so biked in and checked out the place. Yep, its that time again...



We went tot eh tourist office and got a leafket thing with loads of reccomended walks on it to see some of the different parts of the city so thats what we spent most of the day doing. We came across an old 14th Century (i think) medieval village.



We also walked through the main park, the shopping districts, the nightlife parts etc. The general place was pretty massive and being our first place in Italy it was a really cool place. I saw a couple of chaps in the tourist office that had "Glasgow to Turin by Bike" on their t shirts so made our Lands End to John O Groats look like a bike in the park. There are loads and loads of squares in the city as such...



And a lot of the shops and restaurants are under the canopy parts that are on each side of the square if this makes sence. It has some loavely archetecture. After buying some wine (again) to rest our feet (for which I bought some new trainers in the Nike shop sale) we found a restaurant where we would treat ourselves to a meal out. Italian food is what we have both been looking forward to and couldnt really wait much longer. We also bought a phrase book in the city as we have decided that in 6 weeks we should be able to learn a bit of Italian so used some of this at the restaurant. Ex "Scuzi, Coltelah e Forketah" thats "Excuse me, knives and forks" they forgot our cutlery. Worked like a dream. Moma Mia! becky got drunk and made herself look like an Italian Flag.



Something that we wanted to do was go to their Egyptian Museum but it was shut on the day that we got there so we decided to get up early and go before we left. It was pretty cool. Lots of great statues and Mummies and other bits and bobs.





We are almost up to current day now. The stop before where we are now was at Lake Maggiore. This is where we were camped.



Spitting distance from the lake. No that we did spit into the lake.

I shall leave what we got upto there for the next post. We were there for 5 nights and have been at Lake Como for 1 night so this is now as i type only 6 days out of date.

Hope that everyone is enjoying this, please feel free to leave any comments or email us as it is always nice to hear from you (whoever you are).

Again, as usual, apologies for general spelling, grammar and poor use of the English language.

Ciao.

X