Thursday - Day 3

Nice day today though of two halves. A good breakfast got us on the road by 8:30 and heading for Como, through the Mont Blanc tunnel - amazing!

Margot (the SatNav - thanks Sally) got her knickers in a twist and took us to Genoa!! silly ***, a big busy port and further south than we ideally wanted to be.

So we re-programmed her for Venice and thought we'd stop when we'd had enough. She took us the pretty route!! all over the mountains and through more tunnels than I could believe there were! and we ended up in Piacenza (322 miles) near Cremona, so we'll be in Venice for lunch tomorrow.

Didn't find anywhere great to eat here, ended up in a cafeteria/bar where the very nice owner rustled us up a risotto out of left overs followed by cake and ice cream and coffee, it was very good considering.

There's a party in the hotel tonight - 'Alice in Wonderland' theme - we've been invited!! - perhaps we'll give it a miss! door mice should be in bed!!

night, night!

Day two - Wednesday

We left Reimes about 9:30am and the new Garmin took us out of town the right way. Mile apon mile of frankly boring French countryside, a bigger scale but much like the Thames Valley!! roads are nice though! As we went south it got lighter, and warmer, it was a very misty morning. Suddenly chalets & hills appeared, the countyside turned more 'Swiss!' - I'm sure I heard a yodle! - the poor old Toyota only just made it on some of the hills!

By Annacy (south of Geneva) 321 miles, we were ready to rest and found (or Garmin did) a nice hotel - haven't decided on a name for the Garmin yet - the old one was 'Stella' and the one in the Jag had to be 'Fiona'. Any suggestions gratefully received, she's very efficient and minimalist and sounds every consonant. What shall we call her??

Tomorrow the plan is Lake Como for lunch (227m) stop over there, then Venice on Friday (200m) in time to pop into the ferry terminal to get the tickets for Saturday's departure.

Now - I'm hungry!!

Day One!

We got away at 9:00 and found a trouble free M25 so got to the Tunnel by 11:30 this got us on the 11:50 train (not the 12:50 we'd booked) and in Calais by 12:30, brilliant sevice, even when we were checked for explosives!! - a wand passed over the steering wheel.

We picked up the first toll road - all of which were empty compaired to the M25, outside Calais - all the way to just before Reimes (20 euros). We stopped on-route for brunch, Zannie had piailla, mussells, prawns the lot - just like on a UK motorway stop!!! I settled for ratatouille and rice - great coffee!

Total 302 (900) miles.

Reimes (the Champagne capital) is lovely, the Cathedral is EMORMOUS, especially at night with the flood lights. Had a great meal, both had a Salade Fermière, a glass of Champagne (and a Pepsi!) and the best Pannacota yet! Hotel is nice with WiFi, except it was off line till this morning.

Right! better get up - long day ahead - aiming for Como!!

(spellchecker is in French so bear with me!!!)

Oh sugar! - this is for real!

A week to go and this great adventure is becoming scarily real - oh sugar!!! there's so much we want to take, we'll need a trailer! - we'll be renting unfurnished so will need everything! - bar a bed, table & chairs and white goods!

Everything (almost) is booked, channel tunnel, overnight just outside Venice, ferry to Patras and a stopover, as I didn't want to run around a strange town looking for a B&B that late. The ferry from Piraeus to Souda is booked too.

The ferry booking was interesting, I did both ferries with the same company - ANEK Lines, I tried to get open returns but they didn't go beyond November for the return leg - so I did singles. Each time I loaded '1 car plus 2 seniors in an outside 2 berth cabin', it came up with a different price!! it started at £800 dropped 20% when I did it in Euros and eventually settled on 454 Euros - £380? - we may end up being towed across on a banana boat! or we might enjoy a 2 day cruise down the Adriatic followed by a peaceful night crossing to crete.

Watch this space!!

Gap Year for Old Farts!

Right! that's it, we're off! it might be a year late but who cares.

We leave on the 28th Sept and drive, via an over-night in Reims and Como, to Venice, then ferry to Patras, drive on to Piraeus and another ferry to Chania (Crete), arriving 5th October. We'll stay with friends - you know who you are you lovely people!! - while we find a rental for the winter - or maybe the year if the deal is good. We'll post some pics as soon as we are settled.

When - don't hold your breath! - we get a letter from the hospital with a date for my next op., we'll fly back and, as soon as I'm well enough, return.

We've taken the house off the market and will leave it till the spring when the market may have refreshed. At least I've sold the Jag, it wouldn't have survived the Cretan roads! - we're going in the Carina, L reg and still going strong!

Now, where did I put that ruck-sack?

September anniversary

I don't believe it! - it's a year ago I started this bloody blog and we're still not clear yet!!! they say it will be October (which means November!) before they can get me in for the reversal and I need to see the specialist again in December for my first annual checkup.

So bugger it! we're off to Crete at the end of the month and not coming back till the opp is scheduled! - this will become Cretan Blog!

We will drive down so we can take more stuff, and have the car there, then fly home Nov/Dec and back and drive home in March, unless I can swap the car for a Greek reg one, we'll see. At least I've sold the Jag at last!! how long did that take!