Sunday
- Sheryl and I fly from Bournemouth to Girona Airport, some 100km’s out of Barcelona, before catching the hour and a bit long coach journey into the city.
- We drop our bags at a pre-booked youth hostel close to Plaza Catalunya and head downtown to catch the end of Dunc’s set at a gig called The Sunday Joint (at the Las Guindas bar)
- The four of us grab a bite and a beer (or sangria for Sheryl) and call it a night.
Monday
- We get our first taste of cruisin’ in the Peugeot (Rugby World Cup edition! No kidding – the head rests are shaped as rugby balls) as we head out of the Catalonian capital and up the coast towards France.
- We stop for kebabs in a suspiciously looking touristy town by the sea somewhere in the La Costa Brava area. Dunc buys new Catalonian themed jandals (aka ‘flip flops’ to some).
- By the late afternoon we make it Cadaques – a small coastal town tucked away off the main highway, recommended to Dunc by some of his Spanish friends. It’s a gem of a little town. A pack of dogs disturbingly try and mate on the beach as we knock back some drinks before hitting the road again.
- It’s the evening now and the realisation sunk in hours ago we were nowhere near getting to Marseille or even Montpellier. So Perpignan will have to do for the night. We look for a one star hotel, preferably with neon lights that flash and make a buzzing noise. We find one on a main street running through the town.
- It’s real one star quality. The TV is a tiny wee portable, the shower has no shower curtain and the double bed Sheryl and I slept in had a cigarette burn in the duvet. Bienvenue a Road Trippin’ Budget Style!
- Time’s pressing on and everywhere seems to be closed. We find a little restaurant to eat in but struggle to decipher the menu with everything written as names of dishes not what the food literally was. Forgetting to bring the phrasebook is a foolish move!
Tuesday
- Showers in the morning with no shower curtain is interesting. By the time I hop in the bathroom floor water is leaking into the bedroom!
- We leave Perpignan and head for destination unknown – Marseille or Nice. We’ll see how time goes.
- Before leaving town we swing by a supermarket and stock up on baguettes, cheese, cold meats, fruit, wine and ingredients for a home made Sangria! Dunc buys a three-pack of princess dresses (supposedly for his niece in Italy)
- We stick to the smaller roads off the main state highway/motorway, as the buggers charge tolls in between cities.
- We stop for lunch in a car park by a river and open up the back of the car boot and lunch is served via the portable kitchen! There’s heaps of doggie doo’s everywhere though (so French) and the flies become annoying so we pack up and drive down the road.
- This time we pull over just before a bridge down by a river and crack open the wine! In the distance we can see a French hooker on the side of the road is picked up by a bloke in a little white car. They head off down a country lane for quarter of an hour.
- We're driving through wine country (the Languedoc region) so it'd be rude not to swing by a local winery and pick up a bottle.
- I doze off to sleep in the back and when I wake up the three of them are trying to figure out where we are on the map. We realise we’ve actually headed 50km’s in the wrong direction to a town called Ales, instead of Arles!
- By the time we start to lose sunlight we are in Marseille and enjoying a drink in a bar over looking the harbour. We make a last minute decision to bolt it further up the coast and get to Nice for the night.
- We arrive in Nice around 9.30pm and the promenade/waterfront area looks amazing by night. Sheryl and I spent seven nights here last year so we navigate (via the scenic route…ok, so we didn’t know exactly how to get there!) our way to a
Wednesday
- We show Tim and Dunc around Nice – starting with the flower market and the old town, before heading up to castle hill for the spectacular views of the waterfront and harbour on the other side.
- We stop in Villefranche, an old Italian fishing village (based in France…figure that one out?), ten minutes along the coastline. We park our arses on the beach for twenty minutes or so before hitting the road again.
- After driving through Monaco we say ‘Au Revoir’ to France, and ‘Buongiorno’ to Italy.
- Genoa is the destination but by the time we get there it’s pretty late. We stop at a couple of budget hotels (even some ritzy two star ones) but there’s no accommodation anywhere. It turns out there’s a big boat show on in town and everywhere is booked up.
- We swing by the Genoa camp site but they’re fresh out of cabins, and we don’t have tents. Not that you’d want to pitch there anyway – they were based on top of an incredibly big hill and it was pretty windy. And that's before any of the boys have had one of those spicy Italian pepperoni pizzas!
- We carry on driving along the coast and eventually strike gold in a little town called Santa Margherita. We find a one star place run by the cutest little old Italian lady. It’s about 10.30pm and when she opens the window to see who’s there she’s in her nightee! While old and patched up in places, the hotel is clean and tidy and she gives us a discount too!
Thursday
- We’re up bright and early to bee line to Pisa. We drive through a series of little Italian towns and villages along the Ligurian coast. The views as we head up into the mountains are spectacular.
- We arrive in Pisa by about lunchtime. The tower is still leaning and everybody is pulling the same pose for the photos! There’s actually not a lot else to see here so we have a coffee and make our way east to Florence.
- It’s mid afternoon by the time we reach Firenze (Florence) and navigating our way through the one-way streets to the central train station (where Lonely Plant tells me there is plenty of cheaper accommodation) becomes near impossible! We eventually park up and find the thing by foot.
- We find the streets recommended in the travel guide and manage to find a place with a double room and a single. The lady at reception says she can put another single in which will make it cheaper for us. It’s even ensuite – perfect! Of course we weren’t to know that the ‘ensuite’ facilities was a free standing shower in the room with a glass door. Showers could be quite a show in the morning!
- Parking in the city is pretty much non-existent so we end up having to pay €15 and have the car taken away to a garage out of the city centre area, to be returned the next morning.
- In the mean time it seems a good time to whip together our home made Sangria. We flip open the car boot on the side of the road and Dunc get’s underway throwing the brew together. One empty 5L container, one bottle of Havana Club rum, one bottle of Martini Vermouth, one bottle of (cheap) wine and lots of fruit. Bingo – we have sangria! A police car drives by but to our amazement he doesn’t stop to question the several bottles of open liquor out the back of a car.
- In the evening we drink some sangria and eat at a local Italian ‘trattoria’ (small restaurant) called “Momma Toscana’s”. We wander through the busy streets at night and find a place to sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine.
- We return to our mosquito filled room but eradicate the pesky little things with rolled up newspaper, shoes and bidet cloths! Funnily enough there were already foot print marks on the ceiling from a previous tenant.
Friday
- Tim and Dunc depart for Viterbo (north of Rome) where Dunc’s sister lives. We stay in Florence as our flight home is on Saturday morning from Pisa.
- Sheryl and I spend the day exploring the sights and browsing through the markets. After wandering around trying to find somewhere to eat we discover one of the better looking and more affordable options is literally next door to our hotel! The food is good and so is the puds – panna cotta for me, Italian dessert wine and biscotti for Sheryl.
Saturday
- We’re up bright and early for our 6.30am train to Pisa and check in with plenty of time to spare for our 9.55am flight back to Bournemouth.
