Wet playtimes

During the weather we have been having recently, we have been slightly confined to the van. In fact, our adept skills in managing with each other in small space might be appropriate for the Mars mission planning team. Three whole days and a bit now have passed with pretty wet to severe weather passing  us. I must admit that Clare has been the better at motivating the troops during this 'blip' on the weather radar.

There has been lots of this:

....scrap book work. Here, Jasper is finishing off his drawings of pictures to do with D-day, so you will realise there is lots of catching up to be done. He selected all the shades of brown and green from the watercolours, which was lovely to see! 

There has been lots of this:

.....loads of games, new games, old games, board games, card games and yes.... A bit of mild gambling to keep the interest levels up. This is actually a game Clare used to play as a child called "Queenie" where you pay to play, or place a bet!!! 

Three has been some of this too: 

....hairdo practice for Clare on Maya, who has stopped suggesting Clare gets a plastic doll head to practise on now she is actually mastering French plaits! Getting rather good though I think. Jasper and I avoided any sort of 'barnet coiffurage' with me still rebelling and just letting it all go a bit 'Grizzley Adams' (if not sure who he is/was, he was a TV character I used to watch...google it). 

There has also been a bit of this: 

....which is evidence enough that some madness has happened. Maya took to wrestling the 'sausage rolled' Jasper. This was after den building in the front half of the van whilst Clare and I turned blind eyes to the havoc! And noise!

Therefore, despite the weather, and the increasing pervading dampness, and despite the increasing desire to get out, we have managed thus far to remain happy, sane and to have not done too much damage.

Ed

'The great San Remo shoe swap'

Ed...Welcome to Italy!

And what better way to start this part of the trip than with some absolutely mega storms. You can forget the Lisbon storms we suffered, last night was something else. Not much sleeping, huge lightening flashes, cacophonous thunder etc. for about 2 hours. Once we were all properly awake, the devastation on the site was quite something. Huge branches were down, debris was everywhere, leaves and bark had been ripped off trees, and then a realisation that 14 of our shoes were missing!!! The every day shoe that sits under the van. The shoes that lack style. The shoes that fashion forgot. All of our CROCS had gone! 

To be honest, Clare and the children disappeared before I'd woken properly and had come back with one of my trainers, which had been banished outside due to the terrible post sporting odour. This one was the easy one to find. It had barely travelled 1.5 metres. Then the fun began.

Clare ... As I looked out of the window to see what the morning weather was like, I saw people walking around looking under hedges and bushes. I thought they had lost their cat, which we seem to have adopted a bit. Actually a lot! Jasper has actually named it Jack. It's a lovely cat! I then saw one of Ed's trainers and one of Maya's pink CROCS on the nearby sink, so wondering what they were doing there, I went out to get them. Then I realised that my CROCS were missing. And Jasper's, and Ed's. In fact, as I looked again, one of Jasper's flip flops was nestled in a hedge. I realised that the site must have flooded a fair bit in the downpours and our footwear had floated away!!!

Half an hour passed as we joined other campers in looking for our shoes and other things that usually stay outside of the van, such as door mats, buckets, spades and Jasper's stick collection.

There was much confusion going on! We found the other of Jasper's flip flops in a hedge several metres away from our van (actually about 25m), and one of Maya's flip flops too. Then I saw my blue CROCS in someone else's box under their van. Not knowing how to say, "excuse me, I think you have have got my shoes", in Italian was starting to worry me, but then the lady opened the door and came out. She saw me with a small pair of blue CROCS, and then looked at the ones she had. Quite quickly she realised the mistake, and there was a Cinderella moment as we each put on our own shoe to prove that we had it sorted!!!

After showers we set about searching again, for a green CROC, one of Jasper's and the other of Maya's flip flops. In fact, for about an hour Jasper literally had two left feet, so had to hop about with the aid of his most useful stick!!!

Ed...

The rather amusing confused state continued on site. Oh for Esperanto! Sorts of half discussions were happening with German, Italian, Swiss campers and us, in a sort of general hotch potch of French, German, Italian and English, a language I'd like to call Freuitalischish. A veritable melting pot of Euro-footwear-language. The illusive green croc was found some 2 and a half hours after waking up. A kind German lady had found it some distance from where we were. In a sort of shoe exchange, Jasper had been enthusiastically searching amongst the hedges and cacti and had found a flip flop, returned to a very happy Italian, and a pair of Blue crocs, returned to a happy Swiss guy.

If the absence of footwear under the vehicle doesn't sway you to believe the severity of the weather that we have just had (and are still suffering from), then the playground which Jasper and Maya had earlier yesterday now looks like this. I don't think Jasper or Maya did it!

Ed.... Lessons learnt, I sit here writing this short shoe episode, with all footwear 'in' the van, regardless of its odour! 

Clare...I'm frantically looking for 'Odour Eater Spray' which I know I packed somewhere!!!

Enjoy your weather, wherever you are!!!

Wise words

Today we met a lovely couple who originally hail from Lancashire. David was such a warm and friendly chap, and on hearing all about what we were doing (he asked, honest!) he shared a quote from a friend of his with us:

"Fill your years with life, don't fill your life with years"

This really struck us as a great reminder of what we wish to achieve in our gap year. We haven't got an infinite amount of time, but we do have a purpose for what we are doing. 

Clare 

Monaco - a Motorsport enthusiasts point of view!

What a day! Sadly for the rest of the family, once the parking issue was resolved, I was like a pig in muck! The bus stopped on the pit straight....so a photo of the Tarmac was required.

I then started off to walk the 'lap' so everyone had to go with me! Fever pitch just grew and grew as we passed landmarks that we have seen for years on the TV. I lost all shame at the hairpin section for this particular photograph.

The exit of the tunnel section led me to photograph the ground where the kerbs go!

And finally, the ultimate thing. The bit I've longed to do for a long time. I did a lap. I was prepared before we set off, the running gear was on underneath the civvies. I broke the Monaco law and changed my T shirt in public on the main straight. I then set off. Here I am rounding the swimming pool section. I missed the apexes of the kerb so I think I might have lost some time on my lap!

2 miles later, and 14 minutes of traffic avoidance led me to a satisfactory conclusion of a fanatics day! Thank you to Clare, Jasper and Maya for putting up with me today.

Ed

Monaco - the real post

Much of today's success lends it's thanks to a bit of getting slightly lost, and then being helped by a very kind policeman. This is a long story, so sit down.

The preamble to our Monaco adventure is that everyone we met has said, "Don't take your van to Monaco". We listened, but were foolish enough to do our own thing as we have always naively done throughout this whole trip so far. 

A slightly nervous trip along the A8 past Nice at 9:30 am led us into the Monaco turning at around 10 am. Without an internet connection and with a poorly scaled map, we got lost. My plans and research were going well, but failed about 2 miles short of the intended destination. We stopped in a bus lay by. A moderately warm discussion ensued with Clare nav 2014, at which point an officer of the law approached at the window. At this point it is fair to say, the whole place was teeming with police types: we later found out that the 83rd Interpol convention was occurring in Monaco today! I digress though, the officer told us about our planned destination, the official Camping Car car park (which he said has only 6 places and is underground!!!), and suggested a better one, some 200m back up the road, with free parking, about 30m out of the Monaco parking jurisdiction. A safe haven for Hugo was thus found. 

We then made our way into town. A street lift, and then a fantastic bus ride took us to the pit straight, or as mortals will know it, the harbour area. The bus ride incidentally was quite mad. Zig zag zig zag, over itself, under itself, round and back through itself, the bus literally seemed to tie itself in knots whilst negotiating the tight confines of the principality. Thank goodness it wasn't a full sized bus!!! 

Once in the main crux of Monaco though, my F1 brain kicked into overdrive and I was off like a hound on a scent trying to find rather boringly, all the corners of the 'track.' The other Monaco blog post deals with the drivel of a F1 fan.

Out of the tunnel and back into the harbour, we decided to take another mode of transport. The electric bus boat took us quietly and serenely across the harbour, alongside the yachts of the seriously wealthy.

The views from the centre of the harbour were just quite amazing. You get the feeling that one day, someone is going to drill a hole in the rock to build the foundations for their dream palace, and then the whole lot will slip it's way into the sea. It really is quite a sight. We made our way to Prince Rainier's Musee Oceanagraphique to do the next tourist thing on our list, 'the little Monaco land train.'

Having done one of these trains before, we knew what it was going to be like. Slow! It was quite funny to be a fully fledged tourist on one of these land trains again, and even funnier to watch the wealthy cars stack up behind us as the train bimbled around the place.

 Following the thrill a minute ride, which did actually go over most of the F1 circuit, we walked back down to 'pit row' and the start/finish line which when not being used as the track, seems to be a huge semi-permanent fun fair. Jasper and Maya were keen to watch the bonkers fairground rides throwing everyone in every conceivable direction.

Sadly, time was ticking for us, and I had made an appointment with the track. I briefly broke the law, as naked chests are not permitted unless on the beach, as I changed top into a running shirt. I then set off to run the circuit. A real pleasure to do, and it's not really that far. I got blocked a couple of times at Ste Devote and the Casino, but apart from that had a lovely run! 

We then had to complete the return bus journey back to Hugo, who was still safely nestled into his parking spot and facing the right direction to depart. 

A superb day was topped off with the excitement of entering Italy at last. Maya and Jasper had counted a total of 22 tunnels that we passed through on the A8, then the A10 on the way from Cannes to San Remo. An indication of the amazing landscape we have engaged in today. A great day, enjoyed by all. Monaco, we will return one day!

A 'highlight' of our weekend

This post is sponsored by Stabilo highlighter pens!

All kitted up, we rode into Cannes today. The road was quite a leary ride in parts, so we were thoroughly justified in looking like a full set of highlighter pens. See photo...

The delight in being so vivid in such a cool and trendy place was quite mildly amusing to myself. After our 4.5 mile cycle to Cannes, we then strolled about like a page from a stationery magazine, then went to sit by the beach with an

ice cream before we set off back up the road to do another 4.5 miles. Again the urge to swim was quite intense, lots of people on the beaches, but we did that yesterday with swimming and snorkelling looking for fish. 

We aim for Monaco tomorrow, although everyone has advised against driving towards the principality in our Hugo! Watch this space to see what we decided what to do, as we haven't decided that ourselves yet.

Ed

Brian Potters' glass

Apologies for this reference. Only a few will get that! Brian Potter is a Peter Kay character who runs the Phoenix Club in Bolton, a working men's club that is doomed from the start. It is an ill fated club that suffers from a fire, then subsequently rises (Phoenix like!) to become a 'success' once again. As part of the fire that ravaged the club, the main character, Brian Potter, the clubs owner, ends up using a burnt vase as his drinking vessel of choice. 

And so it was today that Clare labelled me as Brian Potter, as the glass I usually take my vino from fell in a tragic washing up incident. I watched as the glass fell in slow motion towards the tiled floor........then........bounced upward with the quality that only an acrylic wine 'glass' has. Sadly though, there was a gorge-like crack down one side. Sadness fell upon the camp (dramatic reconstruction!), but I set about resolving the issue. With matches, a candle and some imagination, I set about restoring the glass to its former glory. As the pictures taken by Jasper show the process was painstaking, delicate and akin to remodelling a Roman jug. 

The results were stunning though.

The vessel is repaired, seemlessly so, you'd never know it had broken. It holds wine, I can drink out of it, therefore it is fine. So for today, I have been Brian Potter. My glass has been resurrected and the problem solved. No money expended on a new one. Let's be honest now, I'm on Lidl wine, so the glass makes no difference at all at the moment!

For all of those who are wondering who Brian Potter is still, 'Phoenix Nights' is the programme to watch. Amazingly funny!

Ed