Mediterranee Pietra Ligure

Flew to Milan from Dublin then took the train to Savona to board the cruise. Quaint little seaport town which I wish I had more time to explore. Forgot to take a picture of the ship! Not sure how I feel about a big cruise ship (3,800 passengers) but the price was right so thought I would experience it!

... instead of 7am as the plan was to go for a hike to an old church and castle and then go for a run along the promonade. Plans are a wonderful thing. We didn't make it out of bed until after 8.30am.

Had to stop into our local bar for our morning cupuccio - greeted like old friends. The hike took us through the village and to the hills above which were covered in olive trees. It was great to get the heart pumping ...

We continued along the coast road looking for a spot for the night. Traffic was horresdous and very slow going. I wanted to turn around and head back into France. Kim on the other hand was all smiles as she loves Italy. Finally found one in the cute little fishing village of Riva Ligure ...

Embarrassing isn't it? The bird (Jamie) speaks the lingo, FLUENTLY, in the 2 countries we've been to so far. And how do I get by? By attempting to communicate with the locals like Terry Scott in an episode of "Terry and June", where they holidayed in France for the week!! Communication menthods being, speak slowly and shout. My word, that was a funny episode! They don't ...

so left avignon today with thoughts to head to cinque terre, but due to traffic jam only made it as far as arenzano. found a cute pensione and jason was getting sick of driving so seemed like a good place to stop. tried a few others but was like walking through a sad run down old people town so didn't make it more than 5 mins there. well, happy hour time now, so will write more later....

... we turn misfortune to our advantage - literally! -by a simple swivel of the seat. Lunch is brought forward and consumed to envy and applause by fellow jammees!
We resume without further incident, and make the miles with time to spare for light aperos before evening meal.

And Day 4 sees us blasting off for Italy. Robbed blind by French; enter endless tunnels of neighbouring coastline, and dread paying for them... Fab drive (- and fantastic value when we exit for Garda: only 28 euros for whole stretch, where French extorted 38 for one-third of distance!) Hole up for ...

... was really cool. Today i'm going to visit a museum and go to a talk on Muslim immigration in the country, which should be interesting. I think i've gone a bit looney because whenever i go past the house where Christopher Columbus lived as a kid i always begin laughing till at least 3 streets later and i've no idea as to why. The churches here are fantastic and there's supposedly the remains ...

Saturday 13 December N Mediterranean N 43° 26.9' E 08° 44.5' Shore leave expired at 04:00 for an 06:00 sailing, which occurred at 08:00. It was raining but calm. It cleared up somewhat as we got away from land but rained intermittently. While looking out during a ...

... existent. We parked eventually in a car park and once again went for a fruitless walk. No bars, no hotels (wrong side of the tracks...remember) so went back to the car and drove in a wider circle. At last I saw a small bar with a TV in the back which was adjacent to an empty car space behind a waste skip. [In these busy narrow streets the towns do not have the luxury of a weekly garbage collection from the back door. Somewhere at the end of the street will be a ...