Residence Sole Albenga

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!

... of fresh air and great scenery. We bumped into an old man foraging for funghi. We had a wee convesation with him as he had a little English and was obliging when Kim asked to take his photo. The church was closed when we got there but it was more about the hike than the destination.

The hike took longer than we expected so we missed our run, but managed to squeeze in another capuccio at our local before we left.

... the local bar and settled in for a few drinks and complimentary tapas.

Wed 11 Nov
Riva Ligura even better in the sunlight had a pretty little piazza and church which had a beautiful painted interior - much unexpected by us. The novalty factor was it had automatic sliding doors!

... poi è comparso l'itinerario. E con l'itinerario le prenotazioni.
Lo Yucatan lo gireremo in auto, abbiamo affittato a Merida una macchina dal 26 ottobre al primo novembre; avendo un mezzo a disposizione non mi sto a preoccupare del soggiorno, avremo la possibilità di scegliere;

So, the long haul back. Fortunately, there is an excellent motorway all the way up to Ceriale (we have decided to call in at camping visited on way out). Unfortunately, we hit our first real traffic jam halfway up! Mustn't grumble - after the miles we have done. The beauty of ...

... detto che i festeggiamenti per i morti sono spettacolari!
Ci hanno già cambiato degli orari di due voli, ma per fortuna non creano problemi con altre connessioni.
Martedì procediamo con le vaccinazioni: tifo e epatite A.
Non ho intenzione di partecipare al circo dell'influenza, è tutta una montatura per dare qualche soldino in più alle multinazionali del farmaco.
Molto più seriamente prendo il ...

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 ...

... cerco di essere sempre pronta al peggio, mi viene un senso di catastrofismo strisciante per cui mi porterei dietro anche la cassetta degli attrezzi; però mi sono contenuta. La prova del nove consiste nel caricarsi lo zaino sulla groppa e muovere qualche passo per casa, se non mi ribalto... è fatta!

Il viaggio in treno non ha nulla di particolare ...

... into routine, and when I left Savona a week after I arrived, I had to remember the feeling of being transient again. Peter is so comfortable in Albisola that I naturally adapted quite easily. So after a week of cruising around in Peter's fancypants new Mazda (provided by the dealership sponsoring his team), hanging out in his apartment, watching the team scrimmage, and chatting and having a grand old time, I headed to Bologna to see Sarah, an old friend from school and Sierra Camp ...

I was on my way from Rome to Barcelona by train. On the border between Italy and France, the train workers went on strike and stranded about 12 travelers including myself at 2AM. We got off the train, and as we waited for taxis to take us across the border these 12 strangers (many of whom didn't speak common languages) pulled out whatever they had in their backpacks (candies, food, drink, trinkets) and everyone shared what they could with everyone else.

San Remo, Liguria, Italy anacristina