Friday August 29th - Hotel Tryp, Gran Via, Madrid

Its pretty darned hot in Madrid, so we have taken to having siesta during the middle of the day. As usual Luce has embraced the local culture above all others and is having a jolly good sleep, leaving me to update the blog...

We had a great day in Lake Como last Monday - the scenery is beautiful around there. We took an early train out of Milan, and once we got to Como town followed Lisa's advice to the letter and headed up the funicular to Brunate. This is a really stunning little town, breathtaking views and some amazing villas, which if we werent spending a year not working could have interested us some more, but another international property just isnt an option at the moment. However, it is noted for future.
Once back down to earth, and to Como town, we took the fast boat over to Bellagio town, about an hour along the lake. Another paint box pretty Italian town that is opposite George Clooney's villa. Such a pretty place to potter around, and then we found a little man selling glasses of vino bianco by the lakeside for €1. It would have been rude even on our budget not to stop for half a dozen and watch the sun slowly sink before jumping on the bus back to Como to connect to the train to Milan.

It was good to move on from Milan the next day. We both felt that we had done it justice. So we were off to get our Ryanair flight - in true Ryanair fashion from an airport nowhere near Milan - to Valencia. Our hotel was on the edge of town, and full of Brits and Aussies waiting to go to La Tomatina. The pool on the top of the hotel threatened to be straight out of 18-30 holiday, but didn't fulfil

l its potential for boozy Brits abroad, much to our pleasure! We wandered down to the port area to see where the Grand Prix had taken place the weekend previously. The Valencians had built a street circuit in an area of town that recently hosted the Americas Cup, a part of town which is turning into a really great vibrant location (must lose all thoughts of more property buying_)
The next morning we set off early (although not as early as first hoped) to Bunol and la Tomatina. The train is full of Brits, Aussies, Americans, but pleasingly, mostly Spanish wearing swimsuits, goggles, specially designed t-shirts, snorkel and masks. Its a rare old site. Once in Bunol, there is a Euro-house themed party atmosphere with the locals setting up stalls of bocadillos, cervezas and waterproof cameras. Other locals have set out their lunch tables and watching the crazy tourists go down the hill to the old town. We join in the 1000am beer drinking to get into the spirit. Thousands of people are squashing into the old square with an air of anticipation. Residents in the buildings surrounding the square have hoses out and buckets of water emptying onto the hot crowds below. At 1100 a horn sounds and the tomatoes are thrown. Theyre coming from all directions. We thought we would be relatively safe near the police - no such l

uck. Its too crowded to get close to the main drag where the trucks are slowly meandering through full of people emptying their tomatoey mess onto the people below so that they can launch at everyone around them. Its absolutely mental in a way that only the Spanish seem to be able to master - and that health and safety in the UK would probably cancel. After an hour its all over, and the hoses are out. Local people washing down those who look like they hav

e been bathing in gazpacho. Lots of cheering, smiley faces, and a general aroma of sweaty tomatoes. Its a unique experience, that was worth the wait. We make some buddies on the way back to Valencia - a guy who has been injured during the tomatina - it wasnt just tomatoes that were thrown, and he was unlucky enough to get an ear injury from some ufo, and was off to hospital. We are experts on Valencian health care as we had been investigating places to get the second doses of jabs needed for when we travel beyond the confines of Europe, so could offer them plenty of advice on the local ER. Ever helpful us Knoxes. We spend the evening in the Barrio Carmen, a great area with lots of interesting restaurants and bars

. We found some good tapas, and a very dodgy house wine that verged on sherry! We hadnt found this area of Valencia before, on previous trips, so we're pleased that we did this time, as its one of the highlights of this Catalan city.

We were very proud of ourselves on Thursday having achieved the goal of vaccinations at a Spanish clinic - well apart from the fact that they had run out of Japanese encephalitis. There is obviously a run on Valencians heading out to Viet Nam at the moment - perhaps Ryanair have set up a route from Valencia to Madrid/Viet Nam. Hey ho, we will hopefully find a French travel clinic on Monday in Cannes. We only needed dose 2 of rabies and Hepatitis B, and the 

best thing about it was that they were free - even for us Brits! Much better than the 375 quid it cost us in the UK! After an afternoon on the beach, we were back down to Barrio Carmen trying to put to rest our paella demons. It still all tastes the same, and is a bit of a disappointment, but wasnt as bad as last time - maybe the fact that we werent hungover helped out paella's cause.

And now today we jumped on the bus from around the corner of our Valencian hotel which then dropped us some distance away from our hotel in Madrid. Fortunately the Madrilenos has worked out how to air condition their tube as it is baking hot here - a real dry heat. We had a quick wander around to see the palace and the main square, but then needed to come back to the hotel for an air-conditioned siesta. We did manage to pick up a bottle of cava on the way, which we're about to use to get our Friday night in Madrid started now that Luce is up from her slumber.

We're both looking forward to heading back to Cannes on Sunday - living out of hand luggage is starting to wear a little thin, especially as we are carrying tomatoey clothes with us that are starting to smell a little like cup-a-soup...

Sunday 24th August - Hotel Montebianco, Milan - by Jim

So we're here in Milan after a few days in Cannes with Lisa and Jules, and Janet, Chris & Lucy.

Lucy Knox & I arrived at Rue Louis Perrissol on Weds evening, 20th August, after the wedding of the year, and packing up Abbeville Road. It was a stressful couple of days, but we got everything sorted, we think. All went by in a bit of a blur, so we hope that everything is sorted. Couple of last things to sort out, but we always had in the back of our mind that we would be back in the UK in a couple of weeks. It was a teary farewell to Susi as our cab arrived. We'd managed to have a cheeky beer in the Abbeville. Its nice being off during the day and popping to the pub.

Thursday was our first day on honeymoon, so after a quick trip to Vival (such a shame that the previous owners have gone) we went down to the Croisette to meet Cav for a coffee-she was out with work, and taking calls about organising an event out there for October. Not missing that at all. Jules and Lisa arrived shortly afterwards, and after some lunch on the terrace, its down to Plage Midi for the afternoon. As usual with Lisa & Jules, booze was soon on the menu - nice drop of Kir Royale on the terrace, and then off to Mi Figue Mi Raisin for supper. Mesa & Phillippe bought us a bottle for our wedding. Bless them. The night went on until the morning — 6:15am finish set us up nicely for feeling dreadful the next day, so it was back to midi plage for more €11 loungers. L&J left at about 530pm, which gave us a couple of hours on our own until the Ibbott's arrived. Just enough time to paint the damp wall, and get some beers in the fridge. Their plane was a bit late, so we were ready for them with chilled beers. We had quick wander around Cannes to show them the basics, and stopped off for a pizza. Chris also took the bait of going to Monaco the next day, so we were a bit closer to Milan. Heh heh heh.

The house seemed to cope with baby Lucy staying over. J&C had a great inflatable tent style thingy for her to sleep in, so we happily shut them in the bedroom, and we took up the sofa bed. Up quite early the next day, and off to Monaco. It was bloomin hot and the tunnel was closed, so we couldn't do the proper tour of the Grand Prix circuit. Still we still did the walk around the casino and down to the harbour, and after a spot of lunch, Luce Sr and I were off to the station. It was kinda exciting, but also a bit of a shame, as we would have liked to spend more time in Cannes - still we will be back in a week or so.

We'd been told by a couple of people that Milan wasn't all that, so our expectations were low. The train was a bit long and dull — nice to start with along the French, then Italian coasts — good scenery. Then it got packed with dozens of Africans coming back from selling their copy-wares on the beach to unsuspecting tourists. We had a compartment shared with 2 other Italian girls, and then 2 more Italians joined us, and provided some mild entertainment as well as some BO. Luce hadn't bothered print off directions to the hotel, so after a little hunting around, we eventually found a chap who could provide us with a map, and at least an idea of the street that we were looking for. We made it to Hotel Montebianco eventually. It's a little way out of town, but very nice, and Claudio on reception sent us off for a pizza.

We're not far from San Siro stadium, so our day started there today. Ticket touts were already out selling for tonight's game against Roma. Might have been quite up for that if it weren't for budget! Its very imposing stadium, lots of concrete. Reminded me of Bernabeu. Bit of a hike out to it and back to the metro, which took us to Il Duomo. A magnificent building, which looked great in the sunshine. I'd forgotten that last time I was here it rained endlessly. The weather made it much nicer to wander around, even though as its Sunday almost everything is closed. There is a great department store though, and a nice signorita in the optician department kindly mended my sunglasses gratis. There was also a very helpful signorita in the tourist info, who sorted us out with all the info that we needed to get to Como for tomorrow, and the airport on Tuesday. So it didn't matter that we didn't find an internet cafe, although we do still need to locate somewhere in Valencia where we can get the next dose of our jabs for further afield. After a good mooch around the park, and a really nice street (were anything long it open) called Corso Garibaldi, we stopped for a quick beer and then had to head to the hotel for a nap.

Tonight, we're going to head back into Central Milan to try and find some pasta for supper, and then its off to Como. It feels like we have seen pretty much all of what Milan has to offer, so looking forward to day trip tomorrow, and then off on Tuesday for some more pool action in Valencia....