Au revoir France and bonjourno Italy Took the scenic coastal road along the Riviera from Nice to Genova. Some very wealthy people here! Beautiful coastline.and lots of photo opportunities. Morning tea in Menton. Drove along famous Grand prix track in Monaco. Stopped for the night in another old Italian town..Alessandria. Took some time to find accomodation because someone wouldn't let me book the night before...but he shall remain nameless. Ended up in the expensive Mercure but got a discount when someone went to have a shower and got cold water. Kalma I think you call it! Had authentic pizza, gelato and cappucino while we had the chance. Great stroll through the shopping piazzas in the evening. The town had a soul. Could have spent a fortune if I wanted. Tomorrow we arrive in Switzerland. Photos to ... read more

Another great day. Apparently the drive to our first stop, Gourdon, was very scenic. We don't know, Pete was trying to keep the mirror on the left hand side of the car, while Neet tested the durability of the Citroen door trims, trying not to look at the drop off into the valley on the left. Actually after the first 10km the roads were pretty good, if the French would just learn to stay on their side of the white line. The scenery was something else. The roads were full of serious cyclist crunching up the steep mountain passes at a fast pace. How they do it I don't know. My guess is some were proffessionals getting ready for the tour - or thats what I wanted to think. Gourdon, Pont du Loup and Tourrette Sur ... read more

Hi All We have internet again. Signal not great but at least we are back in contact. After leaving the safety of our Dutch "protectors" we have now headed off on our own. The Car people in Nice gave us a 30 second lesson on the car - sorry, I exagerate, it was 15 seconds. Then we tentatively hit the road, trying to remember all Hennie's lessons. They did give us directions to the Motorway but neglected to tell us about the Toll. So here we were in our brand new Citroen, reversing across 6 lanes of traffic, because, firstly we picked the auto booth, then we picked the coin booth, but had no coins. They eventually took pity on us and took our 20 Euros, to turn into coins - next time use the far ... read more

Doof... Doof...Doof...Doof...Doof...Doof Can you hear the Beat!! Now imagine 1 Million mad drunk Dutchmen dressed in Orange........... then double it for effect. That is a low key version of Amsterdam on Queens day. We saw the "girls" in the window, outdoor peeing, broken bottles under feet, shoulder to shoulder crowds, traffic jams in the canal, hot firemen in boats (for Anita), coffee shops that don't sell coffee but some strange smelling produce................and much much more! It was mind blowing........... but not something to do every year if you are over 25. By the end of the day we were ...........shagged!!! As was the group of Dutch relo's who shared the day with us........all also over 25yrs!! Tomorrow Gay Paris awaits us. My life-long dream. Thanks to all of those wonderful people who made our week in ... read more

Hi All. First thing. We have taken the private settings off the Blog so it is now open to the world!! Hopefully this will make it easier for everyone to see. Tuesday we started slowly. Caught up on the mail, washing etc. Hennie gave us a guided tour of the Hank Loch historical monuments - birth place, places he saw during the war, famous parks etc. It was really interesting. There must be a family at number 16 who wonders why their house keeps getting photographed. We then went off to Rotterdam to see the Maeslant Storm Barrier. For we male, engineer types, it is an amazing piece of engineering. 2 giant gates come across the river preventing the storm surge from flowing up the river and causing floods and damaging dykes. It is big, very ... read more