Some miles later…….

So we headed from the rain, or so we hoped, into Monaco so we could inspect the remnants of the F1 a couple of weeks ago. As we queued to get into town, there was much evidence of what had been with stockpiled barriers, fencing and stands in every spare patch of land. Once we got into town, we were sent through a labyrinth of underground tunnels to make it to the car park recommended for vans. The amount of infrastructure in such a compact space, built into the side of a cliff was phenomenal. Bizarre windy roads and subterranean multi-lane roundabouts – an engineering nerd 🤓 might get quite excited 😜. Must be pretty good rock!

Impressed with my googling, we rock up proudly to the parking place but then had a near drama and waited for a little while to be let in. One chap said that the parking place was only for the police 👮‍♀️. My French was too poor to argue so we were slightly perturbed until another nice chap said that it was fine and showed us to a space. It was a tight squeeze but Andy is getting pretty adept at manoeuvring Merfyn. Phew 😅!

We strolled passed the heliport and many large gin palaces and into Monaco proper, admiring parts of the F1 track and spotting the grandstand and podium still in place. Then to casino square for some people watching. AMAZING. There was us in our mucky camping gear – having packed up our muddy pitch in the rain remember – enjoying a 17euro beer and MC Spritz at the Cafe de Paris.

We saw many different people, some scruffy like us and some making a super effort (with varying degrees of success) and everything in between. Mum – you’d have loved it!!! Some highlights were oddly pouting lips 👄 , shabby chic, designer sports gear, leather look faces, and of course all shapes and sizes. Everyone doing their own thing, enjoying the Monaco ting! It was great. We decided not to eat there but headed for the finishing straight for lunch. My first moules frites of the hols. Nom nom 😋 .

After a quick pose by the podium, we hit the road and headed for Italy 🇮🇹.

Whilst I had a little snooze, Andy had a hairy drive on a coastal motorway in and out of tunnels, big bends and large trucks. Sometimes all happening at the same time. After our decadent lunch, we had a road side picnic for tea before heading for our lodgings for the night.

As we knew we were going to be late, and base camp was a bit wet, we treated ourselves to a B&B near Siena. Attached to a farm, we had a nice room and proper bed and en suite. Followed by breakfast. Luxurious and not a bad view – we’re in Tuscany 😎!

So now we’ve set up camp again in the sunshine ☀️ and are not planning on moving for a while…..we have provisions, bicycles and a swimming pool 🏊‍♀️. And a good weather forecast. Oh and a view 😎.