10th April 2010 - Lake Guarda continued..

First day with no driving so we had a late breakfast alongside some big fish...



and took the cable cars 1763 metres up to the mountains. It was surreal to spend a few hours in the snow watching people paraglide off of sheer drops and then go back down into the sunshine again.





Malcesine is very beautiful and quaint to walk around with winding cobblestone streets and random castles here and there. Bill Bryson gave some good advice when he said never be the first person off a ferry as everyone will follow you regardless if you know where it is you are going. Realised this applies everywhere abroad when we led a big group of english people down a one way street today and into a brick wall.



Tomorrow Pisa...

Mat Stats:
Malcesine has the World's first 360 degrees rotating cable car

9th April 2010 - Lake Guarda - Malcesine

My amazing husband today drove from Strasbourg through Switzerland via Milano and then to Lake Guarda which took about 6ish hours through mountains, tunnels, snow and then into the lovely sunshine! Proud to say we did spend all of about 3 seconds in the Lunatic Lane (fourth and fastest lane where you have to go over 110mph just to keep up). Nobody indicates, stops or has any sense of road safety so spending over 6 hours in a constant state of heart attack panicked hell was quite exhausting as a passenger. Both quite pleased to be in Malcesine now with no driving needed for tomorrow.

Mat Stats:
Longest tunnel 14.7km (so big it has it's own radio station)
Animals seen - bats flying at night over Lake Guarda

8th April 2010 - Strasbourg (Bicycles, Babies and Brioche)

Arriving in Strasbourg was easy - finding the hostel was not. A nice Strasbourg man seeing we were lost started pointing us down a road which we did drive halfway down before realising it was a one way street he then beeped us endlessley until we reversed back out. Did eventually find our very nice hostel with it's secret courtyard car park and went out wandering for the day.

The Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral was stunning and huge, the highlight although we couldn't go up to the top which would have been a brilliant do something once a day that scares you. Walked along the river Ill amongst the pretty black and white timber houses in the Petite-France district and ended the day drinking beer watching the river boats and ducks floating by.



Mat Stats:
Notre Dame - 6th tallest cathedral in the world

7th April 2010 - Eastbourne - Dover - Dunkerque - Chalons en Champagne

Left Eastbourne early in the morning very sad to say goodbye to Katie & Joshua, think Joshua was more sad he wasn't going to get to sit in the car for longer and beep the horn over and over. Made it to Dover in lots of time to catch the Nofolkline ferry to Dunkerque. Ended up in the bar watching the election coverage on BBC News which felt just like being at work except there was no lovely Anna in the corner mumbling to herself. The ferry was a bit like being drunk and falling over in slow motion repeatedly but top deck made it all worth it.

Drove to Chalons en Champagne which was very small very quiet and spent the night in a small dark box (hotel) with rabbits running about outside.

Mat Stat:
No need for alarm clocks in France as Hotel Maids will just keep bursting in on you regardless if you are asleep in bed or half dressed.

4th April 2010 - Falmouth, Cornwall

Wedding in Falmouth was lovely. The best pics of the day are below...

2nd April 2010 - London

So we left London today, packing up 3 years of a life in one flat (the longest I have lived in any place since I was about 20) was quite sad. It was the first place we lived just the two of us and we got engaged and married whilst we were there. Although the burst pipe in the bathroom meant we did keep getting electrocuted and the kitchen ceiling was falling down around us we did both love it really. I left the flat with only 3 pairs of shoes (traumatic) and en route to Cornwall and Eastbourne Mat managed to lose his only 2 pairs of shoes. Only I could have married someone capable of this and that is why I love him so much.

Thank you...

We wanted to start this blog by saying thank you to all the people who made it possible for us to be here - to all our family and friends whose amazingly generous wedding gifts to us meant we could do this we say thank you so much!

Also to our sponsers Gordon (the car) and Jane (our sat nav) we wouldn't have got this far without you. This far being 1069 miles so far from London via Cornwall to Strasbourg.