Mission to Monaco!

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

We are on a mission to get to Monaco for the weekend and with the help of Sanders garage getting Vannie through her MOT...eventually! .....

 

Route we took

Had a great time catching up with everyone in UK but caught the UK bugs and ended up coughing and spluttering our way back over the channel!! Thanks to all our friends and family for the meals and finding beds for the gypsies - much appreciated! As you know we have a spare room that can put any of you up on our travels in Europe:

 

Our spare room!

The trip down through France has been WET - grim weather so we are heading south faster than a speeding bullet - or as fast as the newly MOT'd Vannie will take us (few hic-cups getting thru MOT but she made it!).

Had enough of slow roads trying to save money so hit the motorways and paid the tolls - decided we saved the same in petrol on the faster roads so all good!

We have made it to Avignon and on the last part of the journey to just outside Nice tomorrow ready to start our Grand Prix weekend!!  D is VERY excited.....

No Tips No Beggars!

Our new motto for the next stage of our travels....

We need the euros ourselves so not giving any away!

D: I F'king hate French Toilets (Hole in Ground!)

Pros and Cons

Pros

Mixed - (might get to see something you never had seen!)

Fresh Air

Chat to everyone

Feels like in a field

Cons

Mixed - (girls don't like you grunting)

Disgusting

Where do you put your phone?

Can't log onto facebook while holding on to sides and balancing

Nowhere to put your beer

How do you hold your pants and trousers or do you take them off? Then where do you put them? Dilemma....

Splashback or more like turdback

When you miss the hole do you think you should take in a poo stick and push it down like on building site?

Water and whatever splash-back when pull the chain

D: I f'king hate French toilets!!!!!

Next stop: Cagnes sur Mer, just outside Nice where we will set up camp for the bbbbbrrrrrrruuuuummmm bbbbbbrrrrruuuuuuummmmmmm Grand Prix - ear plugs packed for Mogs!

Boys and Toys

We arrived Thursday night ready to head for Monaco on the Friday to suss out trains and do the free 'pit walk'. Mogs has had a lesson on which colour car to support - the silver one!! Train to Monaco was packed and the place was buzzing. Bought our Monaco T~shirts and watched a few of the races on that day - sat by the harbour near the posh yachts with the binoculars.

D: What can you see Mogs?

M: I can see she's ordering the tomato soup

M: oops - think I was meant to be watching the races not the millionaires on the boats!

We had tickets for Le Rocher which was meant to be a hillside view - not quite the Wimbledon hillside we imagined - more like a Cornish cliff coming off the beach - hard to hang on to unless you are a seagull - decided we needed to set alarms earlier to get a good view without climbing too high!

Monte Carlo

How the other half live!

In the Pits!

 

 Friday's race - Formula 2

Race Day

Alarm set for 6.30 am to try and get a good spot on the hill - race starts at 2pm! Bags packed with beer, wine and loads of food we headed for the train. Train was like the London underground but we got there early enough to get a place with views of track and screen - got a better view climbing up the scaffold!

View from the hillside

 

Action packed race with a few crashes!! 

 

Dave walking the Track after the race!

Had a wander by the harbour and saw the after parties going on - they wouldn't let us on any of the yachts!! Don't think our shorts, flip flops and back packs fitted the party scene! The after parties were like Apres Ski in France when we visited Annie and G but a lot posher and on boats.

Awesome day and now looking forward to chilling on the beach on the Cote d'Azur - heading for St Tropez.....

We are back on the road again

Rock n Roll Marathon

On the road again and need to be in Madrid for 28 April for Mog’s Half Marathon race – a swap from the full marathon due to the heat getting in the way of training and long runs but 13.1 miles is still a long way!! We stopped at the base of Sierra Nevada mountains near Granada on the way for just a night – very quiet and a lovely morning run through the olive trees and hills with snow topped mountains in the distance.

That was our last sunny day as Spain then had a freak weather week for this time of year and we headed north towards Madrid – where snow was forecast!!!

On the road through central Spain we have never seen so many olive trees – or Guardia police! Dave has a bit of a thing about the Guardia – you can’t go 2 minutes anywhere and you see them. We’ve been stopped once: they said “have you drink?” At the back of your mind you want to say “Yeah loads!” What a stupid question!!! It was 7 am and we were on the way to the airport to take Al and Ames back so of course we hadn’t – bit scary though as they have guns and balaclavas on!

On the road to Madrid 8 vans of Guardia passed us all full with police

Olive trees as far as you can see!

 Guardia as far as you can see!

Stayed at a campsite in Aranjuez which is about 40km outside Madrid.

Aranjuez

While chatting on video to Andy & Kirstie – good friends from Holsworthy – Andy mentioned that our van looked like we had been burgled in the night!!  Decided it was time for a bit of housework…..it takes a long time to do our cleaning – one hour later and here’s a shiny tidy Vannie!!

Friday we went into Madrid by train to pick up Mog’s number from the Expo – we are so not used to city life – took us nearly all day on trains and Metro – the Spanish Metro is well confusing and there aren’t any maps in the stations to tell you where to go like in London.  Made it to the Expo and here’s Mogs with her race pack getting excited but a bit nervy as the place is full of fit men and seems to be hardly any women running! D was getting tired just looking at them all!

Freak Weather to Rock n Roll

Having expected to be running in 28 degrees, the 4 degree forecast was a bit grim for the race! Alarms were set as the train left at 6.19 am for Madrid – as it was so bloody cold we went to Reception to book a taxi to the station – result – a Spanish man called Poni was heading to Madrid and gave us a lift in his warm car. We did get there 2 hours too early though!! Lots or pre race nerves and wees (as Mog’s friend Annie and other running buddies will understand) and it was time for the off

Having not been in a race for about 18 months Mogs was a bit apprehensive but the long runs in Mojacar paid off and it went really well.

M: Loved it! Great to be running in a big race again with 24 thousand others – and even better when you have a bit of energy at the end and run past the men!!!

Fab medal, pleased with 2:04:15 time, goodie bag with cool training vest and mug so a great result! And worth all the hassle of getting into Madrid in the freezing cold – I think Dave is wondering what he got out of it all though! He managed to negotiate the Madrid Metro (as said before the Metro here is a nightmare) and find me en route to cheer me on – great to see someone you know along the way – gets your legs going faster! Was so pleased to see him at mile 10 and he made sure I didn't do the marathon route!! Bit confusing - the 10k, half and full marathon all start at the same point and branch off en route...really enjoyed it and back into racing again...  D: I've got to do this again?!!!

Note for my running buddies - the race had the medical staff whizzing through every 15 mins or so on roller blades with Vaseline and freezing spray if you wanted it - not seen that before!

Madrid

How strange is this?

 

 

There was loads too much to upload!!

We are getting fed up with the cold wet weather – time to move on further north to Burgos just south of Santander – 2 nights there before we get on the ferry to Plymouth.  Hoping for a heatwave in UK when we arrive on 2 May?! The tans are fading fast…..

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr Burgos

We are surrounded by Dutch people – we think they are on a rally – we need some hurdy gurdy music to fit in!  It’s bloody freezing here but getting us in UK mode with the weather we guess.
 
Burgos is a lovely town but we couldn’t appreciate the walks and city as it was so cold – so we headed to some typical Spanish tapas bars to warm up!

Wrapped up in Burgos!

 

 

Time to head off to the ferry soon so booze shopping time

D: Mogs go and get some wine for going over to UK

Mogs comes back with 40 bottles!!! 

D: F**k me!

M: I got 10 as it’s £5 a bottle at home and 80p here, then got 10 for back up.

D: That makes 20

M: I got an extra 10 just in case

D: That’s 30

M: Oops – I can’t count!!!

D: We’re only back 10 days!!

Arrived at Santander and it's pouring...grim ... we stayed in the van and didn't look at much there! Have heard news of a heatwave arriving in UK - ideal!

 Just Cruising

Wow we are on a cruise ship! And Dave is missing his boat - not that it floated much!! There's 2 cinemas, pool, 5 bars, 4 restaurants and shopping! We feel like we're on holiday - bingo, quizes, live music and a magician.  The girl singer was great - the man was meant to be James Brown but was trying to be a black Elvis! Funny!

We loved the cruise back - 22 hours and it went so quickly - Thursday lunch Dave went to the cinema and saw a boy film and Mogs had a cheeky wine and caught up with emails and blogging - typing this with free Wifi in the bar as we sail......very smooth crossing and we can see England in the distance - looking forward to seeing family and friends for a week or so.

We also need to get to our Parcel Force office - Parts R Us – (also known as Les & Kirks) to pick up our essential bits for Vannie.  We hear there's a Mexican meal waiting for us - yum - thanks Les - looking forward to seeing you all!!

 
 Parts R Us