Cornwall 2 Corfu 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️ The Postscript – Milan to Cornwall

The 5.30 alarm on Friday morning was pretty unwelcome but we had no option to get up and get on it – and it’s a jolly good thing we did …….. (that building on the left is Milan Centrale station so we really couldn’t have been closer!).

It transpired (when we got to the station) that the 07:20 train from Milan to Basel was actually leaving at 07:05 😱 and we got on board at 07:03 😰. What would have happened had we missed it doesn’t bear thinking about!

There was no WiFi so I read and tried to take some photographs (difficult with the glare and reflections from the windows):

It could only be Switzerland!

At the Italian/Swiss border the Police arrived to check passports and left with a lady sitting opposite us who didn’t appear to have a passport (shades of our crossing from Slovenia to Italy last summer).

In due course we arrived in Basel station which (perhaps unsurprisingly) is clean and well organised and has excellent free WiFi and toilets!

For anyone wondering why we went via Basel (surely there’s a direct Milan-Paris train?) – yes, there is normally a direct Milan-Paris train but there was a landslide in southern France at the tail end of last year which has taken out the tracks. The quickest (but probably not cheapest) route for now is via Basel. From Basel there is an excellent TGV service to Paris Gare de Lyon (from where I am writing this). We are on the upper deck and the WiFi is superb and it’s very, very fast and very comfortable. Seriously, these European trains put the UK ones to shame:

If it’s any consolation northern France is looking very wet as well:

We successfully navigated the Paris metro (mode of transport number 309) after getting help from a lovely guy at the ridiculously complicated ticket machine (old farts really shouldn’t be left alone with them – the French behind us were tutting loudly):

and then the utter chaos of Eurostar emigration and security where our lack of stamp into France

” ….. but when did you arrive in France?”

”This morning”

caused much confusion along with the large metal lumps in the rucksack

” …. but what are these?”

”batteries for les velos”

After which ludicrously expensive vin rouge was gratefully quaffed:

So, is it possible to get from Milan to London in one day? Yes, it is!

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It’s exhausting and you definitely don’t want to miss the first train from Milan (for God’s sake, do check the departure time!) but it can be done.

Had we known when we planned this bonkers itinerary that there was going to be another 🤬🤬🤬 train strike on Saturday we might have been able to get straight onto the sleeper to Penzance (I haven’t actually checked if it was running but it would have been a grand finale) but we’d already booked ourselves into a hotel and had a jolly (if rather late) supper with Tom. And so the grand finale turned into an 8.5 hour coach journey from London Victoria 😫 which started, somewhat inauspiciously, delayed by half an hour:

The weather in London wasn’t too bad – the weather in Cornwall was absolutely classic:

and there were screaming babies (I felt desperately sorry for their mothers) and some vomit (not me, I’m glad to report).

There was really only one sensible thing to do for supper:

Fish & Chips and Gin & Tonic 😋

I get very tired of people who are really “down” on the UK at the moment but it has to be said that our two long journeys here were not great – on the way up the train just didn’t stop at our station in an effort to make up time and on the way back we had a long, delayed bus journey because of the train strike. After some really superb train journeys in Europe (and an on time journey from the south to the north of Albania, albeit in a quite uncomfortable bus) I can’t help feeling that we have a LOT to learn from European public transport.

Despite some long travelling days our step count has actually been quite impressive:

although today’s count (22,700) was me on my own as Matt’s knee is the size of a small football. Which segues nicely into my next challenge – which I’ll probably blog about in May – when I am walking the London MoonWalk (a mere 26.2 miles through the night) in memory of my lovely friend Alison who died of secondary breast cancer in October. Some of you may remember that I walked the MoonWalk with her back in 2019 so I’m under no illusions as to how hard it’s going to be.

If anyone feels like sponsoring me, I’d be extremely grateful. I’m not aiming to raise gazillions but every donation will be very gratefully received:

https://giving.give-star.com/microsite/walkthewalk/themoonwalklondon2024/fundraising-page/juliahopsonsmoonwalk

Alison and I at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2019

For now, thank you for following our bonkers adventure – it really is amazing what you can do in one week – and, hey, Mission Accomplished! And, incredibly, the battery which Matt uses for his CPAP machine was still 95% charged after 6 months in a box – now that’s impressive!

Mulhouse to Kaiseraugst (Switzerland 🇨🇭)

Miles today – 31.5

Total miles – 911.5

Last night’s supper, by the way, and the “charging corner”. One of the reasons I was concerned about getting electric engines for Fred and Ginger was the charging. I loathe batteries and I loathe the whole charging fussation so Matt is completely in charge of all charging – this was his little charging corner last night in the pod!

We loved the pod and slept really well but you know when you’ve booked yourself into somewhere and check out time is 11am and the cleaner arrives at 10 and you’re just thinking you’ll make another cup of tea and chill for a bit? Yup, that was us this morning!

Travelling by bike you definitely get to see some of the less salubrious parts of town and Mulhouse was no exception:

But we were soon on the very good cycle path all the way to Switzerland:

And just to say, thank you to the various people who contacted us about the current troubles in France. We haven’t seen any unrest or problems; just people going about their normal business!

The cycle path into Basel is pretty straightforward and, at some point, we crossed into Switzerland but it was a “blink and you miss it” moment, which – indeed – we did!

Last lunch in France:

I have to say that, even with some of the trials and tribulations we have had, we’ve really enjoyed France; probably more than we did last time. We loved the various things that we stopped and did, enjoyed some fantastic meals and generally found it to be very laid back and relaxed. On the negative side, we’ve definitely found it more expensive than before – it’s definitely not the “cheap” destination that it was once. I’ve also been amazed by how many French people still smoke!

We spent some time in Basel 6 years ago so today was a quick cycle through (following the locals on the more confusing roads with trams, buses etc 😬)

We are now at an uber-funky campsite right on the banks of the Rhein, which is so unbelievably busy that we’re in the overflow field, which is actually quite nice! Slightly bizarrely, I had to put a €40 deposit down for the hot water token (having been asked if we’d like hot or cold showers – really?!) – that’s a first! Obviously, as we put la tente up the third and final pole broke 🤬🤬🤬🤬 but, luckily, we had a spare kit from Decathlon and we just hope that it’s up to the job (the poles are a couple of mm smaller in diameter than the original but made of fibreglass so 🤞🤞. Obviously, it is currently raining:

To be frank, la tente currently smells like a public urinal and is definitely wonky so it could be an interesting night. The rain is due to stop in a couple of hours 🤞. In the meantime, we did the only sensible thing which was to retreat to the campsite bar and order beers and burgers for supper. They were all very good and weren’t ruined by the local drunk who, obviously, I managed to sit us next to 🙄

That’s not the local drunk, by the way 😂

Tomorrow we have a much needed REST DAY 🎉 although, obviously, we (I) have plans!