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!

Cornwall to Corfu 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️ The Postscript – Italy

After an incredibly smooth crossing I woke up in a bit of a panic. Our experiences of passport controls/customs have ranged from pretty ok (arriving in Albania) to downright bloody awful (arriving in Corfu) and I knew we had a tight timeframe from arriving in Bari ferry port at 08:00 to our train leaving at 09:30. I woke Hoppy up to generously share my panic and we were showered and ready for disembarkation in good time. Unfortunately, despite the incredibly smooth crossing, the ship was running late 😫 😳 😬

The steward who had shown us to our cabin last night asked us to contact him if we needed anything; so we did. What an absolute legend! He pulled a face when I told him what time our train was but took us right to the front of the queue and even provided a stool for the old cripple to sit on 😂. I, meanwhile, went up on deck to see just how far from Italy we actually were (which didn’t increase confidence):

To be fair, it was the first time of this trip that we’ve been genuinely concerned that we were going to miss our connection and the staff couldn’t have done more to help us. We were the first passengers off and then had to wait while the customs guys fired up their computers 😫 🤬🤬🤬

To our despair, there was not one single taxi at the port entrance. Nothing. Nada. Niet. As a rule of thumb, exiting any airport or port we are bombarded with touts and taxi drivers and the one time we actually desperately needed and wanted one there wasn’t anyone to be seen. Only one thing for it – fast walk! Poor Matt was in so much pain with his knee, and the (now) really heavy rucksack, and – of course – there were steps!

Did we make it?

Yes we did!

Just in the nick of time for the 09:30 Frecciarossa to Milano Centrale, due to arrive at 16:54.

The Frecciarossa or “Red Arrow” is Italy’s premium high speed train service and we have to say, it’s pretty blinking fantastic. We had window seats opposite each other, which was probably a good thing as Matt needs to stretch out his legs and our legs were entwined for the entire journey (aagh, sweet!). I guess the only thing was it was a pity we didn’t have seats on the other side of the train, which would have given us nice sea views as we went up the cost. Generally it was incredibly smooth and the (free) WiFi was INCREDIBLE. I actually wrote (and published) the entire last blog from the train. At the risk of pointing out the flaming obvious, Italy is quite long and we travelled pretty much from the south to the north so Milan is noticeably colder than Corfu/Bari and we looked a bit out of place in our summer clothes (dumb English tourists!).

Our hotel (The Metropoli) is within spitting distance of the gigantic Milano Centrale railway station (which is why we chose it as we have a VERY early start on Friday) and has a wonderful entrance with a classic old lift and is warm and cosy:

It would be fair to say that we were pretty knackered by the time we arrived and absolutely starving (having not dared to stop anywhere en route to Bari station and having failed to get the vending machine on the platform to produce anything). Yes, there was a cafe/bar on the train but (one of the few negative comments we have to make about the train) the announcements never said where it was and neither of us fancied wandering up and down 10 carriages to find it. When in Italy, what are you going to eat? It has to be pizza! Matt’s actually not that much of a fan of pizza but even he loved it! And we washed it down with beer (him), G&T (me) and a very nice bottle of Pinot Grigio 🇮🇹

Day 2 – Milan

After a much needed lie-in we headed back to Milan Centrale station to double check our tickets from Milan to Basel, which I’d booked on the SNCF website and had received a voucher and was told the tickets themselves would come in the post. Probably unsurprisingly, they’d never turned up. We were re-assured that this is not an uncommon problem and our voucher would/should be ok for the train. Slightly re-assured we set off for an explore round Milan. Milano Centrale is an incredible station:

After a day of sitting on our bums we decided to walk the couple of miles into Milan centre, aided by a small burger for lunch 😂

La Scala

I have to confess that (unusually for me) I hadn’t really done much research into Milan (other than the Duomo) so wandering by chance through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was a bit of a surprise! Built between 1865 and 1877 it is Italy’s oldest shopping mall. It goes without saying that we didn’t buy anything there (and probably wouldn’t be able to without re-mortgaging our house😀):

Emerging from the other end, there was the Duomo (Cathedral) in front of us:

Oscar Wilde visited Milan in June 1875 and in a letter to his mother, he wrote: “The Cathedral is an awful failure. Outside the design is monstrous and inartistic. The over-elaborated details stuck high up where no one can see them; everything is vile in it; it is, however, imposing and gigantic as a failure, through its great size and elaborate execution.”

I think he was probably a little harsh and at least we now have the opportunity to go up on to the roof to see the details which, as he says, otherwise can’t be seen. The inside is huge, with 52 pillars (one for every week of the year), 5 naves, the second largest organ in Europe (after Passau) with 15,800 pipes and a LOT of stained glass:

It also has its own sundial from light coming through a hole in the roof, which falls on the brass line in the floor at exactly mid-day. My photo on the left and a possibly “slightly enhanced” photo from the Duomo app on the right!

45 metres above the high altar there is a red light at the centre of a Cross where “the holy nail” is kept; allegedly from Jesus’s cross. Once a year (on the Saturday before the 14th September) the Archbishop of Milan goes up on a small lift painted with angels and clouds and brings the holy nail down, where it remains on display for 40 hours. I’m imagining that the Archbishop rising up is quite a sight!

The most famous statue in the Duomo is “Saint Bartholomew flayed” which dates from 1562. It’s anatomically meticulous but really quite disturbing. Saint Bartholomew (perhaps unsurprisingly) doesn’t look too happy about this turn of events:

As I mentioned earlier, there is now the chance to go up on to the roof of the Duomo to see the fantastic carvings which otherwise are “only visible to God”. We paid a bit extra to go up in the lift (Matt’s knee is swollen like a balloon but – good news – his knee replacement operation is fairly imminent 🎉) but (if there was one) we missed the signs for the lift down so had to walk down the 250 steps – ouch:

I have to admit that it is slightly odd that all of these fantastic carvings are way up where no-one can normally see them!

Selfie of the Day:

And, finally, we discovered yesterday that running under/alongside Milan Centrale railway station is the Mercato Centrale Milano (central market), which is a fabulous food hall. After our burgers for lunch we opted for the fish stand and were most definitely not disappointed. You basically select your fish (from the fishmonger across the alleyway) and have it cooked to order. Mixed fried fish for me (with samphire, I think) and shellfish spaghetti for Matt. Due to a bizarre rule, which we couldn’t work out, they’re forbidden from selling Italian wine so we had to settle with French (I know, it’s a tough life). And, yes, it tasted just as good as it looks (my scallop literally melted in my mouth) and cost less than the pizzas the night before:

Milan was surprisingly good! I say “surprisingly” as I think it’s always had the reputation of being a bit rough (certainly the area around the railway station was considered a pick pockets paradise and potentially quite dangerous) but that’s definitely changed and there were a lot of police visible, which made it feel very safe. We enjoyed it but, again, it was time to move on ………