Day 4 - Cannes - Monaco - Pisa - Mira

After our successful country traversing on day three we thought we'd try for another 3 countries on day four. Starting in France and finishing in Italy going via Monaco. Awoke in our slightly dodgy French B&B in Saint-Raphael (near Cannes), paid up and went on our way.

Drove to Monte-Carlo which we found out is pretty much just some land on the side of a mountain. Very bendy roads all the way down. Had a drive around Monaco and then parked up. John had seen boats, and John likes boats, so we went to see the boats... which were numerous and impressive... and expensive. John looked up the name of one of the boats 'Lady Kathryn IV' and found that 'Lady Kathryn III' was on sale for $17,500,000. That was one of the smaller boats. We took a few pictures of things we could never afford and looked out onto the Meditaranian. We figured that as we were pretty tight on time that it may be wise not to burn money at a stupid rate and move on.

We headed for Pisa. Again, a race against the sun. On the way we stopped at a small town in attempt to find the quintisential 'mamma's restaurant'. Didn't find any restaurants open at lunchtime but did manage to find a bar. We entered the bar and look around. Bit of a newsagents on one corner, a fridge display cabinet in another and a number of locals who completely ignored us. We ventured further into the bar and into the seating areas outside on the pavment. Still no-one had spoken to us. We decided that we felt rather silly and uncomfortable so walked sheepshly through back onto the street.
After our successful country traversing on day three we thought we'd try for another 3 countries on day four. Starting in France and finishing in Italy going via Monaco. Awoke in our slightly dodgy French B&B in Saint-Raphael (near Cannes), paid up and went on our way.

Drove to Monte-Carlo which we found out is pretty much just some land on the side of a mountain. Very bendy roads all the way down. Had a drive around Monaco and then parked up. John had seen boats, and John likes boats, so we went to see the boats... which were numerous and impressive... and expensive. John looked up the name of one of the boats 'Lady Kathryn IV' and found that 'Lady Kathryn III' was on sale for $17,500,000. That was one of the smaller boats. We took a few pictures of things we could never afford and looked out onto the Mediterranean. We figured that as we were pretty tight on time that it may be wise not to burn money at a stupid rate and move on.

We headed for Pisa. Again, a race against the sun. On the way we stopped at a small town in attempt to find the quintessential 'mamma's restaurant'. Didn't find any restaurants open at lunchtime but did manage to find a bar. We entered the bar and looked round. Bit of a newsagents on one corner, a fridge display cabinet in another and a number of locals who completely ignored us. We ventured further into the bar and into the seating areas outside on the pavement. Still no-one had spoken to us. We decided that we felt rather silly and uncomfortable so walked sheepishly through back onto the street.

Let's try again. Walked into another bar which actually had food on display. Managed to actually get some food this time even though Ryan panicked with ordering so just went for the first sandwich that was pointed at. We managed to eat (and Ryan got a beer) but scored pretty damn low on the 'mamma's restaurant' scale.

Got ourselves to Pisa and saw the tower. Took the obligatory 'look I'm holding it up' pictures and had ourselves some dinner. I tried the Pesto and John the Gnocci, both to see if it was really better in Italy. We were not convinced it was much better than what you can get in the UK.

Managed to get one of John's colleagues to find us a hotel near Venice in a place called Mira. John phoned up and booked the room over the phone. We were told that if we needed to check in after 9pm we had to phone ahead and get the door code to let ourselves in.

On the way to Mira we realised that we would not be there in time so I tried to give the hotel a call. I picked the last foreign number on John's phone and rang it a number of times at about 8. Each time I would get an answer phone message in foreign. I waited it out after about the 5th call and at the end in English it said that the reception was only open until 8pm. Was pretty cheesed off that we were told the wrong time for the hotel reception closing but kept trying. Finally got through to the hotel in the end and was given the code for the garage and given instructions. Result. We got to the the right road in Mira and realised that we didn't know the name of the hotel. Unfortunately there were quite a number of hotels along the road. Decided that it would be great if we looked the phone number up on google and see what website it was on therefore giving us the hotel name. Looked up the number I had called on google and read: 'Aparthotel suzki, Andorra'. Our amazing skills had managed to book us a hotel we didn't know the name of in Mira and get the garage code for another hotel in Andorra. Nice.

After a panicked time with the tomtom and the telephone looking for nearby hotels with vacancies at 10:30pm we found success. Now to get there.

Ryan pulled off onto the left side of the road and happy travelled along for a few seconds until the oncoming headlights persuaded him to swerve onto the right side of the road. After some swearing we continued onto the hotel and booked in. About time as Ryan was rather on the stressed side by then.

After booking into the hotel we decided to head to the bar. Ordering was challenging. We wanted to get two glasses of red wine but ended up with two glasses of sparkling white. We later found out, by using a phrasebook, that there was no red wine. The white was very good nevertheless.

Distances:
Saint-Raphael to Monaco: 53 miles
Monaco to Pisa: 213 miles
Pisa to Mira: 198 Miles
Total: 504 miles