Week 2 – Wednesday July 7 – Genoa

LUXURY – After 8 days of camping, we now have two days in a hotel in Genoa. We head for Corsica on Friday morning, so we had already booked one night in the hotel, but we decided that two nights would be a nice treat after 8 days in a tent.

Before we got to the hotel, of course there was the small matter of packing up the tent. First things first, however and the first thing was a cappuccino and a chocolate mousse filled croisant. Next was the car, which after 4 days of living under a tree was filthy – covered in tree gum and leaves, so it was in dire need of a good wash. Unlike some people we know, we don't travel with a full car cleaning kit, but we do have our all in one – shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing and car wash liquid courtesy of a previous hotel. As a result of exceptional team work, we now have a very clean car – me on washing, anne controlling the hose, and then drying the car down once it was clean, so it didn't end up all streaky as you would expect from a shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing and car wash liquid.

After that, the inevitable could be delayed no longer. This time, we have documentary evidence of our efforts and we only had to pack it twice. The photos are of the first attempt and you'll notice in the photo before it goes into the bag that the tent all folded up isn't exactly a circle, and it was at that point that we had to go back and start again. The solution, was to give it a woman's touch and if Anne started off folding the top over the bottom, that left me to do the brute bits of folding the two sides over the middle. Once we'd done that it's just a matter of getting its strap on and getting it into the bag so before it springs itself open again. I think next time we'll be perfect. I can confirm that by the time the job was finished, I was dripping with sweat. Anyway it only took 17 minutes from start to finish to pack it twice and have it ready to go in the car.

We were sorry to be leaving the campground because the staff were so friendly, but Corsica beckons. The drive to Genoa was easy, the drive into Genoa, not so much. With the GPS, it's easy because it keeps recalculating your route to your destination if you make a wrong turn. Genoa is a maze of tiny streets and one way systems, so after 10 minutes of getting confused as to what we were supposed to be doing, we ditched the car in an underground carpark on the port and headed off on foot to find the hotel. Without a map, we did have our old faithful “Jane” GPS, but her battery was nearly flat and she indicated 2ks to the hotel – on foot. Fortunately, Anne was paying attention and noticed that infact the street we wanted to get to was right over the road from where we were standing. I'm not sure what Jane's issue was, but I think she might have had an issue with how to get across a 6 lane road, so she took us on the car route instead. The simple answer was use the pedestrian crossing, so 100 metres later and we were in the hotel.

After 8 days of camping, we are enjoying 2 days of airconditioning, a full compliment of plugs and toilet paper and renewed supplies of our all in one – shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing and car wash cleaner. Anne has just informed me that it now also works as a clothes cleaner for some emergency cleaning last night, so when we refer to it from here forward, it will now be the All in One - shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing, clothes washing and car wash cleaner.

Being in the hotel, we are taking advantage of the TV and are watching a couple of stages of the Tour De France, which is a nice break during the afternoon.

Had dinner in a fantastic little restaurant just over the cobbled stoned car-free street from the hotel last night. We asked the Concierge and he recommended it. Anne had anchovies in a lemon sauce followed by spaghetti with seafood and I had spaghetti al Pomodoro followed by sea bass, which we shared. The restaurant had a TV in the back of it, which was completely out of place for the ambience of the place, but it was good to be able to watch Spain playing Germany over dinner. The owner turned it on just after we sat down and poured himself a glass of wine so the tone of evening was set.

The house wine was 10 Euros per bottle and he chose what wine you got based on what you ordered, which was something different and the wine was really nice. We had finished our bottle of wine before the football had finished, so I asked him for a half bottle, which I'd seen him give to other tables in a small caraf. By that stage, he was much more interested in the football, so he put the bottle of wine on the table and said “have what you want – if you drink half, you pay half – if you drink it all, you pay for it all” Fair enough – guess what, we ended up paying for the whole bottle.

We are of course being entertained here by the new star of the football world cup – Paul the Octopus and are awaiting with trepidation his next prediction, now that he has branched out to predicting the result of the final. My pick before the tournament started was Spain, so I'm hopeful they will do the business on Sunday. Anne had picked France – enough said!