Haydock chronicles in the time of coronavirus
Capena to Cardiff – Saint-Flour to Calais
I found it difficult to leave Saint-Flour, because it was so pleasant drinking coffee in a café by the market. The locals had already started on the aperitifs and beers by the time I reluctantly dragged myself away. I had to get going because it would take at least 4 hours to drive to my…
Capena to Cardiff – Barcelona to St-Flour
After being chucked out of our cabins two hours before the scheduled arrival time (and a good three hours before the actual arrival time), we ferry fodder were hardly in a fit state to reverse out of the car deck, but reverse we did and were soon heading off unsteadily into Barcelona. I eventually got…
Capena to Cardiff – Barcelona to St-Flour
After being chucked out of our cabins two hours before the scheduled arrival time (and a good three hours before the actual arrival time), we ferry fodder were hardly in a fit state to reverse out of the car deck, but reverse we did and were soon heading off unsteadily into Barcelona. I eventually got…
Capena to Cardiff – Day 1 – Capena to Barcelona
Yesterday I loaded up the car with everything I wanted to salvage from Casa Marconi that I haven’t given away. All the basic furniture will be sold with the house. In the end there wasn’t much, though I couldn’t bear to leave my Beanie Baby collection behind. Jack’s guitar survived the cull too. Then it…
Capena, summer 2022
Nicky stayed on for a couple of days after arriving in Capena. We had a pleasant couple of days mooching around trying to keep cool in 40 degree heat. No sooner had Nicky left, than Cammy arrived for more delicious wining and dining in the heat. Once Cammy had left, I started clearing out Casa…
Cardiff to Rome – Day 5
We checked out of the hotel on Lake Como at 10 am after a leisurely breakfast and then spent a couple of hours making like the locals, i.e. sitting on a shady bench by the lake and watching the world go by. Once we finally dragged ourselves away and set off at noon, the drive…
Cardiff to Rome – Days 3 and 4
The drive from Colmar took six hours and went really well apart from the usual long wait to go through the San Gottardo tunnel. Just about to leave Lake Como and the two-day stay has been everything I expected and more. I’d only ever been out of season, when the lake is a peaceful bolthole…
Cardiff to Rome – Day 2
Had enough time in the morning for a (relatively) cool walk round Épernay and admire the landmarks of its USP: champagne! Lottie was glad to have a walk in the cool too. As ever, she was on a mission to win friends and influence people. We had a pretty good drive, especially through the pretty…
Cardiff to Rome – Day 1
Set off at the crack of dawn (well, 7 am) with my intrepid copilots Nicoletta Keeping and Carlotta (“Lottie”) Haydock. Despite dire warnings of the end of humanity as we knew it, we made it to Folkestone in record time and checked Lottie in through the doggie customs. Then followed an unprecedented (for me) delay…
Day 23: Zurich to Leiden via Frankfurt
My first train to Frankfurt was at 7.59 so I got up at 6 to get Lottie some food and make sure I didn’t miss out on the hotel breakfast. Unfortunately the Migros store didn’t have dog food so Lottie had to make do with sardines. She couldn’t believe her luck. I thought Lottie had…
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2022 and all that 