Our trip back started beautifully: cars packed, we drove to Lecchi and had a coffee and a pasta with Jack and Laura before bidding them temporarily farewell.
Enjoying a coffee at Paulo's bar in Lecchi
They were heading south via Rome to fly back, we were flying out of Pisa and had decided to stop by the beautiful walled city of Lucca on the way, a must see in Tuscany apparently.
The drive to Lucca was fantastic. TomTom really came in to its own here, by planning a route avoiding the autostradas, we drove through wonderful Tuscan countryside, winding through small Italian villages and cutting through back roads in a way that would have been virtually impossible with any other navigation method. We were delivered right to the south east porte of the city as planned, where we parked and explored the city for a few hours, including the famous Piazza Anfiteatro (built on the remains of an ancient amphitheatre).
Piazza Anfiteatro
The entire city wall is intact - a legacy of long periods of peace in Lucca's history - and you can walk/run/bike/crawl around the whole 3km length of it, mostly under spectacular old trees. We had time for only about 1/3 of it, but it was an experience.
The 'avoid autostradas' option failed entirely from Lucca to Pisa. Ok, so perhaps I pushed 'Yes' instead of 'No' to some question. Maybe. Either way, we took the high speed option to Pisa airport, dropped off the faithful Alfa 147 (Gerri was quite sad) and joined the enormous queue of sunburnt British tourists queuing to check in for the flight to London. Once more to the rescue came.. Baby Card!! We had to ask, but a bit of pleading got us right to the front. Sweet!
Let the trees begin..
EasyJet are a cheap airline. We knew this. Unfortunately they are so cheap that they cannot afford to buy a watch, and this tends to lead to their flight departure times bearing no more than a passing resemblance to the entertaining publication they call their 'timetable'. Our flight got delayed well over an hour, and this was after we'd passed through passport control (thump). At this point we were of course trapped in the sort of departure lounge area you'd expect from an entirely watch-less airline, with entertainment options limited to counting the vending machines (there were 3; yes I'm certain).
The flight itself was fine, with Tara contributing no branches at all. On arrival we discovered that EasyJet's Gatwick terminal is - presumably for budgetary reasons - apparently somewhere in France, and we had to walk the rest of the way to get to immigration (thump). At least coming in to Gatwick on a small flight, late at night and walking from France seems to avoid any queues getting in to the country, which was a nice change.
As we were staying at Jack and Laura's that night, we had instructions on how to get a train to Clapham Junction then a short taxi ride. However Tara fell asleep on the train, so to avoid disturbing her we changed plans and opted for a bus from Clapham, which should have been easy. To cut a long story short (ish), the bus driver dropped us about 2km from where he was supposed to, so around midnight we walked the 2km back to J&L's street, dragging our luggage with us (thump). Joy.
Now here's the bizarre bit. After setting off from Lecchi together, driving different distances to different airports, taking flights that were nominally scheduled hours apart, then taking different routes from Gatwick (train/bus/walk vs. train/taxi), Jack and Laura arrived at the bottom of their street at exactly the same time that we did. How bizarre is that!
Trees over with, we woke to a glorious sunny morning on the Sunday, and headed off for a good old english egg and bacon breakfast at a local trendy cafe, very South Melbourne style. The coffee was even pretty good, aside from the English predeliction for cappuccino cups the size of Jeremy Clarkson's head. Actually I've been pleasantly surprised by the general standard of coffee in London now, it's improved out of sight from even a few years ago, nice to see.
After some local shop browsing Jack and Laura drove us across town to our accommodation, a beautiful house in Islington belonging to our lovely friends Michael and Helen, who incredibly generously gave us the use of it for the week while they are away in Greece. It's a very cool place, in a great location and makes a wonderful base for our stay in London.
Our London pad
It's a little pokey, being only 4 levels, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, but we're making do. And did I mention a pub 2 doors away? :-) And notice they even arranged for a 928 out the front to make me feel at home!
Monday morning our Australian friend Jenn arrived for a couple of days, having popped over from her temporary home in Dublin for a long weekend catching up with ourselves and other friends. It was great to see her, and she couldn't believe the changes in Tara since she last saw her about 5 months ago. We hung out and had dinner locally that night with her and her friend Anna - another expat - at one of the many nearby restaurants. This place feels more and more like South Melbourne!
Tuesday I think a lot of the past few days caught up with both G and I, we were knackered! Jenn went off to do touristy bus-peering antics that neither of us could muster the energy for, while we sat on our arses and ate chocolate, mostly. That night we wandered off to a recommended gastro-pub that wasn't too far away and had a lovely dinner together with Tara sleeping blissfully through it all. Along with the coffee, I'd have to say the food has improved massively in London as well, my duck confit (sorry Daffy) and G's salmon were both very nicely done.
It was our 'monthaversary', so great to have a nice meal out. Last one was in Rome, this one in London, what jetsetting international people of mystery we are!
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