Milan (cont)...........

So, as I said ealier, we were in Milan today. We did really well – got up and had breakfast and then off on our bikes to a train station near by (we actually found it and everything) and caught a train to Milan.

The station we started at was Biassimo-Lesmo-Parco and it was about 35 minutes into Milan Garibaldi station. Easy. And, we didn't pay. We didn't mean to fare dodge – just that the machine at the station looked like it hadn't worked for years, and no-one came to ask for tickets – so we just didn't bother (we later found out – when we bought tickets for the train home that it was only €3.40 for both of us – so hardly saved ourselves a fortune!).

Milan was nice – although really we just mooched about a bit – very slowly because it was so hot – and saw some of the sights.

The castle (notice the free wi-fi tree that Jon is sat under)

The Duomo Church thing

The McDonalds Bar (what is the world coming to?)

The crazy glass dome thing

and a load of scooters.

Definitely have to get a scooter when we get home – always say that after a visit to Italy – never done it yet :)

So, it was a nice day – we headed back to the station in plenty of time, stopping for a small beer on the way......

We bought tickets back to our station, distracted slightly by the chap at the ticket machine next to us not only being the most impatient man in the world (he was hassling the chap buying tickets before him and then was showing his displeasure at the speed of the machine when it was his turn) but also, and really, really humorously, getting his credit card stuck in the machine because he tried to put it in the place where you were supposed to put money notes :) Ha ha ha.

Shouldn't laugh really, but it was so funny, especially because he was so very impatient.

Anyway, we bought our tickets – the machine was not very easy to navigate – and legged it for the train that the machine had told us – the 19:12 to Lecco.

On the train - all going well – making lots of jokes about ending up in Rome, etc. First few stations we recognised, not so sure about the next couple – but then, we weren't paying that much attention on the way there – starting to get a bit nervous, been on the train a bit of a long while now, did it take that long on the way there? Jon claims to recognise a pile of gravel that we pass, but then the train rounds a corner and there is an impressive vista between a couple of mountains. Bugger. We definitely would have remembered that. Where are we going????

I get a bit of a flap on, and make Jon go and ask the guard. We are on the wrong train and we have to wait until it gets to Lecco at the end of the line, catch a train back towards Milan and hope for the best. No trains back to where we started at this time of night though. Arse. On the up though, at least the guy didn't ask for the extra €25 that we theoretically owed for our extra travels!! Off at Lecco, feeling a bit stupid, 30 minutes to wait for the next train – decide a) to get off at Monza and get a taxi and b) to risk not buying train tickets (NOW we are fare dodgers). Of course now, for the first time in a week and a half, it's cold, and I am wearing shorts and a vest top. Jon offers me his woolly hat – which I decline.

Just before the train arrives a couple of chaps in police uniform show up and wait ..... we are convinced they are ticket inspectors – but by now it's too late to go to the ticket machine, so we decide that if they are, we will just bluff it.

Tense times.

To cut a long story short – it was fine. We got to Monza without tickets, got off, straight into a taxi (cost us €20 but it could have been worse, we could have ended up stuck in Milan or something) and back to the van with the plan to fetch the bikes in the morning.

We celebrated with some pasta and fresh pesto, and a bottle of the weirdest wine you ever tasted – fizzy red wine. Interesting.

What a day though.

We can't decide why it is that we are so rubbish at finding our way places at the moment. We are blaming the heat!!