IL LONG WAY DOWN: CAPTAINS LOG - 18 hours to go

Day two in Italy. Still in Como and still very hot. We have been up since around 9am and as yet I'm the only one who is still hungover. To say we had a few last night wouldn't suffice. I was quite suprised Rob and his dad were up for a beer when they arrived, at around half 10 in the evening local time. I bought both of them a beer and listened to their story of how the 15 hr driving journey went. I was worried as neither of their phones were working and I was beginning to get drunk as I was drinking on my own and wary about going to bed without knowing they were here and safe.
We drank, drank some more, then got hungry again and ordered 2 pizzas. Bloody huge 36inch wide ones. Massive! (see pictures). At around midnight, Rob and I decided to head into town to carry on drinking. I was not up for it, but looking at Robs face, I felt sorry for him and off we went. A jaeger bomb and beer later, we came home. I don't remember much, but Rob reminded me. Apparently we had a water fight in the hotel bathroom and I couldn't stop laughing for about 5 minutes.
And being the generous one, I let Rob and his dad have the proper beds and I tried to make myself comfy on the sofa bed that wasn't a sofa bed at all. Just a sofa. So I threw the cushions on the floor, stripped to my boxers and fell into a coma. Then, at around 8am, I was awoken by someone unlocking the door. It was the occupant of the room next to ours and where I was lying, half naked and still drunk, was not in fact a bedroom of any sort. Just a room to separate ours from the other guests at the hotel, so imagine her surprise when leaving her room she sees a half naked drunk bloke as she goes to get her breakfast. So from now on, I sleep on top bunk.
We found the lady later who was American/Canadian (one or the other) and we had a good laugh about it.

Today we had our first ride on our bikes. With no plan as such we headed clockwise round the lake and worked our way up the side of one of the mountains and I counted no less than between 10 or 15 switchbacks on the way to climbing to the top. We didn't go all the way but managed 1200 feet above sea level. Pretty good going (see pictures). Legs feel good and can't wait for the fun to begin tomorrow when we aim to reach Cremona which is a long day at around 90 miles. Definitely learnt today the key to cycling will be in rehydrating. You can easily drink both bottles of fluid in one hour in these temperatures, so refilling them at every opportunity is a must.

Just sat with Rob and his dad now, going to hav a walk round town and do some recognisance for dinner later.
It's so hot here it's unbelievable. The Americanadian lady said to us that only a few days ago it was 15 degrees with 100 kph winds. We did well I think.

By for now