Today it is raining. It has rained most of the night so there is nothing much planned today. Dee is not feeling too good still. We sat around till early afternoon and by then the weather had cleared but it was still cool.

Paul, Trevor, John and I went to Stresa to walk along the waterfront. Dee and Pat stayed home. They were happy to have a rest day. We parked at Stresa and again were bombarded by men wanting us to do the Islands. They were ignored and we stated our walk. Trevor and Paul enjoy taking photos and are always looking for different ways to photograph the Islands. We walked about 2kms along the waterfront and enjoyed the view. There were a number of derelict, overgrown houses which would make magnificent apartments or hotels but obviously the Italians or anyone else haven't the same idea.

We walked to where there is another cable car that goes up about 1500 metres. Paul and Trevor are very interested to go up before we leave. We watch it from the camper during the day going up the mountain and last night we actually saw it go over a large valley. The carriage was sitting high in the sky. Once we saw the path of the car we could see the cables that support it. John definitely doesn't want to go up, I'm not sure if I'm game.

Anyway our walk was well worth it as my ankles have been very swollen over the last few weeks and it has helped them to go down. I suppose the cooler weather helped. Also Trevor and Paul found some extra places to take photos of the islandsas the path we took was not visible from the road.

Tonight Italy plays England in the world cup. On the way home there was a police blitz targeting drivers. There was a car pulled up by the police and the policeman was carrying a machine gun. I didn't realise they do that here. It would have frightened the daylights out of me if we had been pulled over. Machine guns seem a bit excessive.

There were fireworks near Stresa this evening and we could clearly see them from the beach in front of the camper. There were flags flying everywhere and here at the campsite they televised it live and there was lots of cheering from the Italians when the goals were scored. There was quiet from the English here although there were very few English besides us. I'm sure on Monday night when Germany play Portugal there will be a lot of cheering again if goals are scored by the Germans. There is a lot of Germans here.

That is all for today. Good sleeping weather although thunderstorms are still around. Good night. xxx