Prince is dead long live the Queen.

A long day behind the wheel, over 400 miles from Luxembourg to Como in Italy. The drive was OK I had Colin Blunstone along for the ride as well as three discs of 50s rock and roll that were new to me. Colin brought back memories whilst the other discs made me realise how many 60s and 70s pop hits were not originals also they told my life history with tracks like 'Run around Sue' and 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man'. Switzerland was a bit of a shock, they took forty euros off me for road tax, can you imagine the furore if each of the European nations charged the Swiss forty euros when they drove over an EEC border. The other ouch was spending a penny at a Swiss motorway services costs one euro. I had expected Como to be a little like Garda but it is definitey not, I tried to visit the lake shore but it is hugely built up, everything is out of bounds to anyone but residents - fines threatened and although it was fun driving like an Italian for a while, after half an hour I was worn out with concentrating so much, I felt like a WWll Spitfire pilot after a dogfight, so tonight's dinner came from Carrefour and the wine from the hotel bar but you can't complain at a bottle of Pinot for €5.00. Tomorrow I plan to meander down to Pisa and hopefully try the real thing after having a look at the tower, but saying that I will probably cover another 300 to 400 miles and the same for Saturday l think Saturday evening and Sunday may just be an extended chill session.