My first cousin once removed is trying to visit all the countries in the world, her various travelling companions include her husband, sons, other travel group members and now me. Janet was the person that I went to Glastonbury with last year and she and Tony (her husband) came to China in 2016 and with them we visited the Hanging Monastery near Datong and the Yungang Grottoes. (Read that blog)

I was supposed to go to Syria with her in March 2023, but that didn’t happen due to a trip I had booked with Eleanor to the USA in the April. So when Janet contacted me early 2024 and said come travelling with me, I said yes though I asked where before definitively giving an answer in the affirmative.

Before I actually said yes though, there were two others that I needed to run the trip by first. Eleanor wasn’t fussed as long as she got to stay in Northern Ireland with friends from last year and Martin agreed to it although that was a more difficult conversation since the trip was to start on an auspicious date for us – our 20th Wedding Anniversary.

We booked and paid for the trip through Intrepid Travel. Janet has used them for several of her adventures and while I thought we could definitely do Madagascar without a travel company I bowed to her experience. Having now completed our 11 day trip – there is no way we could have done what we did on our own! Having outsourced the trip planning all I needed to think about was getting there. The only direct flight into Madagascar from Europe is from Paris which makes sense since it is a former French colony (1896-1960). Currently going through Paris is, understandably, an expensive route thanks to the Olympics, so Martin and I decided that we would visit Milan, see our good friends from Suzhou and then go our separate ways for 13 days.

Our Milan trip included 3 days in Bellano on Lake Como which was extremely relaxing and beautiful. We travelled by train and in just over an hour we were transported from the bustle of Milan to a quaint little town. Our AirBnB called The Nest was nestled on the side of a hill and had a commanding view over the lake.

Shame it had no air conditioning but with fans we managed.

In Bellano we ate extremely well. Richard had booked one restaurant for lunch, Taverna Malanotte which only served two main dishes – lasagne and a veggie version of lasagne. The setting was quaint in the narrow back street away from the lake front. It was clearly a passion project for this couple who were not the youngest! While there, despite having two tables available, the couple turned away four potential customers but I guess once the lasagne is gone – it’s gone. We had a leisurely lunch, the wine was paired with our dishes and the starter of bruschetta was freshly made with wonderful, sweet smelling tomatoes.

Our second meal that had been booked in advance was a little more pricy than our lunch adventure but it also delivered. So much so that I only have a picture of my Kir Royale, glass of rosé and seafood soup starter. I had duck with balsamic reduction for my main at Ristorante Alkimia. The setting was just beside the boat club on the lake front.

We paddled in Lake Como, visited other restaurants including a place called Arnold’s for aperitivo and a wine bar for lunch after a morning’s sightseeing. In the middle of Bellano there is a gorge. We had already passed over the bridge underneath which a river rushes out to the lake but further up into the town are some impressive waterfalls hidden away behind a wall opposite the church.

Behind the wall we paid the entrance fee of €6 each and began the walk. The area was not busy at all. The scenery went from gushing water breaking through crevices to a cascading waterfall coming down through a green luscious forest.

From our mini-break in Bellano we went back to Milan and on our penultimate day our friend Richard took us to the Duomo, Milan’s Cathedral and the seat of the Archbishop of Milan. We ummed and ahhed over the time we would go and whether to have our ticket include the terraces on the Duomo’s rooftop. In the end we plumped for 9:30am and no terrace because the cathedral is partially covered in scaffolding and we thought the view would be somewhat obscured. Our friends aren’t leaving Milan anytime soon so it gives us something else to do when we return. We arrived at the Duomo at 9am. On the internet we had read that we needed to be modestly dressed and so I borrowed a scarf/sarong from Elizabeth to cover my knees and Martin borrowed trousers from Richard, but in the end Martin found a pair of shorts that were just long enough to cover the knees. Looking back on it, I didn’t need to borrow anything as my bag packed for Madagascar contained a sarong!

The Duomo was pretty empty for 9am on a Monday morning and we were able to take our time without crowds. We saw the meridian line, which apparently is accurate to 2 seconds! The statue of St Bartholomew flayed is particularly gruesome as the sculptor has sculpted his skin draped over him rather like a tablecloth. The stained glass windows are vibrant and detailed and the stone work incredibly carved.

At about 9:45am the cathedral was noticeably busier but even when we left the queues weren’t as bad as what we had read about. The museum alongside the cathedral was also empty and by the time we had done all 20+ rooms we were gargoyled and statued out.

Italy is obviously famous for its coffee. It is also home to a few Starbucks including a Starbucks roastery of which there are only 6 in the world (Shanghai, Tokyo, Seattle, New York, Milan and Chicago) we bought a reusable cup for Eleanor but they didn’t do the Starbucks mugs that we have in our collection, and at €38 for one mug I couldn’t justify adding it. I visited an ordinary Starbucks later on in the day and bought the Milan and Italy mugs from the “You Are Here” series.

Over the six days in Italy, pizza, pasta, risotto, gelato and wine were all consumed and all were delicious. It was great seeing Elizabeth and Richard again and meeting their baby son for the first time. They were great hosts and Richard makes a mean coffee so I am told, and his wine that we had was well received!

On 23rd July, Martin and I headed for Malpensa airport. We had flown into Linate airport which is by far the closest and most convenient to Milan. The metro was easy to navigate, but with a suitcase and then a buggy the lifts and escalators don’t reliably work or indeed are always present at stations. Malpensa however is 45 minutes by train and it was crowded on a Tuesday late afternoon with standing room only. Eventually we arrived and Martin and I opened our anniversary cards before I went to queue for my Ethiopian Airline flight to Addis Ababa.

My flight took off on time and I was one of the fortunate that had a whole row to myself on the overnight flight of 6 hours and 45 minutes. In the week leading up to my flight I had several emails from Ethiopian Airlines asking me if I wanted to bid to upgrade to Business Class OR bid to keep a seat beside me free OR bid to keep the whole row vacant. I did not spend a penny. During the flight I stretched out across the row of three but it was uncomfortable and I am not sure how well I actually slept! I think I slept better upright on the 4 hour flight to Antananarivo. The capital of Madagascar has a difficult name to pronounce so people in the know just call it Tana.

I had flown on my Irish passport and so was able to queue for my visa on arrival. $10 or €10 got me a piece of paper and then I had to queue to get that transferred to a stamp in my passport. That queue wasn’t immediately obvious as once you got the receipt you had to double back on yourself. I got to the front of the immigration queue and got a very pretty purple sticker. I then was ushered through to another queue and this time I got stopped for not having the correct piece of paper – a piece of paper that had not been given out on the flight, a piece of paper that wanted information that I hadn’t thought about since December 2022 – the information required :was I vaccinated from Covid? and what was the name of my Covid vaccination? I had three vaccinations in total and I knew that two of them had different names. In the end the only one I remembered was Sinovac. On looking back at my records I can see that was the one I had two off with Sinopharm being my first one.

Information completed I then waited for my rucksack. I waited with bated breath. Janet was already at the hotel and I knew I already had a car waiting. I waited and waited and eventually my luggage arrived. I went out, queued for my Malagasy money, the Ariary and in exchanging €400 and a few dollars I became an instant millionaire. The exchange rate varied depending on how big the notes were. The bigger the note the better the rate. I stuffed a wad of 10,000 and 20,000 notes into my money wallet and went to find the driver. He had a sign with my name and another name on it. I was the first one out so we waited some more, and continued waiting and waited even more until all the passengers had trickled through. I wondered if the person had just not bothered coming which would have been crazy. The driver went to the desk and he ascertained one person was left in the baggage area. Eventually that person came out with a very small bag. Her main bag had not arrived in Madagascar. That bag would not be seen again until Day 6 of an 11 day trip.

My fellow passenger introduced herself as Rowe and she immediately asked me if I was on the short or long tour. This question completely threw me, and I said I had no idea and confessed that I hadn’t really looked at itinerary in detail! I was able to tell her when I was leaving and from that she deduced that Janet and I were on the short tour. The long one was 24 days long and definitely more expensive!

We arrived at Hotel Belvedere in the bustling centre of Tana and Janet and I were reunited. She had come via Mauritius and had been in Antananarivo for a day already. Due to the delay at the airport and a bit of traffic Rowe and I just made it for the 5pm briefing to meet the other travellers and our group leader, Barnabus. Three men and eight women made up the group, consisting of three living in Australia, one Canadian, one from Denmark, one Swiss national and the rest from the UK over the next few days we worked out that the age range was from 37 to 75. We were a real mix of people and while writing this at the end of the trip I can say with certainty that we all got on really well.