TRIP JOURNAL

Trip for Quinten & Alexa’s wedding: Milan ✈️ Lecce 🚘 Gallipoli 🚘 Monopoli ✈️ Paris ✈️ Valencia

A mix of big European metropolises and southern beach towns. A day-by-day summary of activities, lodging and food, mostly just to serve as a journal/for any future trip planners.

WED – 8/20 – NYC

Annie and I both put in a full day of work. I was home, and thought I’d be able to do a few tasks and pack stress-free, but of course got pretty slammed during my last day online for 10 days. Around 11AM we got an email from Delta letting us know our 9pm flight was delayed a couple hours. While the delay was annoying, I was at least glad they let us know far in advance so we didn’t have to wait at the airport.

Around 6:30, we arrived at the airport, stopped in for a quick bite at the Delta lounge, and boarded the flight. I’d planned to watch LOTR or read a bit, but the lounge food and glass of red knocked me out shortly into the flight. I slept for most of the 9h flight and woke up to eat an egg wrap shortly before landing.

THU – 8/21 – MILAN

LODGING: Hotel London

Hotel London is in a very convenient location; a brief jaunt from both the Duomo and the Cadorna train station, with direct airport access. The rooms were typical small European hotels (I had to pick up our big suitcase over the bed because there wasn’t enough space to roll it between the bed and wall), but other than that we had 0 complaints: friendly check-in staff, clean, updated room, everything you’d hope for from a cheap downtown hotel.

Travelog

We landed around 2pm Thursday at Malpensa. By the time we got our bags and trained into the city, it was already 4pm, and we had 4:30 PM timed entry tickets to the Duomo. All we had time to do was check into the room and drop our bags off before scurrying over to the Duomo.

I learned on this trip that, although the Florence Duomo is a dome, “Duomo” just means big church. Nevertheless, it was still cool to climb onto the roof, and the various sides had good views of the city. Unfortunately, it started raining as we descended the stairs. Annie had to pee, and the nearest public bathroom was a McDonald’s, so we popped in. Italian McNuggets taste just like American ones.

After the redeye & Duomo scramble, Annie and I were pretty wiped, but there was no rest for the wicked. We had a European-early (7:30pm) dinner reservation with our friends Spencer and Jamie, so all we had time for was a shower and quick 15m respite before heading back out. We walked over to Gloria Osteria, a chic, Instagram-friendly spot serving mostly traditional Italian fare with some interesting twists.

In what would be a theme of the trip, we did not sacrifice good food for an aesthetic dining environment. We started with cheese and prosciutto plates for the table, which felt like a fitting start to Italian dining. I got a pork pasta with a white ragù sauce that had a nice creaminess and kick. Annie got some seafood pasta that she liked, but was a bit too fishy for me. We finished with a classic tiramisu.

The cocktails were also excellent: Annie & I split a flight of 4 mini negronis. There was one each with gin, vodka, whiskey, and mezcal as the main liquor. All 4 were really tasty. The table also split a bottle of Pigato Riviera Ligure di Pomente “Bon in da Bon” 2022, which was well-received.

After dinner, we convinced Annie to stay out and check out a club. It was a recommendation from Spencer and Jamie’s travel agent, and while I was initially hesitant to pay €18 to enter, I was much more OK with it after learning it included a free drink. The club was almost all outdoors and right next to the central park, though our 10:30PM arrival was clearly way too early. The funniest part of the night was when Jamie went up to bum a cig from a group of girls. It turned out:

They did have a cig to share
They were American
The whole group had gone to UCLA, and one of them was also going to the wedding we were flying to tomorrow. She was even on the same flight as Annie and me.

We knew we had a long weekend coming up, so we called it a night relatively early (~12AM) and headed home.

FRI – 8/22 – MILAN ✈️ LECCE

LODGING: Armonia B&B

We had some very minor difficulties getting into our B&B due to the lack of front desk, but once inside, the room was beautiful: high ceilings, spacious, and a lovely balcony with a view of the old castle. The host didn’t speak great English, but Annie’s Italian allowed us to communicate the important bits. It’s antique (you enter the building through a castle door) without being outdated.

The breakfast is a real highlight: first of all, just the fact that it’s served in your room was fun. Both the sweet (pastry) and savory (ham and cheese sandwich) options are tasty, and come with coffee-to-order, fresh fruit, yogurt, toast, cookies, etc. Would stay here again just for breakfast!

Travelog

Spencer and Jamie flew out at 7AM, but we intentionally booked a later flight: early enough to get to Lecce for the welcome party, but late enough for us to sleep in the night after a redeye. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my belt for the wedding, but fortunately, there were a number of men’s clothing stores on our hotel block. I bought the cheapest brown belt I could find at Gutteridge, and we proceeded to pack and head to the train to the airport.

Side note: As far as airports far away from the city center go, MXP is unreasonably easy: train stops in both terminals, multiple destination options within the city center, and good train headways.

After a painless EasyJet flight to Brindisi with our new friend Tess, we touched down in Puglia. We had some slight difficulties figuring out how to get from Brindisi to Lecce, but the bus was easy once we found it.

We were tired from a long travel day, so while I’d hoped to explore Lecce a bit, all we had energy and time for was coffee and a sandwich across the street from the hotel. We showered, dressed up, and started our walk across the town. As we walked through the old town towards the bus pickup, we ran into more and more of our well-dressed friends: first Stone and Tess, then Spence and Jamie, before arriving at the Porta Napoli, where Q and the rest of the guests were waiting. It felt like the entire town was getting ready for a big wedding.

As the buses crested a hill, we got our first peek of the Ionian sea as the sun started to set. The welcome party was at the Grand Hotel Riviera, on the roof of the hotel. We disembarked only a few minutes before the sun disappeared into the sea, but most of the guests were able to snag some pics before dark.

Once the sun went down, the “apericena” buffet came out. It was enough food for the average American Christmas dinner. After food, Quinten’s parents made some touching speeches, and the dancing commenced. A number of Aperol spritzes later, we bussed back to Lecce and had a nightcap at a tiki bar (!).

SAT – 8/23 – LECCE

We woke up around 9:30 for our unmissable breakfast. We had plans to meet up and explore Lecce with our friends Leanna and Alex. On the walk to meet them, it started raining a little bit, and by the time we found them, it was raining a lot.

We figured the Lecce Jewish Museum was a good rainy day activity, but hit a torrential downpour on our walk over. Old medieval towns in dry areas don’t tend to have the best road drainage, so our socks and shoes were soaked through. To top it off, when we reached the Jewish museum, we found that they exclusively offered timed tours, and we’d just missed the last timed tour for the next few hours.

Disappointed, we gave up on cultural activities and fell back to the best thing to do in Italy: eat. Across the street, we found an Irish pub that served traditional Leccese food, and dug into some meat, cheese, and espresso.

Eventually, the rain stopped, so we ambled through a bit more of the town. Leanna popped into a couple stores, but didn’t end up buying anything. We did make our second bathroom pit stop into a McDonald’s in 3 days, and this time I tried the cappuccino: not bad!

We were worried rain was going to affect the wedding, but we luckily only had to endure light drizzle on the walk over to the Lecce Cathedral. The wedding started with a full rosary from the priest. The cathedral and ceremony were beautiful, if a bit hot. After the ceremony, we waited outside for the newlyweds. A bunch of tourists and locals mixed in with the wedding guests, and we all threw flowers on the couple as they walked out. They took off in their Rolls Royce (lol), while we headed over to the buses again.

After a 40 minute bus ride, we came off the buses into a literal fairy tale setting: sunset over a picturesque castle, with vineyards all around. The cocktail hour was set outside the castle, with 4 violin players performing Bridgerton-style orchestral pop.

SUN – 8/24 – LECCE 🚘 GALLIPOLI

LODGING: Le Terraze Sul Mare, Gallipoli

This is a B&B close to, but not in, the old town. It’s on the 6th (top) floor of an apartment building. Antonella, the host, gave us a very friendly welcome. She claimed not to speak great English, but had 0 issue communicating with us. The rooms themselves were large and updated. The highlight of the place was that every room had at least one large, expansive terrace with sweeping views of the ocean. The breakfast was similar to the Lecce one: large, delicious, and with many courses. While we didn’t have as much time to enjoy it as we would’ve liked, this B&B was one of the coolest places I’ve stayed.

Travelog

We woke up fairly hungover from the wedding, but before our 9:30 breakfast: we were not going to miss the last meal in Lecce. We checked out at 10, picked up Drabby and Leanna, and drove down to Gallipoli.

The drive was only about 30m. While we weren’t staying in the “old town”, even the “new town” section of Gallipoli had small roads and tight parking. We eventually found a spot and made our way up to the Terraze Sul Mare.

After getting the lay of the land from Antonella, we drove about 15m north to the Padula Bianca area. The beach was agreeable, but apparently every other Italian and tourist had the same idea we did on a Sunday in August. It took us an extra 15m to find a parking lot that had open spots, another 15m to walk down to the beach, and another 20m or so of squeezing by sunbathing Italians before we found a lido with open umbrellas for less than €75/pp.

Once we finally got to the lido and picked up some snacks, we all took hangover snoozes. I got a café freddo from the lido which cooled me down pre-nap, and spent most of the post-nap early evening in the water. The entire beach was super crowded, but it still ended up being the chill afternoon we were looking for after a busy weekend.

Around 6PM, we drove back to our hotel in Gallipoli and picked up a bottle of prosecco on our way back. We showered, killed said bottle of prosecco on the terrace, and made our way towards old town.

Our restaurant for the night had 4.8★ on Google Maps, but didn’t live up to the reviews. It was edible, but probably the most disappointing meal of the trip. Afterwards, Leanna and Drabby stopped to buy some sea sponges, but other than that we called it an early night.

MON – 8/25 – GALLIPOLI 🚘 MONOPOLI

LODGING: Affaccio sul Mare

Although we booked through booking.com, this place was more of an AirBnB than a true hotel/B&B. The host met us on arrival and gave us the key, but other than that, we didn’t see her. That didn’t take away from how great it was. It was a two-bedroom place, with a sofa bed in the large living room, a large kitchen, and even a separate office.

Again, this place had a great terrace with views of the water: this time, we were just across the street from a beach instead of being a few blocks inland. 10/10 would recommend.

Travelog

On Monday, we woke up around 7:45 for our 8:45AM fishing call time. We had a quick-but-hearty breakfast from our host Antonella, then made the 5m stroll from the hotel to the fishing pier.

Our fishing tour was through “Sea Tour Gallipoli”. It ended up being perfect for what we wanted: relatively inexpensive (€60/pp), we caught a lot of fish, the tour operator was very friendly, and he even provided prosecco, focaccia, and watermelon for us while fishing.

I would definitely recommend the tour, but just to be clear about what you’re getting into: this is not a fancy deep-sea sport-fishing tour. It’s a little 20 foot motorboat where you go ~1km off the dock and mostly fish for sardines. Also, the tour guide was great, but spoke NO English – like none at all. If we hadn’t been paired up with an Italian father/son duo who spoke a bit of English, we would’ve been leaning heavily on Google Translate.

We sat down for espresso and pastries after the fishing, then started our 2 hour drive to Monopoli. The Lecce<>Monopoli portion of that drive was much greener/prettier than the Gallipoli<>Lecce drive; I think they must get more rain or something. But everyone else was napping, so I was the only one who got to soak it in.

The parking situation was also tricky in Monopoli, but luckily my parallel parking skills haven’t totally atrophied even after 3+ years in NYC. We checked into our B&B and admired the view of the swimming hole across the street. There were two other beaches a 2m walk north and south, so we decided we needed to evaluate all our options. We started at the southernmost, which was my favorite, and eventually made our way all the way up.

Satiated by the Adriatic, we headed back across the street. Alex, Leanna, and I ran to the supermarket to get drinks and water while Annie showered. We ended up getting a full charcuterie spread, which was expertly plated by Leanna. We paired that up with pre-made Aperol spritzes and a good ocean terrace view for the perfect aperitivo.

For our last dinner in Italy, we chose a pinsa place in the old town. The Monopoli old town was still touristy, but felt a bit less tourist-trappy than Gallipoli. It was my favorite of the 3 cities we went to in Puglia. We meandered around the town’s perimeter, and capped off the night with a cannoli.

TUE – 8/26 – MONOPOLI ✈️ PARIS

LODGING

We stayed at the Hôtel Fabric in Oberkampf. This hotel was in a trendy neighborhood and not super expensive, so I didn’t have super high hopes. But my expectations were really exceeded. The front desk was friendly, and the lobby was a big selling point: large, with free coffee, water, and madeleine cookies. It was a relaxing place to come back to after a busy day around the city, and rehydrate or recaffeinate before heading back up to the room. The hotel also had a gym and steam room in the basement. While they were small, they were well-kept and clean.

The room itself was very large by Parisian hotel standards, and nicely equipped with high ceilings, a modern bathroom, and interesting art.

Travelog

In a shocking turn of events, I was the first person awake of the four of us. I went for a short walk on the cliffs, and then met Drabby for breakfast at a bar across the street from the apartment. We realized we hadn’t actually tried the famous Caffè Leccese yet, but both of us decided the almond syrup they add to the espresso was way too sweet for our liking.

We packed up and drove down to Alberobello to see the Trulli. After some confusion, we found the free downtown parking lot and stopped for coffee for the ladies who hadn’t yet caffeinated. We roved around the town, seeing the church and main Trulli area. Leanna stocked up on gifts for her coworkers at a cute gift shop, and I found some mini clay Trulli for my sisters.

Our last meal in Italy were some really good paninis from Ticket to Heaven. Full and happy, we set off on the 45m drive to the Bari airport and dropped off the rental car. The check-in process at Transavia was truly miserable and took over an hour, but once through security we said our goodbyes to Alex and Leanna.

Aside from the check-in fiasco, the flight was easy, and we landed at Orly on time. Orly has major issues right now with their Uber pickup – either the drivers don’t understand where the pickup zone is, or they intentionally don’t follow the rules to avoid paying for a VTC badge, but either way, we had 4 different Uber drivers not come to the pickup point on the app, which was a nightmare. Finally, 2.5h after landing, we got to the Hotel Fabric and checked in.

Wiped out from a long weekend and Uber challenges, we didn’t want anything fancy, so grabbed a kebab nearby. Inspired by kebab-energy, we decided to see what the neighborhood looks like on a summer Tuesday night and navigated to a bar on the Saint Martin canal. We sipped glasses of good red and soaked in the less-hot weather.

WED – 8/27 – PARIS

After a bunch of highly-planned mornings in Italy, we planned to sleep in for our first day in Paris, and executed that plan to perfection. Our first appointment that day was a 12:15 reservation at the Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower.

Since we got a late start and wanted to save ourselves for the lunch, we started off by splitting a croissant at a nearby boulangerie. This proved to be a good decision because the Jules Verne does not skimp on the portions.

We had some issues circling the tower to find the entrance, but once we got in we were blown away by the hospitality. Even with the “smallest” meal on the menu, we were overwhelmed by the amount of food not listed on the menu: amuse bouches before and after the meal, 10/10 bread and butter, and multiple between-course extras. We both said it was the fanciest, as well as one of the tastiest meals we’ve ever had. After the meal we got some good pictures from the tower and from across the Seine.

We needed to walk off all that heavy food, so we took our postprandial perambulation over to the Arc de Triomphe, and then down the Champs-Élysées. Eventually, our watches told us we had enough steps and we metro’ed back to the hotel.

We fell asleep for a bit back at the hotel. After waking up, I was still feeling full, heavy, and a little hungover from lunch. I thought a little run might help me sweat it off, but it certainly did not – while I enjoyed seeing a bit more of Le Marais, the food and booze sitting in my stomach did not make for a pleasant run.

After struggling back to the hotel, I took a quick shower before our next meal down in Montparnasse. This was at a cute restaurant called Capsule, with an a la carte, more nouvelle cuisine (though not super fancy) menu. The food was really good, if not quite at the level of the Jules Verne, which, though unfair, was the only comparison we could make. We got a quail starter and a steak main which were good but not amazing. The salad with green sauce we got was as good as anything we had from the Jules Verne. The green sauce in particular was unlike anything we’d had: kind of like the best Green Goddess sauce you could imagine, but better.

We searched around Montparnasse and surroundings for a bar with live music on a Wednesday night, but couldn’t find anything. We ended up grabbing a glass of wine at Le Rosebud before heading home.

THU – 8/28 – PARIS

We had two main goals on Thursday:

Get croissants from La Maison d’Isabelle, the place with the best croissants I’ve ever had
Go to the Musée d’Orsay.

We metro’ed down to the center of town and got our croissants: confirmed, as good as I remembered them to be. We ate them on a bench on the Seine, then strolled over to Notre-Dame, which had been under post-fire construction the last time I was in Paris. The line to get in wasn’t bad, so we waited and did a loop inside before continuing on our way. I was impressed with how well the reconstruction turned out.

After our unplanned pit stop, we didn’t have time for the 15m walk, so we hopped on the RER for one stop to the Orsay. The museum was not too crowded on a nice Thursday, so we slowly followed a Rick Steves audio tour around the place. It’s easier to appreciate museums when they’re a small part of a trip and not the main course.

After the museum, we crossed the Seine to eat lunch at La Rotonde St Honoré. It’s definitely a tourist trap with its prices and Louvre-adjacent location, but I enjoyed my Croque Madame.

The afternoon was beautiful. We had no plans, so hopped on the metro out to Parc Vincennes on the eastern outskirts. We grabbed coffee to go at Les officiers, then walked around the grand old Château, learning a bit about its history from ChatGPT. We proceeded into the Parc Floral, and though I wasn’t expecting much from a flower park at the end of summer, a lot of plants and flowers were still in bloom. The dahlias in particular were in peak form.

Around 5:30, we headed back to the hotel for another nap before our last big dinner. We ate at Black Angus République, which only has 3 options on its menu: skirt steak, entrecôte, or filet de boeuf. We weren’t overly impressed by the entrecote, but the filet was excellent. I was mildly disappointed because the sauce was less of an au poivre than I was hoping for, but the salad and sides were pretty good. We also had probably the best red wine of the trip; a bottle of Château Macquin 2022. The crème brûlée dessert was also a highlight. We again searched, unsuccessfully, for a bar with live music, and ended up at a bar with a castle-like vibe in Le Marais.

FRI – 8/29 – PARIS ✈️ VALENCIA

LODGING

Cute hotel in the city center. It was an Amex Fine Hotel property, so my expectations were high based on prior experiences. It was nice, but probably not as nice as the Hotel Fabric, which surprised us considering it was just as expensive and in a cheaper city. But probably some of that is it being in a more central location, and us staying on the weekend vs. during the week.

Nevertheless, it was a pleasant place. They had a great rooftop where we got drinks at sunset every day, with a very friendly bartender named Juan. The breakfast buffet was also a filling way to end our stay. Overall, a solid 8.5/10 hotel, just not an 11/10 like some of our past Amex Hotels.

Travelog

We had an 11AM flight, so didn’t have to get up too early. On this Orly experience, neither Uber nor Transavia gave us any trouble. A couple hours later, we landed in Valencia and bought metro tickets into the city center. Since it took a bit to get the bags, our room was ready by the time we got to the hotel.

I’d reached the point in the trip where I was feeling a bit burnt out from travel, so we reached for a familiar lunch of burgers. We decided to avoid touristy activities and found one of the few coffee places in Russafa that was open during siesta hours. It was actually a librería as well, so I bought a Garcia Marquez book and struggled to get through the first few pages in Spanish while sipping a cafe con helado.

I did some stretching at the hotel gym before Annie and I got our first Aguas de Valencia on the roof. Since it was a Friday night, they had a DJ bumping tunes, but we left in search of croquetas. I made a last-minute reservation at a well-reviewed place in Russafa, but they could only honor it indoors, so we pivoted to a different spot up the street. I’m not sure if the first place would’ve been great, but unfortunately the second place was just OK. Their tortilla was good, but their gambas and chicharrones didn’t hit the spot for us. We did grab a beer afterwards at Splendini Bar I Discos, which was neat: definitely more of a “sit down and chat with friends” bar, but the vibe was cool, since it is in a record store and they have a bunch of cool art on the walls.

From Russafa, we strolled into the Ciutat Vella, which was pretty and lit up. I scoped out a gelato shop and took in the lights on our way back to the hotel.

SAT – 8/30 – VALENCIA

This was our big tourist day in Valencia. We skipped any pastelerías and made our way straight to the Valencia Central Market. It was a beautiful building on its own, and the variety and quality of the food inside made it even prettier. We led off with a nutella lobster tail and fartón before moving onto a big hunk of chorizo tortilla. We took an eating intermission to admire all the different seafood vendors, then picked back up with a jamón+manchego bocadillo and some fresh squeezed OJ. We capped off the consumption with a jamón cone and made our way over to “La Estrecha”, the skinniest building in Europe.

We decided to walk from the market through the Turia gardens over to the east side of town. The walk was a bit hotter than we anticipated, so we stopped on a bench to plan our next moves. One of the highlights of our last trip to Spain was a flamenco show, so we decided to book a table at La Bulería Tablao Flamenco.

By now it was around 1PM, so siesta hour, and our destination of Benimaclet is not as touristy as the Ciutat Vella. Our open lunch were limited, but we ended up at a Honduran place which had some super flavorful, if greasy, sopes and quesadilla. It felt like we’d stepped back over to North America.

After lunch, we rented ValenBici bikes and started our ride through the Turia Jardin. We didn’t complete my entire planned loop, but rode around the City of Arts and Sciences, down to the southern end of the gardens, and back up around the old town.

We parked the bikes and pulled into a coffee shop to pick up water, and couldn’t say no to one more post-bike pastry. We climbed the Torres del Serrans and stared out over the park we’d just biked through.

After a hot day with lots of activity, all we had energy for was lying down in our hotel room. We recuperated, cleaned up, and made our way up to the rooftop for more Aguas de Valencia and gummy bears from Juan.

That night’s flamenco show was probably the highlight of Valencia. The included dinner started with a queso+jamon plate. We then split a flavorful and fresh salad before going half and half on the mains of veal and bacalao. While the servings weren’t the biggest we had, it was definitely the highest-quality food we had in Valencia. And still the on-stage performances outshone the kitchen, with truly emotional singing and sweat-inducing tap-dancing.

After the highs of the show, we tried to keep the night going at Boricua pub, which served a cool frothy coconut cocktail. The vibe there was fine, but we didn’t see a need to stay for more than one drink, so headed home around 1AM.

SUN – 8/31 – VALENCIA

Our last full day of the trip was planned to be a beach day, and the weather cooperated. We set our destination to a brunch café on the beach and held off on a real breakfast. While the trip over to the beach involved a bit more walking and time than we’d desired, we eventually made it there and ate at Boa Beach. This was a really trendy café that felt like it’d been lifted right from Santa Monica. With full bellies, we decided it’d be more pleasant to walk around El Cabanyal before our bathing suits were wet and sandy. We walked inland for a bit, but it didn’t seem like there was a whole lot to see once you got away from the beach – a bunch of apartments and small bars. Once again, our exploration was poorly timed with siestas: at 2:30, we probably didn’t see everything the neighorhood had to offer, but even so, we didn’t think we’d missed a whole lot.

Once back on sand, we found a beach club and paid our €40 for seats and an umbrella. I alternated between swimming, walking up the beach, and listening to my audiobook. Playa de las Arenas is a good beach: it reminded me of Barcelona in being a crowded city beach that was still tolerable to swim at, but not as pleasantly isolated as smaller Mediterranean city beaches.

Upon returning to the hotel, we agreed that we had to find croquetas and churros that night before leaving Spain. We tried our luck at a tapas spot in Ciutat Vella (Bar La Terraza) and found it much more to our tourist liking. We got the croquetas along with gambas, salad, patatas bravas, and an arepa, and everything was pretty good (though still not as good as our favorite in NYC, La Nacional). We made it just in time to a churro shop before closing and went back to the hotel to buy train tickets and get some sleep.

MON – 9/1 – VALENCIA ✈️ NYC

Valencia does not have directs to NYC. While there were plenty of options to fly through Madrid, Barcelona, or Lisbon, it was actually cheaper to take a train to Madrid and fly direct back to NY. I had chosen that path for us since I figured a train was a lot less likely to be late than a plane, and when you factor in buffer for a layover, the timing was pretty close anyway.

We took a 9:45 train from Valencia. The walk from our hotel to the Joaquín Sorolla station was a bit longer than we’d bargained for with luggage, though doable. The train itself was super pleasant. Apparently Spain has relatively-recently acquired Italian bullet trains for the Valencia<>Madrid route, so the trip was <2h door-to-door.

From Madrid Chamartin, we took another local train to Barajas, and after about 4 layers of security and transfers between terminals, we made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare.

The Iberia airlines flight was pleasant, and I remember the food onboard actually being pretty good. We got back home at 8:45PM NY time, showered, and crashed into bed to try and get some sleep before what was luckily a 4-day work week.