Nice
As mentioned in my previous post, Mic's dad lives in Nice. He
hadn't seen him in a while so off we went. Mic wanted to show me Marseilles, so
we stopped there first. He lived in this area for almost 2 years and
absolutely loved it. I did like Marseilles, but since we were only there for
one day, we didn't have time for much. Our hotel was near the waterfront, so we
headed down there for dinner. It was pretty much what you would expect, a
bunch of boats, lots of people, nice restaurants and bars. What I didn't expect
was the giant Ferris wheel, which of course we had to go on. The view was
excellent; from the top you could see the entire waterfront in front of you, and
the city behind you. After the ride, we found a nice outdoor restaurant that had
mussels. To be fair, every place had mussels. I rarely eat them, but every
single place we passed, people had these big pots of mussels and a plate of
fries. Odd combo, but I followed the crowd and they were delicious! They came
with all kind of toppings, including cheese. Well, of course everything is
better with cheese! OK it depends on what kind of cheese. There are very few I
don't like, but they found one. I'm not sure what it was, but there was a big
dollop in the middle of my pot. Not to worry there were plenty that were
untouched.
Friday morning we figured the best way, to see the most, was the hop
on hop off bus. They only did part of Marseilles, Mic said there were all kind
of sights they were missing, but we were limited on time anyway. From the
harbor you could look up and see a beautiful church, called Basilique Notre Dame de la Garde, on a hill top so we planned
to make that our only stop. It was up a narrow, steep road but the views were
beautiful. We passed through a block of houses right next to a road and came
to a stop just before a sharp turn. Apparently two tourists decided to park
their cars in the lane of traffic. Yup, our bus was stuck, he couldn't make the
turn so everyone behind us was trapped too. Everyone got off all the buses to
see what was going on. Even the people in the houses came out to see what the
commotion was. Eventually the police came and a tow truck was called. It
seemed like we were there for about 30 minutes when the driver showed up with
his family. We were all laughing on our bus saying the driver will come back,
see whats going on and just keep walking. How embarrassing to be caught being
so stupid. The police issued him a ticket, shook his hand and we all went on
our merry way.
We finally made it to the church and of course it was beautiful.
Everyone seemed to be on the open rooftop so we also climbed the endless stairs
to get there. And we were met with winds that very nearly knocked us over! You
could see people almost doubled over to keep from being blown off their feet.
Hats and hair were flying all around and parents were clutching the hands of any
child under about 50 lbs. Everyone was laughing and trying to take selfies but
it was so windy you couldn't hold the camera steady. Forget it if you had long
hair, the winds whipped it all around your face and you needed one hand just to
hold it down. Loose dress? Remember Moms advice and wear clean underwear, cuz
we can all see it! It reminded me of a boat trip my friend Stephanie and I went
on in St Maartin. I had this very loose summer dress that promptly flew up
around my ears as soon as we got underway. Stephanie laughed so hard she wet
herself. She took endless pictures of me trying to retain some dignity as I
desperately tried to hold the flimsy materiel down.
After our bus tour ended we tried to find a flea market, but it was
closed down. Same with a Vietnamese restaurant Google Maps said was nearby. It
usually gives the opening hours, but this time it lied. We did see a really
cool street book exchange. There were two huge sculptures of giraffes, and the
baby one had shelves in its belly, filled with books. As we sat and watched,
and endless parade of mostly men and quite a few who looked down on their
luck, stopped by and selected a book. I've seen them in other places, but none
in a giraffe's belly.
We found another Vietnamese restaurant near the harbor. It
was probably the worst I ever had. Everything was prepackaged and boxed up.
They nuked it if you wanted to eat it there. Very disappointing, we decided on
some ice cream to wash away the taste then headed on to Nice. We were taking
Flixbus, the same company I used from Budapest to Prague. And like the first
time, this bus was 45 min late. Not a great track record so far, but cheap and
comfortable, so you really can't complain.
Sat morning Mic's dad, Jørn, went to down to the local bakery and
brought us fresh bread and croissants. Such a sweet man, he did the same thing
every morning of our visit and they were delicious. After breakfast, he took
us on a walking tour of Nice. We went to Castle Hill. Once a citadel, this
hill top park offered beautiful views of Nice and the surrounding beaches and
harbors. It's quite a nice bit of greenery overlooking the city and even had
a waterfall. It is possible walk up the stairs, but why do that when there is
an elevator?
We did decide to get some exercise and walk down though. This
brought us to a really interesting cemetery. We wandered around marveling at
the many extravagant monuments, some dating back to the 1800's. Most
were family burial sites with several generations of names carved in the
headstones. In the end, we couldn't believe we spent so much time looking at
graves, but it really was quite fascinating.
After walking around some more we headed to the market in Old Town to
find Mic some of his favorite tea. The market was a series of very narrow
pedestrian streets with little shops on either side. There were butchers with
various cuts of meat including an entire pig with his insides stuffed with who
knows what. There were the usual variety of brightly colored fruits and
vegetables and numerous cafes and wine bars. We stopped for a nice lunch that
was a cross between a sandwich and pizza. I say nice because we were starving,
but to be honest, it looked a whole lot better then it tasted. On the way back
we stopped by this really fun park. It was an entire city block of water jets
shooting up from the pavement for children, and more then a few adults, to play
in. It was a really hot day and the place was packed. It was quite the fun
day, just walking around the city seeing the sights with Mic and his dad.
On Sunday the boys wanted to hit the flea market. Mic and his dad
lived together in Nice a few years ago and they loved going to the flea markets
looking for records together. The first place we went to had mostly pure,
unadulterated, junk. This was the kind of stuff most of us would throw out, but
Mic found quite a few really nice records. He also found a great deal on a very
expensive record player. In this case, it was quite likely the seller had no
idea what he had. Of course it needs a new needle, but that should be no
problem. The next location had much higher quality items for sale, including
furniture and antiques, a lot of record dealers and even another record player.
Who knew! For a man who makes his living buying and selling vinyl records, I
always thought it was funny that he had no record player. Now he has two. This
is going to be a challenge to get them both home!
In the afternoon Jørn
wanted to introduce us to his retired American friends Ed and Nonie. They are
from Arizona and spend the summers in Nice. They were such a fun couple and had
led a very interesting life. When their kids were young, they took a boat all
over Europe. One year they went from Amsterdam to Paris, then bought a camper
van and continued traveling. These are my kind of people! I had no idea you
could see so many places by boat, but apparently its quite popular. While they
had their own boat, I've heard of river cruises all over Europe on the major
rivers like the Rhine and Danube. Ed and Nonie's balcony overlooked
the main road between Nice and Monte Carlo and we watched an endless parade of
expensive cars drive past. We saw Lamborghini, Bentley, Maserati, Jaguar, Aston
Martin and some I never even heard of. Their view of the harbor was
spectacular.
Jørn is a photographer and I have long
wanted a nice camera. While my Galaxy S5 takes remarkable pictures, it's no
good at long distance shots. So after another breakfast of fresh pastries, we
set off to the electronics store on the other side of town. Mic also wanted a
new pair of shoes, so we stopped in every shoe store along the way. In the end,
we went back to Old Town to get a pair he saw yesterday. We went to one
electronics store and found a great camera. We decided to go next door to
another store to compare. I ended up getting a really nice Panasonic bridge
camera for almost €180 cheaper at the 2nd store. It pays to shop
around!
After a quick stop at home for lunch and to charge the
camera battery, we headed over to Monte Carlo. As expected, everywhere we
looked we saw wealth on display. The harbor was filled with luxury
yachts. The yachts were massive and opulent, with helipads, on board garages
for all kind of expensive toys, hot tubs and pools on deck and lord only knows
what we couldn't see. Every car that passed screamed 'look at me, I'm super
rich'! We did some window shopping, at least the boys did. There were luxury
car dealers on ever corner. At one point I looked back and they were squatting
down, peering in the widow like two little kids. Such a cute pair. After a bit
more walking around we found a pedestrian street with some nice restaurants. I
had mussels again, this time with no cheese, and they were even better. Still a
strange combination, fries with mussels, but hey when in Rome right? Or Monaco
as it were. While I can't know what it's like to be
rich, hell I can't even imagine what it's like to have money at the end of each
month! I think if I did have money, Monte Carlo isn't where I would spend my
time. Unless the object is to see and be seen I guess. Personally, I was
unimpressed. So many other cities have so much more to
offer.
On Tuesday, Ed joined us on a photography adventure.
Jørn took us up in the mountains to the Gorge De Verdon. On the way we stopped
to watch some river rafters. One group was practicing getting from the river,
back in the boat and they had quite the crowd of onlookers. Basically they had
all climbed up on a huge rock and one by one were being pushed in the fast
moving water with the goal of catching, and climbing back in, the raft that was
stationed just below the rapids. It looked like they all made it but several
had to be literally shoved off the rock. Only a few jumped on their own. At
one point the instructor, or at least the guy doing the shoving, pointed out to
a particularly reluctant young man, that he had an audience of about 10 people,
all with camera's pointed directly at him. I'm not sure that helped, since he
too was shoved in. Once safely in the raft, they were all laughing and high
fiving each other, so it must not have been all that bad. They couldn't wait to
scramble back to the rock for another turn.
We continued on to the gorge and it was beautiful! This
river canyon is said to be one of the most beautiful in Europe. It was quite
rugged with shear cliffs on either side. We stopped at the rim and could see a
big portion of it, including a group of (I think) swallows nesting on the rock
wall. With my new zoom lens I could easily pick out the little birds on the
other side of the canyon. I'm not sure where we were, probably somewhere in the
middle. We continued driving around the rim till we
came to a small town of maybe 50 houses. At the entrance to the main street
there was a huge garden of lavender bushes. Out came the cameras because there
were hundreds of butterflies and bees. In retrospect, I should have used my
cell phone for the closeups. But we all got some good shots before
heading into the town.
Lunch was a simple picnic after Jørn talked a nearby cafe
into making us some ham sandwiches. I'm not sure it was actually on the menu
since they went into their house to make them, but they were good enough to hold
us over till dinner. Ed and I wandered around the little town taking pictures
while Mic and his dad chatted away. I will say they were remarkably good at
switching between Danish and English. If they were talking and I walked up,
they would switch to English in mid sentence. Sometimes Jørn would catch me up on what they
were talking about. The funny thing was, he would sometimes do it in Danish.
So they would be talking in Danish, switch to English to finish the thought,
then he would tell me, in Danish, what they were just discussing, in Danish. I'm
sure he didn't even realize it and I like hearing their native language, so I
never said anything. When we got home, Mic woke up in the morning speaking
Danish to me. He repeated himself 3 or 4 times before he realized why I wasn't
understanding him LOL.
Our ultimate destination was some kind of vulture hangout
and nesting area. We walked down a long dirt road and we could see maybe
10-15 birds flying overhead. We saw a nesting pair land and feed their young,
but they were on a rocky outcrop high above our heads and we really couldn't get
a good picture. We continued on up the trail and soon came to a huge flat space
overlooking the gorge below. We had the absolute best seat in the house! There
were birds flying above us and below us. There were so many it was hard to
target just one. I looked over to our right and saw a huge ledge with what
looked like several groups of young vultures. The adults would land, feed the
starving brood, then take off again. I'm not sure just how many babies there
were but from the number of landings and takeoffs, I would guess 3 or 4 nests.
There was quite a bit of brush obscuring our view of the smaller birds, but you
could see the little heads bobbing up and down when an adult came near. I
probably took well over 500 photos. Most were a blur or open sky, but I got
about 10 really, really good shots. When I say I, I mean my camera. Mic took
just as many as me, so its hard to say who took the winning pictures.
It really was a magical day, just sitting there watching
the birds flying effortlessly overhead. There were pretty strong wind currents,
so they just seemed to glide forever. It was hard to know where to look, there
was so much going on. I found it really hard to hold the camera steady, with
the zoom lens all the way out. And to find a bird in the right position once
you are zoomed in; much harder then it looked! We probably stayed out there for
3 hours or more, none of us wanted to leave. All the way back down the trail,
we kept stopping for just one more picture. We were all famished on the way
home and Ed and I started talking about our favorite restaurants in the US. I
do miss the food back home. But I'm hardly starving here, Mic and I ended up
eating at a Vietnamese restaurant right across from his dad's
place.
Wednesday it was time to go home. After a bit of
shopping in the mall nearby, we packed our bags and headed to the airport. As
we were waiting in line we were told there would be a 45 min delay, no
explanation. OK, no problem. But the line to check in wasn't moving at all.
We started chatting with the couple in front of us. They were American and had
2 little children. They seemed like a really nice couple, but we were praying
not to be stuck next to them on the flight. The little boy (4 or 5) was a
screamer! He had meltdown after meltdown for absolutely no apparent reason.
One or the other would lead him off and try to calm him down. While I really
felt for them, I also had pity for who would be near them on the flight. They
had so much luggage I asked if they were moving. No, just a 2 week vacation.
Two huge duffel bags you could honestly fit a body in. 4 more huge suitcases
and each had a big backpack. They were stationed in Germany and were headed
home in Sept, so they wanted to get all the traveling in they could. They were
going from France to Switzerland, with a short layover in Frankfurt like us.
They said they were going from beach to snow and had to bring it all with them.
Frankfurt was less then 2 hrs from their home, I don't know why they didn't drop
some of it off. Crazy! I guess the 2 big bags were car seats and strollers.
As if the screaming child wasn't enough, the smoothie place across from the
check-in counter was blaring techno music. All you could hear was a nose bleed
inducing thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump...
Our nightmare of noise was interrupted by a bag scare.
Some idiot had left their carry on bag at the counter. Considering the terror
attack earlier in the month, I was shocked by how blase they were. There were
armed soldiers everywhere, but they didn't respond. Instead a gate agent told
everyone to stand back. So everyone shuffled back a few paces. Mic and I went
to the next section, near the door. After about 10 minutes, they made everyone
in our section go outside. Not away from the building and they
only evacuated about 5 gates. 20 minutes later we were let back in, I guess
the passenger had been found. OK so I understand it was most likely just a
forgotten bag. But given the level of terror threat and the fact that Brussels
just had an attack at the airport and that Nice was still laying out flowers for
victims, I was quite surprised at their response. Granted I'm not saying
everyone should have run screaming in fear, but at least take the potential
seriously. Eventually we boarded and were luckily not near any of the screaming
children, and there were several. The little boy was continuing to throw
tantrums. I must say I was really impressed with both parents. They took turns
dealing with him and never seemed frustrated or aggravated with him. They just
calmly lead him away and talked to him till he calmed down. Or caught his
breath for the next round. All told, the 40 minute delay worked in our favor
since we had plenty of time to get thru security and even grab a bite to eat.
Which was why we were especially pissed when we got home to find our bags were
never put on the flight in Nice and were not even in the system. This is the
2nd time Mic has flown with Air Malta and despite checking in with more then
enough time to spare, his bags didn't fly with him. Eventually the bags were
delivered to us, so it all turned out in the end. We couldn't help but feel
sorry for the couple flying to Switzerland. If ours didn't make it till 48
hours later, we wondered how they managed with two kids and no car
seats/strollers/kid paraphernalia.
Link to pictures
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