Nov 12, 2012 - pisa to nice

We started out early again today to head towards Pisa to see the leaning tower. I am becoming worried how my body is going to adjust to the time change when I get home. I am glad to report that the bell tower in Pisa is still leaning and quite beautiful all covered in carerra marble. As we pulled up at the square where the tower was we had to face a gauntlet of gypsies selling umbrellas. These guys were very aggressive and almost pushed poor Eva off the sidewalk but Murray caught her. As we walked towards the square it started to rain very...

Oct 20, 2012 - ... finishing the long drive to Nice

Saturday October 20 (continued) We arrived in Nice shortly after 2:00 and parked in a private underground parking lot next to our hotel in the centre of the city. We checked in, dropped our bags in the room and walked out to explore Nice. We have been before but could not remember much about the city other than the beach being big pebbles rather than sand. We walked along the Esplanade des Anglais and sat in the sun watching a catamaran race that was taking place directly off the beach. It was a major international event and the boats were...

Sep 21, 2012 - Eze and Monaco

Ivan felt he might have a cold coming on last night and this morning so after breakfast with me he decided to stay in the hotel to rest and work on photographs. I joined the rest of the group for the day's outing to the tiny touristy village of Eze [Azz]. There we hiked UP a lot of steps to the very top of this cliff village to see the exotic garden with all types of cactus and to get wonderful views of the area – Villefranche sur Mer and the most expensive real estate, the peninsula of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. Then it was on to Monaco, the...

Sep 20, 2012 - In Nice

Had our glass doors open to a tiny balcony overlooking the roof last night. Helped cool the room down but let in mosquitoes (this late in the year!) Enjoyed our 2 ½ hour walking tour of Old Town Nice [Nees]. On the Cote d'Azur, we learned it is known for carnations, rose (rosaaa) wine, socca [so ca] (chickpea crepe), tapanades (olive spread), and sun-dried tomatoes. As usual, narrow winding streets and old buildings with red tile roofs. Our guide pointed out how to get to the Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall museums; if interested we could...

Sep 19, 2012 - Flamingoes, Museum, St. Remy

Patrick talked us into leaving the hotel an hour earlier than scheduled so he could show us some extra things in the Rhone River Delta area, the Camarque. This area is known for raising black bulls for the fights, white horses, and rice. When we got to the huge lake in the delta, we were really surprised to see so many flamingos! They are quite pink because of the tiny shrimp they feed upon. As we watched them we felt the strong mistral winds. Back toward Arles to see the Pont Van Gogh (van Gogh bridge). It is actually a replacement bridge...

Sep 16, 2012 - France

First journal entry and it has been a total headache with my lack of skill on iPad. Even now, after buying special apps that are supposed to enable photo downloads, I can't add a single picture. Here's the story so far: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 As the plane made its final descent into Nice, the setting sun turned the clouds deep pink and cast a soft glow over white buildings climbing steep hillsides above the Mediterranean. Nous sommes arrives! We picked up our little (very little) Ford Ka at Hertz, and after numerous U- turns and...

Sep 2, 2012 - Hi from Nice

We are now in Nice after visiting some amazing places in Italy. Florence, Venice, Verona and Milan were absolutely amazing. We went on a Gondola serenade in Venice, had a free open air opera performance in Venice square which was fantastic. All the places we have visited so far have been fantastic - that is all we can say. Now we are in Nice and we are off to Monte Carlo tonight for dinner. P.S. will attempt to add more photos when we have a more reliable signal.

Aug 20, 2012 - Nice. It's the place to be

Nice, wow, is it beautiful! Beach, sun, casinos (which I passed on) and Europeans. I jumped off the train and headed south to the beach, the French Rivera! I grabbed a Grande-sized American Coffee for 5bucks. It was good, but I nursed every drop while sitting on the boardwalk soaking up the sun with the fellow worshippers.  Plenty of men in Speedos and topless women. Yeah, definitely not in Kansas, Toto! Sat there for about 2 hours doing some computer stuff. Sent out an urgent Couch request to my Couch Surfing community. Till then, for back...

Aug 13, 2012 - Nice, Day 2

Nice, Day 2 Went to Cannes to check out how the VIP's live. A lot of property around here is being bought up by the "Nouveau Riche" Russian mafia. Took a drive down the Cote d'Azur. Spectacular cliff-side views of all the coastal bays and expensive yachts. Ate lunch at a quaint little restaurant over looking the tiny town of Eze. Drank lots of free wine,,had roast lamb, and mash, roasted veggies, and a fab apple tarte, followed by more wine. hee hee hee. Saw Elton John's "French Riviera" house from a distance. Surprising how many celebs...

Aug 12, 2012 - Nice

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis! Today was a different sort of day. It was much cooler than it has been..a breath of fresh air! It was 29 C today!!A welcome break from the 35/40 temps although we cannot complain as the weather has been outstanding this whole trip..no rain except a few drops one day. travelled to France today. Went through 167 tunnels to get to France..no word of a lie..To keep us company we watched the movie to catch a thief with Carey Grant because it takes place in France, and we listened to songs from France. our first...

Jul 2, 2012 - Barcelona and some Lisbon

Barcelona was so hot! We could only go out for a few hours, and then we would have to sit somewhere to cool off! It is an absolutely beautiful city though. We basically just wandered around all of the different sections of town and met some very nice spanish people. We wandered down Las Ramblas, which is the major tourist spot in Barcelona. We read in one of our tourist books that that is the most common place to be pickpoketed. lucky for us we had nothing in our pockets to pick. but as we walked down we tried to spot pick pocketers, and...

Jun 27, 2012 - Venice and Nice

Venice is beautiful, but we didn't get to enjoy it fully because when we got there, the boats were on strike. And our hostel was on an island. So to find a boat that would take us to our island, we had to weave through.Venice for an hour and a half with our heavy backpacks and almost 100° heat to get to the place with the boats. We were not happy campers. So we finally got to the island of our hostel, and we ended up meeting people from all over the world. The day after we got there, we decided that we needed a break, so we went to a...