LI

A long and scenic train ride on Wednesday 18th took us along the French Riviera with postcard views of hundreds of terracotta rooves in front of turquoise seas. Absolutely beautiful, in fact we picked out a couple of houses for each of us if we ever happen to win lotto. After this we arrived in Nice to some more fantastically blue skies and warm temperatures. Ahhh, feels like home.

We found our hostel which is conveniently located near the train station and then set off on an exploration of the city at 'night' - still daylight at 9pm. Wandering down one of the main avenues we found the famous and still-packed beach…of pebbles. In fact, they are probably more correctly called rocks (a bit bigger than pebbles). However the strangeness of this picture was offset by the beautiful colour of the Mediterranean Sea stretching out in front of us. I could go on…did I mention that we missed the beach in England?

With a stroll along the promenade we were ready for bed and so headed back to ensure we were refreshed for the next day.

Today dawned bright and early but we had to sort some logistical stuff out before taking full advantage of our mind blowing location. So it was to the train station to book more tickets, which turned out not to be possible because the Italians have 'blocked' the French's access (we have a suspicion that it's all about the soccer). Then it was to the post office to send our shipping docs which the company lost (sounds like centrelink), but they didn't sell envelopes…that's right, the POST OFFICE. Only everyone else that we asked directed us back there. Ah well, we found a more welcoming bunch of post office workers down the street and sent everything off and turned our heads for the ocean.

Mmm sunbaking, offset with a dip in the refreshingly cold water, followed by sunbaking. We did manage not to get sunburnt though which was a bit of an achievement. Entertaining features of the beach were the blokes wandering around with eskies full of drinks singing their sales pitch and the surprisingly pointy rocks that dug into your stomach as you sunbaked. Also, the numerous poor people with not enough clothes to cover the top half of their bodies, someone really should point them to a charity! :p

More of an exploration of the old town and flower market was followed with a climb to the top of Castle Hill for some fantastic views of the bay.

Then it was home for some casserole from a tin with couscous and salad, and a glass of free wine from the hostel owner as we tried vainly to connect to the free wi-fi (apparently it only works in the courtyard which is now closed, so tomorrow it will have to be).

WE LOVE NICE!!

Awaiting our trip to Monaco tomorrow with excitement. Until then….