Okay, second most exotic spot from which I have done a post. Sitting on the beach next to the Sporting Plage in Nice along the French Riviera. We flew in from Venice this morning and came to a startling revelation about travel in Europe. Almost every travel hub and place of interest is connected by bus! Our travel agent had booked our hotels and given us approximate taxi fares from the airport to the hotel so we were prepared to pay €28 each to get there. Guess what? If you are in no hurry (we arent), cheap (we are) and are willing and able to schlep your bags yourself (we are), you can get the task done for much less. Thus, for a grand total of €12 we both were dropped off a mere 3 blocks from the hotel...no problem. Thus, the issue of true sophistication comes into play. Are we sophisticated or not? Yes, we are in a hotel on the French Riviera but we arrived via EasyJet (Europes version of Southwest) and bus. We booked the room on Expedia via the internet. At the moment, I am sitting on a private terrace (private because no one else is around) and sipping a cafe au lait (purchased for €2.50 at McDonalds) while wearing a very elegant black cashmere sweater (purchased at Costco ten years ago when they were selling for $50.) I think an appropriate term for this experience so far is faux riche - and for those who dont know French, that roughly translates into fake rich which is OK by me. Granted, this next part of our journey with the tennis group is an expensive undertaking, most likely out of our league wealth wise but it is a bucket lister item for us. Weve saved for it and we keep returning to some advice Dars dad gave her before he died. When asked about travel, he said, Do it while you are still able. Okay, we are. Pictures, do I have pictures? Of course I have pictures! #1 - View from where the bus let us off. Hotels and casinos...imagine that. However, it is not nearly as over run with thousands of annoying street vendors as Venice. Maybe it was the lack of sun, maybe it was the fact that the Grand Prix was being run in Monaco today...who knows? #2 - The beach view. Hey, its gravel! And I sure am not seeing any of the fabled beach beauties on this Sunday afternoon - looks a lot like the public beach in Chelan in July with 1/10th the people. #3 - Not so sophisticated outdoor dining on the street. We tried a Turkish place and were pleasantly surprised - chicken kabob with a salad and bulgur....and an overly sweet alternative to baklava made with angel hair rather than filo dough. Authentic and reasonably priced....oh yeah, we were on the street, werent we? #4 - After dinner, I went for a stroll down the beach walk and came across this old, functioning carousel in a park. I think the sign says it is from 1910 - I hope that is true. Weve seen enough rebuilt authentic ruins in the last 2 weeks. Which reminds me of a great sign I saw in a tourist trap in Croatia - Genuine Fake Watches - I, at least, appreciate their honesty. Photo #5 - Curiosity drew me in....so I had to buy something. It was pretty decent looking actually.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 18:16:41 +0000
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