Advertisement
Published: March 30th 2009
Monument des Morts
On our Friday night walk, we found this beautiful monument, Monument des Morts, Nice's War MemorialMy final series of entries. Hooray! I’m going to re-write this disclaimer. “Dammit Jim, I’m a nurse not a writer/editor.”
For those who are reading the travel journal, I hope my notes and short stories have been amusing. I told everyone, this year it’s all about technology and no more paper. How appropriate as this class is about sustaining our environment.
With all good intentions, I have tried to do the best job in writing and editing. So not to make any excuses, and I do have some, please accept my apologies for any spelling errors. When I get back, I’m sure I’ll look at the journals and say “how could I have so many mistakes?” I hope you have looked at the content of the information rather than the format of the information. I’ve tried to be “Above The Best.” More about “Above The Best Later. So how about Nice?
I’ve been to Nice twice now but never as a final destination. I wasn’t overjoyed about Nice but as Lance Noe states, “it’s not all about me.” So I took time to carefully plan out what I was going to do for two
Friday Night In Nice
Friday night in Nice, France- what a glorious night! days. Those who know me, I can be very detailed and very disorganized at the same time. So if I appear to know it all, be prepared (again above the best) it’s because I do a lot of pre-planning. With Rick Steeves as my guide, I planned on doing more than I did.
We arrived here Friday night about 7 pm. Here’s the drill- mad cluster **ck getting off the bus, getting our luggage and keys and going to the bathroom. That’s all we seem to do; eat---sleep—pee and poop. Sorry for the digression. If you hang with me, 15-20 minutes be in the lobby to find food and see the city (now remember, we are usually on the bus 6-10 hours). We got this accomplished in record time.
So off we went: Donna, Susan, Angela, Shelly and my new roommate Leah. Didn’t have a firm plan but we knew we wanted to walk the promenade or in Iowa terms “the grand boulevard.” Angela was elected navigator (can’t have more than one) and we walked east, through Old Town Nice and up the hill going towards the port. Thankfully, the weather was perfect. Clear and cool. So we
Restaurant Owner
Restaurant owner that was so gracious to us on Friday night, he was delightful! walk, and walk, and we find a gem, Nice’s War Memorial.
This Memorial is carved on the side of this cliff in tablet form. It’s all light up and just beautiful. I’m not sure I read that in Steve’s guidebook. So we walked a little more and came upon this small but quaint restaurant. This is what I call a owner/operator restaurant with seating for 15-20. He did not have room for 6 so we walked on. Then he flagged us down and another couple made room for us. It was like a scene out of a French movie (Ratatouille comes to mind). Thank goodness he spoke a bit of English. He did his best to explain the menu- pizza to pasta to seafood to meat. We all got a variety, well not…..several got pizza. Enough already with pizza. Susan and I got a fish dish on a bed of sauerkraut of all things. It was just “okay.” We also ate escargot as a gift and dare from Susan. I think we all ate one? At least I did. Not much taste.
The fun part of the dinner was the conversation us girls were having about life, love,
French Dinner
Angela, Shelley, Leah, Susan, Donna, Ann with the Restaurant owner, our first "french dinner" adventures, first impressions, what we got out of the trip, would we do it again and so forth and so forth. We were all too funny. To be perfectly honest, this is why I go on the trip. Where else can you meet so many people; with different backgrounds, life experiences and learn to understand them, admire their good qualities, check your own flaws (yes and I have some like wanting to be the first to read the morning paper, three creams with my McDonalds coffee) and say wow, you have a great life or I want to be more like you or no sister, you gotta relax and give it up. Either way, broadening your horizon and reshaping yourself is one great gift you can give to yourself and each other (yes Carole, get a tissue).
So let me get back to dinner. We all had dessert and the night special was “lemon tart” or as the French would say Lemon’ Tart' The waiter/owner was so nice to us, attending to our every need. We closed the night with a shot of lemonchello on the house. And no, no one ended up naked on the bar. (That too
Farmer's Market
Olives at the Saturday farmer's market in Nice is another story). We left the night with a group picture and a kiss from our waiter. This is a night I will always remember. Thanks Shelly, Angela, Donna, Susan and Leah for the “enchanting evening.”
Our last full day in Nice - Day 17 Saturday, I elected not to go on the day trip to Cannes and St. Paul de Vance. Shelly, Angela and I went off to see Old Town Nice. The downer was the rain. It rained and rained and when it stopped, it rained some more. Remember Forrest Gump?
So we got soaked but how many times are you in Nice? We saw a lot, more than we wanted or expected to see. We walked through the Saturday market, did some shopping, saw some neat stores, and ate lunch in a part of town that we did not know existed. Since it was raining and I was a little cold, I ordered "fish soup", thinking it would have fish in it. Not...it was blended fish broth. It reminded me of soup they feed you in the hospital when you are on a liquid diet. Did I mention that I am an nurse? And I
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco have been a patient on a liquid diet. That too is a very long story.
It's now 3 pm and we had an hour to burn before our 4 pm tour of Monaco, so Angela, Shelley and I tracked down the Russian Cathedral. It was a very long way from where we were, but we found it. Since we were pressed for time, we elected not to pay the entrance fee. It was the church or Monaco. Do I need to say more? We hustled back to the hotel for a bathroom break. We met the rest of the group and heard their stories of their day in Cannes.
Off we go, about 30 of us destined for Monaco and Monte Carlo. This side trip was as grand as the sights we saw. We had a great time and I hope my pictures will paint the awesome time we had. After 4 hours, we made it back to the hotel by 8 pm.
So what do we do, turn in or find something to eat? Eat of course. After a long day and the look on Angela's face, I knew we needed to find a place within
Notre-Dame
Basilica Notre-Dame Church in Old Town Nice, Nice's largest church the confines of the hotel. So what did we eat? Can't really remember, but we had a great time. We ended the night with a round of drinks at the hotel bar and my favorite game “Rapid Fire.” Talk to me about this. I love this game.
To bed and packing for Angela and Shelley. Shelley has the packing down, throw away what you do not need and she did. I'll have to remember this tomorrow.
Sunday, I’m tired and it’s raining again. But I can’t sit in the hotel. Ate breakfast with my “new sisters” as I’m now the brown sister of Shelly and Angela. Rita, I’m still your Mexican sister.
Off they go. While we will miss you, will see you back in Des Moines.
LongStory Short,
Ann
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0205s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
