Bon Jour from the Cote d'Azur

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Hi Everyone

We are already almost 2 weeks into our trip and I have yet to get started on a blog so here goes, starting from leaving NZ.

After that long flight we arrived in San Francisco in the early afternoon in what we thought would be a warm city - this is still California after all. But it was rather cold and apparently this is the normal temperature for this time of year. Apparently the author Mark Twain once said that the coldest winter he ever spent was summer in San Francisco!! We found the hop on - hop off bus, done up to look like a cable car but double height and off we set to see the sights of San Fran. Well, that is, what we could see as the city seemed have a permanent fog bank along the seafront. We never saw the top of the Bridge and we discovered the city is called Fog City and those doing the briskest business were those selling warm hoodies with the San Fran logo across the front.

However it is a lovely city and we did the usual things like ride the cable car, walk down the 'crookedest street' (cars line up for hours to drive down it - you would recognise it from various movies) wander around Fishermans wharf (smells of their specialty clam chowder) visited Pier 39 where there is a lot of tourist shops and very smelly sea lions (males only)who took over a marina and won't leave, plus we took a trip over the bay to Sausalito, a very quaint seaside village. Sadly we could not go to Alcatraz - we asked on monday afternoon and the soonest we could have gone would be the following Saturday.

However we did go on a wine tour to Sonoma and Napa Valley which was really great and decidedly warmer. We could have done more wine tasting than we did but have had to remain conscious of Ian's delicate digestion and his need to frequently find a loo as the problem that came up before we left has still not resolved (I knew our luck couldn't be that good)

On to London and a few nights with Stacey in Clapham. On the first day we took a canal ride from Little Venice to Camdem markets - what a crowded place but full of interesting people. The next day, last Sunday, was nostalgia day for me. We took a train to Gatwiok where we hired a car and drove to Rye, a very quaint town in Sussex where I spent a lot of time with good friends back in the 70's. It was a brilliantly sunny day and we drove along the seafront at Hastings where the beach was crowded - rare in England. Then I got an hour at Sissinghurst Garden on the way back, a long and tiring day before dinner with my nephew, Nick, who is busy planning a van tour of Europe to include the beer fest in Munioh, another rite of passage for the young (he ran with the bulls in Pamlona recently).

Last Monday Ian and I took the Eurostar to Brussels then on to Bruges in Belgium. This is a lovely town and has become one of our favourites . It is quite small, very quaint and easy to get around plus one can take boat ride on the canals, or a horse drawn carriage ride - we had a lovely young girl drive us in the carriage and give great commentary in perfect English. They also make delicious chocolate!! After 2 nights we went back to Brussels for a few hours - another hop on hop off bus ride, but this one had a better commentary than other European cities. We are constantly amazed by the age of European cities and their buildings that are so much older than NZ European history and still looking so good.

Back to London for the night on Wednesday then we came here to Juan les Pins with Stacey on Thursday. Definitely right into summer tempertures (around 30deg) with a long hot bus ride from Nice, hopped off the local bus and thought, 'Now what do we do?' so wandered in the general direction of the sea and found the information centre where we got instructions to the hotel we had booked on the internet. So here we are on the French Riviera or Cotè d'Azur. The town that we managed to pick is really great, shops, restaurants and bars all along the beachfront and we are only 5 to 10 mins walk from everything. We have been to Antibes, just a few minutes away on a 'Le Petit Train' a very old town, then yesterday we went to Monaco and Monte Carlo. We resisted the urge to gamble - will leave that for Las Vegas, but I have never seen so many Rolls and Bentleys in my whole life as we saw outside the casino.

So early tomorrow we are off to Madrid to spend a few days in the north of Spain with a rental car before starting the first of our tours next Friday. All has been going well apart from the concern re Ian but we seem to have his trots under control (5 weeks now) and after consulting with the GP in Whitianga by phone a couple of nights ago we feel ok to carry on and take each week as it comes. Will keep you posted

Take care
SHIRLEY AND IAN

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