How about that travel blog, and, Alex and Jes' Great European Extravaganza

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So, its been awhile since we've written, but this is the first real travelling we've done since we last wrote. In the past... three months??... we've finished school (both VERY STRONGLY we might add... despite the extreme rigors of all of our courses), visited and ate our way through Bologna and Modena, two towns north of Florence famous for their delicious food, and rented a car!!

We are now on the first leg of our 6 week road trip!! We left Florence in our SmartCar (which makes us a trio of Smarties) and spent a night in sleepy La Spezia, in Liguria Italy, just outside of Cinqueterre. From there, with a slight detour into a marble quarry in Carrara, we made the BEAUTIFUL drive to Nice, France (a very nice place, by the way). The drive, made mostly off of the highway and on a scenic route, was phenomenal. We have wonderful pictures, which don't do the views justice at all, but are still lovely (and if we knew how to put them online, we'd share... alas, sorry).

We're spending 6 nights in a "real" hostel in Nice. We mean "real" as in there's cafeteria food, shared bathrooms, bunkbeds, LOTS of backpackers and community time. Clearly, we're slightly "fish out of water" in that we have 3 large suitcases and a car.... traits that NO ONE here share. All that said, everyone is friendly, not that we expected otherwise, and we're having a lovely time.

We spent the first day here on the beach, reading, burning, eating, and relaxing. Jes is still kind of pink and Alex is quite freckly (spelling?) However, we're venturing back to the beach tomorrow for the day, after a stop at the Nice Fruit and Flower Market for lunch supplies. Yesterday we wandered Nice and otherwise relaxed... a la community time. Today, we promptly left the hostel (missing breakfast... a travesty) and went to Vence, St. Paul du Vence, and drove through Cannes. We hoped to stop, eat lunch, beach, and promenade along the boulevard in Cannes... but those pesky Hollywood types got in our way with that silly little film festival of theirs. There was not a parking space to be had in all of the city, nor a table available to such hobnobbers as ourselves. We headed back to sleepy Nice instead, grabbing lunch in Antibes on the way.

We had dinner tonight at Le Merende, a wonderfully simple restaurant in downtown Nice which is home to a "super-chef" who wanted to leave the high-stress business, and opened a restaurant sans-telephone, credit cards, or reservations. There were 15 tables all within elbow room of each other. One chef, one busboy, one waiter, and delicious food was the order of the night. Jes felt adventurous and had "veal head"... BRAINS! it was okay, kind of bland. Alex had wonderful ricotta salad and beef stew.

We also met a lovely couple at the table next to us.... or our own table.... basically the same thing, who were 40 and had been doing trips like ours since they were our age, making for great stories and company for the evening.

Thats all for today, and the last 3 months, but we promise to write more in the near future, after this next weekend, when we drive straight from Nice to Porto, Portugal, where we're spending the next week.

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Comments

[Rob]

Nice is nice
good to see you two are talking about more than just food. I guess the car helped to broaden your blog. sounds great. we are all a bit jealous. love, Rob

[Emma]

I'm so jealous! You're traveling around Europe, and I'm in school. But thats life! Glad you're having so much fun! See you soon! Love you both!