Day 8: Genoa

The French coast line from the train.  It has to be the best train ride in Europe!

We made it to Italy!  We woke up at 7am to catch our train out of Nice and reached the boarder (Ventigmiglia) after about 45 minutes.  From there we transferred to another train taking us to Genoa (Italy--they call it Genova so it can get pretty confusing!) where we stopped to walk around for a few hours and have some pizza for lunch.  I think we were anticipating the town being like Nice or Monaco but it ended up being a very industrial port city although it still had some really nice churches, museums (which we didn't care to pay for), markets, and architecture lining the narrow street ways just off the port.  The port was mostly filled with cruise ships and construction cranes.  After only a few hours there we decided to leave for Florence so we caught a train and two transfers later we were in Florence!  We made it in time to find our hostel in day light.  It's our first time since this trip has started that we'll be sharing our room but we've made friends with a nice Canadian girl named Marae.  She's doing a program where she helps out on farms (http://www.wwoof.org/).  She showed me and Brendan around Florence at night and we had some delicious gelato!  I love gelato...

We were worried that Florence was going to be like Milan with a lot of people trying to take advantage of tourists but everyone that we've seen in the streets seems friendly.  Most of the people I've seen have been smiling, watching a busker, or drinking a glass of wine.  We spent sometime on a bridge that has gold stalls during the day but at night typically has a man playing the guitar with a large crowd listening to the acoustic rock songs (both Italian and English/American!).  Oh and the piazza's!  There are large squares around almost every church which seem to be mere hundreds of yards away from each other.  Our hostel is near the statue of David's original location (it's indoors around here somewhere now...) and that piazza had a girl playing the most beautiful classical guitar tunes.  I'm looking forward to seeing the town in the day time.  Thanks for reading!

Nice platform (left) and trian to Florence (right).  We spent seven hours in total on trains today.  A little sleeping, a little homework, a little chess, and a little bit of playing with our cameras haha.

They had a whole museum dedicated to boats like this (miniature models) but it was too expensive for us.

Genoa is a very industrial port city.

Playing with the "sparkle" effect on my camera with Brendan on the train to Florence.

Typical residential road (left) in Genoa with a million mopeds and the pastel colored buildings and Via Garibaldi (right) with a lot of beautiful architecture.

Day 7: Monaco

"It's a race, it's a race!"

I can't believe it has already been a week since we left London.  Today we saw our first cloud in the sky (literally) in Monaco.  We actually began our day in Nice by relaxing on the beach for a bit.  The water was too cold for swimming but it was warm enough outside to lay out in the sun!  We took the train out to Monaco in the afternoon to see the Prince's Palace, his car collection, Monte Carlo Casino, and the port area!  The boats/yachts are both larger and worth more than my home in DC and each car parked in front of the Monte Carlo Casino could pay for an undergraduate degree in the US.  The buildings and narrow streets were quite similar to that of Nice except Monaco seems to be quite a bit more hilly.  The Prince's Car Collection was very cool too.  Cars from as far back as 1911 are parked by new formula 1 race cars.  Brendan was far more interested in it since he actually knows about cars but I thought they were interesting nevertheless.  We also saw the construction of the Grand Prix stands along the finish line road (I think).  I think it's the same place where they filmed Iron Man 2.

We took a train back to Nice which was probably my favorite part.  The train tracks ran against the coast overlooking small towns between Nice and Monaco with a vast view of the Mediterranean.  Each time you look out you're bound to see a sailboat out there.  Anyways, we went back to Nice (since it's quite a bit cheaper to stay there than in Monaco) and had some dinner.  Now we're just doing some homework and planning our Italian adventures.  That's all for today!  Thanks for reading :)

Brendan by the water--it was cold (Nice beach).

Brendan on the Nice beach.

Gare de Nice Ville

The last bit of the Grand Prix course (in Monaco) I think.  I'm pretty sure this is where Robert Downey Jr. blows up that car in Iron Man 2.

The stands being built for the Grand Prix in May.

The Prince's Palace (Monaco)

The Prince's Car Collection

so many cars... that I unfortunately know nothing about!

Monte Carlo Casino from the back.

Monte Carlo Casino from the front.

Another shot of the Casino front.  This is the circle with all the expensive cars.

Hybrid Tulip!

The Monaco Coastline

So many yachts that were bigger than my house.

So many palm trees!  I think this is Fontvielle Port.

Day 6: Nice

The view from the hilltop.

Sorry if my blog posts have been a bit slack the last few days.  We have been spending a lot of our energy travelling and less on blogging, etc.  But we have now arrived in the south of france--la cote d'azur!  The whole of our day (aside from train travel) was spent exploring the narrow streets of old Nice.  I can hardly call them streets since they're more of side alleys or pathways.  The buildings in the surrounding area (especially just outside of old Nice) are magnificent.  Buildings can be found in every single shade of pastel--peach, salmon, pink, orange, yellow, or perhaps a little green.  And most of the buildings are also in great shape with very few in apparent need of repair.  If the windows in place didn't make the building symmetrical, then the rest were painted on.  And every building seems to have the same terracotta roofs.  These buildings combined with the palm trees and checkered marble squares made every other street corner feel like a Hollywood movie set.

The first hour in Nice was spent sitting by the beach until we left to climb Parc du Chateau hill for a good view of the city.  At the top we found a small waterfall which lights up at night.  We also did a little shopping (since a lot of things here are pretty cheap!) and from there basically just walked around all day.  The water was too cold for swimming but the weather in France in general has been amazing!  We haven't seen a cloud since London and the temperature has been floating around 68 F.  For dinner we had some delicious roasted chicken with an even better salad.  Nice seems like a great resort town which is a nice change from the touristy feel of Paris (not to say that Paris wasn't great of course!).  Looking forward to Monaco tomorrow!

The train ride to Nice was great!  It went through a lot of beautiful towns such as this one including Aix-en-Provence before taking us along the Mediterranean.  We didn't actually arrive in Nice until 1:30pm.

Brendan snacking on a baguette (left) by the beach (right)!

One of the pretty squares with pastel colored buildings.  It's actually quite large.

One of the small streets in old Nice that we passed through (left) on our way to the top of the hill where we found this waterfall (right).

We ate a nice dinner at that table which is across from the Opera.

The waterfall at night (if you can see it).

Notre Dame Basilica

The dome of this hotel (situated on the beach) was designed by Mr. Eiffel.

Our hostel which is quite a good one (left) and a casino I recall being in front of six years ago!

Thanks for reading!

Day 5: Lyon

A great view after climbing a lot of stairs.

While day 4 had left us questioning how nice Lyon would be, we were pleasantly surprised today as we hiked the streets.  It’s a very hilly place.  We began by climbing up to the Basilica de Notre Dame Fourviere.  Although I’m sure it has a very nice interior, it was covered in scaffolding (which seems to be a trend in every city we visit—lots of repairs going on at this time of year I guess) so we couldn’t really see much of it.  The climb was still worth the view of the city though.  You could especially see how green the river was!  I’m not sure what gives it that color—perhaps because it’s not tidal?  We then made a few stops at places such as the Mur des Canuts (the largest fresco in Europe—1200 square meters), a square with the Hotel de Ville, Musee des Beaux Arts, and Parc de la Tete d’Or.  I think the park is my new favorite park yet!  It was incredibly large, also had a lovely green body of water, and lots of tall trees.    For lunch we strolled through a sort of farmer’s market along the Saone where we had some fresh strawberries.  We were pretty tired as I am now so we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit.  On our way back to the hotel we also passed through the square that had previously had the many tents.  It was now adorned with tables of books, records, old post cards, and CDs for sale.   A couple hours later we went out for dinner (kababs) and then a walk through town at night before calling it a day.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Nice!  Lyon is a great city and I’m glad we stopped here although I’m sad we missed Colleen Gallagher!  Maybe next time.  Thanks for reading! 

The nicest hotel room we will probably be staying in.

Saone River

Some Roman Ruins we walked by.

The basilica (left) which was actually under construction (right).  I don't think I've mentioned this before but it seems like everywhere we go everything is being renovated haha.  Probably because it's the down season.

Lots of stairs in this city (left).  A nice view of Fourviere Hill (right).

Hotel de Ville

The largest fresco in Europe (1200 square meters).

A bridge in the parc de la tete d'or.

That's me!  In front of a sign, "Only Lyon".