Yes, it's still hard to read it as "niece" instead of "nice" but that's OK. We went to Nice aftger we discovered that we were only a train-ride away, and even though it was late in the summer season, the weather was going to be stupendous and the tickets cheap. Not to mention we got an affordable, poorly reviewed hotel; time for an adventure!
Nice is in the heart of the French Riviera, aka the Blue Coast, which is famous for rocky beaches, beautiful landscapes, and obscenely wealthy people doing obscenely wealthy things. We decided to be outsiders and leave our mega-yacht at home.
The train went from Milan to Genoa, then along the Mediterranean coast for three full hours. Every five minutes was punctuated with us saying "yeah, that would be a nice place to visit." The beaches were gorgeous, people were swimming, kids were playing, etc.
We arrived at about noon and quickly went to drop our bags at our hotel, which actually had a room already available, so we checked in. The room was...funny. There was a bathroom, but it you closed the door, it touched the toilet. And if you thought you might want to flush the toilet, it produced a sound something like a wood-chipper for a few seconds, twice each flush. On the bed were sheets, a blanket, one log-style pillow about four feet long, and one 6x6 inch pillow. Perfect.
We put on bathing suits and headed outside. We were one diagonal block from the harbor full of yachts and ferries, the latter of which are cruise-ship sized and take passengers and cars out to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. But the two stars of Nice are the water and the landscape and the harbor we stared at was no different. This is some of the prettiest water I've ever seen, and the world around it is marked with jagged rocks, cliffs, and lush green hills.
This area near the harbor is sort of the annex of Nice - you have to go around a corner to the west to see the actual city. As you start around the corner there's a lovely, secluded, rocky beach beneath you and a rocky cliff above you with lookout points we'll visit later. But first we round the corner.
We poked our noses over at the beach (just out of sight in the above) and proceeded to go up to the main lookout point over the city. It's a pretty simple way up - probably only a couple hundred feet - and the views are delicious. The area itself has a park and kids play area, plus a few monuments. It also had tropical plants - cacti and such, which was weird. Anyway, to the east, the harbor, to the west, the city.
We did as we knew we ought, and soon we were swimming in the blue. I always forget how awful salt-water tastes, but this time it was worth it. We each stepped our way in, looking at the bottom and thinking it was a foot or two deep. Our nipples were wet before we reached sand and rock beneath us. This water is incredible. And yes, it was France, so there were some...how do I put this delicately? Nudely dressed people.
We took a stroll through an old-town area of Nice, ate some lovely food (all types), sampled some impeccable flavors of gelato (Kinder, cookies, kit-kat, among others), watched the sun fade, strolled along the promenade, and called it a night.
The next day we headed further east to see the old-timey fortress that stood on the hilltop east of the marina. I may be wrong, but I think it was actually at the very edge of Nice and may've even been in a separate town altogether. In any case, the views from up there were astonishing. This hill was notably higher than the one from yesterday, which meant we could see over the one we'd already climbed and to the city, while to the east we saw the next port/harbor/town. And we were at the base of a medieval fortress. Not bad, France.
Upon descent it was back to the beach. We used the local bikeshare to ride to a Russian Orthodox church - like a miniature St. Basil's. It was uphill the whole way. We arrived and the ENTIRE thing was covered in canvas for a renovation. You could not see a single exterior wall. I had warmed on Russia because Putin seems so hilariously awful as a person, but this turned things again.
The city has a whole central section of play area for kids which is just terrific. There are fountains that kids run and play in, playgrounds, grassy areas, and more fountains. It's kilometers long and every city should aspire to have such a thing. That's all.
We made it back to the beach for sunset. It was good.
.jpg)
Much like how Brussels was an unexpectedly wonderful trip, Nice was too. We didn't know a lot about it, but once we found out that we could get there easily and stay for cheap, that was all we really needed to know.
Nice is in the heart of the French Riviera, aka the Blue Coast, which is famous for rocky beaches, beautiful landscapes, and obscenely wealthy people doing obscenely wealthy things. We decided to be outsiders and leave our mega-yacht at home.
The train went from Milan to Genoa, then along the Mediterranean coast for three full hours. Every five minutes was punctuated with us saying "yeah, that would be a nice place to visit." The beaches were gorgeous, people were swimming, kids were playing, etc.
We arrived at about noon and quickly went to drop our bags at our hotel, which actually had a room already available, so we checked in. The room was...funny. There was a bathroom, but it you closed the door, it touched the toilet. And if you thought you might want to flush the toilet, it produced a sound something like a wood-chipper for a few seconds, twice each flush. On the bed were sheets, a blanket, one log-style pillow about four feet long, and one 6x6 inch pillow. Perfect.
We put on bathing suits and headed outside. We were one diagonal block from the harbor full of yachts and ferries, the latter of which are cruise-ship sized and take passengers and cars out to the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. But the two stars of Nice are the water and the landscape and the harbor we stared at was no different. This is some of the prettiest water I've ever seen, and the world around it is marked with jagged rocks, cliffs, and lush green hills.
This area near the harbor is sort of the annex of Nice - you have to go around a corner to the west to see the actual city. As you start around the corner there's a lovely, secluded, rocky beach beneath you and a rocky cliff above you with lookout points we'll visit later. But first we round the corner.
We poked our noses over at the beach (just out of sight in the above) and proceeded to go up to the main lookout point over the city. It's a pretty simple way up - probably only a couple hundred feet - and the views are delicious. The area itself has a park and kids play area, plus a few monuments. It also had tropical plants - cacti and such, which was weird. Anyway, to the east, the harbor, to the west, the city.
We did as we knew we ought, and soon we were swimming in the blue. I always forget how awful salt-water tastes, but this time it was worth it. We each stepped our way in, looking at the bottom and thinking it was a foot or two deep. Our nipples were wet before we reached sand and rock beneath us. This water is incredible. And yes, it was France, so there were some...how do I put this delicately? Nudely dressed people.
We took a stroll through an old-town area of Nice, ate some lovely food (all types), sampled some impeccable flavors of gelato (Kinder, cookies, kit-kat, among others), watched the sun fade, strolled along the promenade, and called it a night.
The next day we headed further east to see the old-timey fortress that stood on the hilltop east of the marina. I may be wrong, but I think it was actually at the very edge of Nice and may've even been in a separate town altogether. In any case, the views from up there were astonishing. This hill was notably higher than the one from yesterday, which meant we could see over the one we'd already climbed and to the city, while to the east we saw the next port/harbor/town. And we were at the base of a medieval fortress. Not bad, France.
Upon descent it was back to the beach. We used the local bikeshare to ride to a Russian Orthodox church - like a miniature St. Basil's. It was uphill the whole way. We arrived and the ENTIRE thing was covered in canvas for a renovation. You could not see a single exterior wall. I had warmed on Russia because Putin seems so hilariously awful as a person, but this turned things again.
The city has a whole central section of play area for kids which is just terrific. There are fountains that kids run and play in, playgrounds, grassy areas, and more fountains. It's kilometers long and every city should aspire to have such a thing. That's all.
We made it back to the beach for sunset. It was good.
Much like how Brussels was an unexpectedly wonderful trip, Nice was too. We didn't know a lot about it, but once we found out that we could get there easily and stay for cheap, that was all we really needed to know.
It seems that the whole area of the French and Italian Rivieras are similar and beautiful. It's a stretch of Mediterranean that goes for hundreds of miles, and it's one of the places we visited that might actually produce a 2nd trip. However, the second trip will be in the spring and likely to a different town. Or country. We actually traveled through Monaco to get there, but that's another story for another day.
Up next: Innsbruck, Austria, the weekend before my 28th birthday. This will mark Norbert Wiegele's first appearance. We went canyoning. It was awesome.
Comments
Post a Comment