Europe: Nice

Thursday: Nice

Nice reminds us so much of home. It’s beach-y and relaxed and the perfect temperature all year round. 

There wasn’t much to see in Nice so we geeked out and took advantage of the €5 for your entire stay wifi. We uploaded photos to Facebook, called home and watched the latest Apple keynote announcing ‘Lion’. As you can imagine after the keynote we (mostly Luke) were super excited and we just relaxed for the rest of the day. 

We did have a great meal at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. My dish was chicken and mozzarella on top of crushed potatoes with an awesome gravy. Luke had really thin slices of raw beef with a salad. Of course there was bread and wine with it all as well!

We spent a bit of time exploring as well-so much beauty. 

For dinner we went out with the tour group to a nice place that served us a well cooked fish with ratatouille and really great potatoes with parsley on them. The parsley gave them a great flavour. 

I’ve also never had ratatouille before, and it was yummy. Will definitely make some at home!

After dinner we went out with the contiki crew to Wayne’s bar. It’s very unlike us, but we did it and it wasn’t so bad to be mildly social! We might even do it again some time…

-T

French Riviera:
Broad horizon, pebble beach. 
Lion on my mind. 

-L

Europe: French Riviera and Monaco

Wednesday-The drive to the French Riviera

An ‘early’ morning and we’re on our way to drive along the French Riviera!

You have probably (hopefully) been hearing on the news about the French riots and what not, so to avoid spending unnecessary time in France we detoured through Italy and then along to Nice. 
The view was pretty spectacular and we took a few photos, but it’s hard to get good ones on the bus. 

We checked into our hotel, and BTW I think you get better rooms as a couple (on contiki) then singles (just from what I’ve heard). We headed straight out to Monaco that night, the second smallest country in the world. It’s the home of Grace Kelly and James Bond and the streets are filled with Jaguars, Aston Martins and Porches etc. 

It was a stunning night and we had dinner at a restaurant with the group as part of an ‘extra’ on the tour. 

-T

The scenes of Europe. 
Landscapes out of fairytales,
And Monaco casino. 

-L

Tips For Travelers:

Monaco is great for one night. I would recommend staying in Nice like we did and just going in for the night. You can go to the casino in Monte Carlo for €10 and gamble away.

Also, the Swiss seem to have relatively tight borders, but the French/Italian borders seem to be easy to go through. 

If you’re going to go on a tour bus take snacks and water. Water is the best drink for a bus and nuts etc are nice healthy easy snacks. 

Europe: Swiss Alps at Lucerne

Tuesday- Luzerne

Over 20 minutes late to go up Mt Pilatus because our Tour Manager was still in bed completely plaster from the night before. Fan-fricken-tactic I say. This is what we paid for?!

Needless to say, we were a bit annoyed, but didn’t let that stop us from having one of the best days so far!

The Swiss alps were AMAZING and you feel like you’re on top of the world!  We went in a cable car to the very top, explored some caves up there, threw snow at each other etc and facetimed mum, dad and Hayden. It was pretty cool to video call them from the top of the Swiss alps and show them the view! Even better, completely free.

Have I mentioned how awesome our iPhones have been on this trip? Fantastic for keeping everyone updated with what we’re doing but it also has turned out to be a really great point and shoot camera to take places when we don’t want to take the big DSLR. 

After Mt Pilatus we had a cheese fondue lunch with some great Swiss entertainment! It was great. I’ll embed the video I made of it in this post. If you can’t see it can someone please tell me? Also, if you can see it let me know so I know it’s worked!

A free afternoon of shopping etc. People love their dogs here almost as much as the French. Dogs go everywhere with their masters including the cafes. 

Our hotel in Lucerne (English spelling. Luzern is the Swiss spelling) was a bit to far out of town for us to easily go in at night so we hung out in the hotel and got dome wifi.

-T

Up Mt. Pilatus
Wow. What a view of the Alps!
Cheese fondue, Swiss meal. 

-L