Our final destination in our journey was to the French Riviera.
This first image is from the cinemagraphically famous city of Cannes. The Vieux (Old) Port was quite pretty and the yachts and sailboats docked there were very enticing because a number of them were for sale. Of course, the prices weren’t listed for some reason. Perhaps one day…
This is an image of the quaint hill-top village of Eze. Since it wasn’t tourist season, nearly every shop was closed down. No matter, it allowed us to wander the empty (but pretty) streets at leisure. One thing we did pick up was a little cologne for me. Since the nearby village of Grasse purportedly produces a significant portion of the world’s essences, and there was a factory right there, we decided to sample some of the fragrance.
As you can see, Liz and Ash also enjoyed wandering the empty streets.
We arrived in Nice in the late afternoon. The hostel we stayed at was quite nice. 🙂 Not only was it inexpensive, it had a great vibe and there were predominantly English speakers there. This is the view
from our balcony.
The city of Nice itself is very enjoyable to stroll through. This is the Quai des Etats-Unis. So named for the USA after WWI. It’s a great place to watch the sun set from.
You can see Ash was jumping for joy too.
Anna, Liz and Ash strolling along the promenade.
Such an interesting contrast. Beach and Christmas. It doesn’t matter where we are, if there is a fusion of beach/tropical and Christmas, it just doesn’t seem right. I know many many people grow up with this seeming juxtaposition, but it just always strikes me as a little strange.
The traffic wasn’t the best either.
Next, we wandered through the old city.
The ice rink was set up right next to the Christmas market. Apparently, this phenomenon is becoming more and more popular throughout Europe … a market of predominantly hand made goods with roughly a Christmas theme.
More of that juxtaposition.
Happy Holidays!
With that, we bid Liz and Ash a very fond farewell. We hope to go visit them in Melbourne sometime in the future. We’ve heard it’s the best Australian city to visit. We really enjoyed Sydney and Townsville when we visited last time though. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Then, we hit the road again and drove most of the day to get home to Germany.
Over all, it was the best trip we’ve taken in a long time. It was so nice to take a real vacation to fun, and exotic locations. Plus, to have enough time to truly relax. Being on a cruise really enables one to slow down and chill out.
So, until the next adventure…
–Jim