Back to Nice

Diane and I were up late last night, finishing our packing, catching up on blogging, and ensuring that we had everything ready to catch our 6 a.m. pickup to the airport.  We were downstairs at 5:59... talk about being ON TIME!  :)  Quick trip to the aeropuerto as traffic was nil.  Checked in our luggage, grabbed a quick sandwich and a cappuccino for me and an espresso for Diane.  Then we had a 2 1/2 hour wait...

Flight to Nice was 1 hour 15 minutes.  Sat next to a funny gal from Chile named Andrea.  She just got married last week, and was a bubbly and outgoing person who just talked and talked with Diane and I the entire trip!  We treated her to a glass of Prosecco to celebrate her marriage and our quick friendship!  We were being picked up by our favorite taxi guy, Yves.  He took us safely through the streets of Nice and up a windy road to our last Airbnb host, Yolanda.

Our plans for today, our last day in Europe are.... NOTHING!!  We are going to get on our bathing suits and walk down to the closest beach we can find and sit on our cabooties and enjoy a relaxing day in the sun.  Diane and I are both VERY tired, as it is very stressful trying to navigate a new city every other day, learning the area, figuring out the language, which Metro? What street?  How much time to we have?  So, incredible as our journey has been it has definitely been a "trip" and NOT a vacation.  Our new friend Sara explained the difference yesterday...  a trip is where you have things planned, and are always on the go, go, go.  A vacation is where you plan to relax...  Europe was almost ALL a "trip".  We are going to need a vacation after our trip.  lol.

The place we are staying is located at least 30 minutes fast walking time from the nearest beach.  So Diane and I got on our walking shoes (flip flops) and headed out towards the gorgeous coast of the French Riviera. What was the first thing we came to??  STAIRS!  Of course...  if I don't see another stair for about a year, it will be too soon!  Enjoyed our trek through the city of Nice, which is actually the 5th largest city in France. A lot of cars and motorcycles, but NOT NEAR the crazy drivers that are in Rome!  We passed shops, at least a twenty patisseries (bakeries).  We were hungry as we walked, as breakfast was a loooonnngg time ago, so we stopped at a quaint sandwich stop  and ate a tuna sandwich that was packed with small cut up veggies. WHAT?  No picture of our food?  Sorry, we were too hungry I guess. We got one sandwich to eat right then and one to have at the beach. Then  we continued our walk.  We did a good job navigating our way to the Port of Nice and our beach. The weather was absolutely glorious and a cool breeze accompanied us as we walked past the rocky areas and to the beach.

We found a beach!  Did I mention before that there are no shell beaches in France?  They are all rock beaches.  And there were some BIG rocks.  We had no beach towels so we had to sit right on the rocks.  So weird and funny trying to get comfortable enough to l
ay down on rocks...  moving
the sharp ones, trying to find flat ones to put where you were laying, but surprisingly
 enough, it worked!  But when you got up, you had the imprint of the rocks all over
your body!  Hysterical!  The day was a bit warm and it got to the point when Diane and I had to go get in the chilly Mediterranean Sea and cool off.  Walking over the rocks was NOT a fun experience and we saw quite a few people "biff" it!  I got smart and just kept my flip flops on as I walked to the water, then threw them back to the shore.  :)  Thank God I'm smarter than a rock!

Spent about 4 hours just on the beach, soaking up the sun and enjoying watching all of the people that surrounded us.  The beach was like a revolving door...  some people there early, and then leaving a few hours later, constantly replaced by other people, and then they leave, and replaced again.  We had a delicious sandwich that we had purchased before that we ate for our late lunch.  When our butts were tired of sitting on the rocky beach, Diane and I went in search of a pasta dinner that we could take home and eat later.  But...  the restaurants do not even OPEN for dinner until 6:30 or 7 pm!  They literally are open for lunch for a few hours, then CLOSE until it is dinner time (late!) We finally found one that was ready about 6 p.m. but they would not do "take away" (Take out).  So we ended up at a deli of sorts... artichoke hearts, couscous with chopped up veggies, and a meat and olive dish that looked good.  Made it home, showered, repacked our bags (for the last time!) and watched the sunset as we ate our gourmet dinner and drank a glass of wine.

Diane and I can hardly believe that it is the end of our 3 week adventure, but at the same time, can hardly believe that we have done everything that we have in the last 21 days!!!  We have been excellent travel partners, and so appreciate that as sisters, we can still be best friends.  To bed early (like 10:30 or 11!) and then hopefully a sound sleep and NOT getting up early.