Europe Day 12 of 59, Èze to Nice

This morning it was time to leave the Medieval hilltop village and head into civilization. But before we do, it is time for me to break my self-imposed rule a second time. You see, I realized that yesterday's Picasso pic was the first on the blog that I didn't take. So...

I have no choice but to share this image from wikipedia of Èze. Obviously taken from a vantage point I was never going to have, it shows you exactly where we are. I know you don't care, but I feel rather dirty now that I've used someone else's pic. The kind of dirt you can't wash off.

Here's the road out of Èze. This is your classic hands halfway out the window, grasping the iPhone like it was a living being sort of picture. But you have to love when a tunnel is so rawly dynamited out of rock

Then I turned around and got this shot. Barbie suggested I write on it, and thanks to my friend Albert who told me about pixlr.com, the browser based photoshoppy program, I was able to do an amusingly childish job at pointing out the important sights in this pic. Namely, where we had been.

When we got to Nice, I was still obviously in out-the-window mode.

A lot of people criticize Nice for being uglier and more modern than much of France, and it is. But going through town spotting apartment buildings like this one, I felt it has a certain charm nonetheless. I mean, compare this to apartment buildings in America and tell me what's ugly.

Our hotel is located on the Promenade des Anglais, a major street running along the beach that calls to mind Miami, Santa Monica, and every other beach city you can recall. Thinking about it, how many ways are there to do a main street along the beach?

Palm trees. Sand. Cars. If I told you this was taken in Florida, you know you'd buy it. But that water is the Mediterranean.

What more can you ask for from the French Riviera than an elderly man in a speedo?

The boardwalk of the Promenade des Anglais. Our hotel, the Negresco, is the minaret yuo see in the background.

Those last few pictures were taken because when we got to our hotel, they not only told us that our room wasn't ready but they seem to express that we were rude to even walk into the lobby before 3pm. Barbie dropped her card, and by the time we came back our bottoms were kissed and we were told, "You received-eh a double-eh upgrade-eh." That business card of hers is fierce.

The hallway has funky carpet and modern art on the walls. The theme of our floor. But the room...

The room is not modern, it's classical European. You walk through the door and see this hallway. That glass on the left is the bathroom, with gold colored sinks and tub. (Colored, not made of.)

The hallway opens to that little area...

Which opens to the bed area... and that's the room. No bathroom pics for you!

Barbie felt that we should share what we mean when we say, "travel light." These are Barbie's three bags.

Here are my three bags. Note each of us has a backpack you wear like a pack mule, a backpack that rolls with wheels, and an extra bag than can be shouldered or rested on the wheeled backpack. That's it for 59 days. And, seriously, we both think we could have packed even less.

The hotel's elevator is funky and picture worthy, no? You cqan see my scruffy beard. Need to trim it and my head tomorrow.

We went looking for a good dinner.

After checking with many professional chefs and the hotel's concierge, we decided to eat at Nice's finest Irish restaurant.

We walked down the Promenade...

Enjoyed the setting sun...

And had dinner.

Tomorrow we begin the cruise. Expect fewer pics and potential delays in blog posting from the cruise. I'm not sure how good the internet is going to be on the water.