Under the Tuscan Sun

The drive from the French Riviera to Tuscany was gorgeous. Everywhere you looked there were hillside villas, vineyards, and fields of sunflowers.

On our way we got to stop in Pisa! Pisa is a small town whose social and economical structures center on a poorly-designed tower. We all have a pretty good idea of what the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like:

In reality, it leans so much it's comical. It looks as if it's going to topple over any day now. The buildings near the tower (the cathedral and the baptistery) were gorgeous. 

Of course the required knocking it over/ holding it up photos had to be taken:

Next stop, Florence!

Wins and Losses in Monte Carlo

After my day on Nice Beach it was time to get a little fancy and head to Monaco/ Monte Carlo. Monaco was incredibly interesting. The country is situated within France and is run by a royal family- the Grimaldis. The Grimaldi family gets to decide, through an application process, who gets to be a resident. Many celebrities (Madonna for example) have applied and been denied. They are more interested in business and banking tycoons and old money.

The city was fabulously beautiful. The Grimaldi Palace was gorgeous and offered amazing views. 

Monte Carlo is the home of the oldest Grand Prix race. The race has both the slowest and fastest corners in racing and is considered the most dangerous. It's also the only race that spectators are still allowed to be right up close to the action. The race violates several current Grand Prix racing rules, but is allowed to remain unaltered because of the important history. 

The slowest corner- a hairpin turn: 

The entire city was teeming with people showing off money:

After dinner we hit the grand Monte Carlo Casino which is arguably the most famous casino in the world.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but "grand" is an understatement. Inside was gorgeous old architecture and artwork. I played roulette and doubled my money!! And then promptly lost. I walked away happy to have broken even and enjoyed how beautiful Monte Carlo was by night 

Upon returning to our hotel room we got ready for bed and then realized that... hmmm... Can anyone find their iPad? We were robbed and ended up spending a fun-filled night at a French police station giving our charades skills a work out. The policemen couldn't have been nicer. The hotel claimed that someone came in, asked for the key to room 404, and he let him up. Hmmm... Seems pretty clear where the responsibility lies. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In the plus side, we got some sweet police reports for our scrapbooks! 

Ready to get out of France and into Italy!! 

Au revoir!! 

Rocky times in Nice

We arrived in the beautiful French Riviera on Saturday afternoon. The ride from Barcelona was beautiful once we got close to the French coast. I'll never get tired of passing beautiful fields of sunflowers and lavender. On on way to Nice we got to stop at a perfumery and see the perfume and soap making process. It was so interesting. The quantity of flowers needed to make an ounce of perfume is astonishing.

Back on the coach, it was a short drive to Nice. We checked into the hotel and had a bit of time to shower and change before heading to dinner. After dinner we went down to old town to Wayne's Bar. Wayne's Bar is a small bar with a house band that plays a huge variety of cover songs. It's so small and crowded that people have to dance on the tables and chairs. We had a great time dancing up a sweat until we couldn't take the heat another second and wandered back to the hotel.  

The next day was to hit the beach! I feel a sinus infection coming on and had to "stick it in the ocean". We meandered through the streets and shops and had a bite to eat at a cafe as we made our way to Nice Beach. I've never seen a beach quite like this before. The entire beach is made up of smooth, blue stones. 

Apparantly some people say that laying out on Nice Beach is like getting a hot stone massage. I think that's a pretty generous assessment... But it wasn't horrible. 

Also, I didn't see one single beach chair... So weird! I didn't even see any for sale in the shops! Maybe we should let apple pie off the hook and coin the phrase "as American as beach chairs and cup holders"

Despite the downfalls of the beach, the scenery was incredible. The water was warm and refreshing and the sound of the waves crashing and displacing the stones made for ocean noise that's unique to the beach. 

Next stop, Monaco! 

¡Hola from Barcelona!

Yesterday we drove from Avignon to Barcelona, Spain. Along the way we got to stop at Pont Du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct.

This was an incredible sight to see. It's amazing how the Romans could have constructed such a massive and precise structure. 

Once we arrived in Barcelona we took a short driving tour to see the major sights including the Olympic park, Christopher Columbus monument, and Sacrada Familia:

We checked into the hostel and changed for dinner. Dinner included delicious pitchers of sangria and seafood paella. After dinner we went to see a traditional flamenco dancing show. 

After the show we all went out to a bar and then to an enormous night club by the beach. We danced until we couldn't deal with the sweaty throngs another second and took cabs back to the hostel. 

Today was quite relaxing. We did some shopping and had tapas for lunch and more paella for dinner. I got a chance to do some laundry and take a much needed siesta. 

After dinner we went to a shots bar. The bar had a menu on the wall of 570 different shots- each for 2€. 

It was cool to see all of the crazy shots being made- we opted for marshmallow shots: 

It's definitely time for bed- next stop: the French Riviera! 

Beautiful Avignon

Today we arrived in Avignon, France. It's a small walled city situated on the banks of the Rhone River. Avignon is unique in that the entire city is still within the medieval walls.

Avignon was at one time the location if the head of the Catholic Church. A French pope decided to move the Catholic Church from Vatican City to Avignon-where he was originally run. The Italians disagreed with the move, rejected the Pope, and elected a new pope to run the church from the Vatican. This power struggle lasted nearly 100 years. During which time the church was being run by two popes.

Avignon is a beautiful, well preserved, historic city.

The pope built this castle and cathedral upon moving the church to Avignon. 

By lucky coincidence we happened to be there for the Avignon Festival! I've never seen so many weird street performers in my life. 

Guten Tag from Switzerland!!

We arrived in beautiful Switzerland last night! The ride from Paris was long, but the scenery was incredible. 

After a delicious Swiss dinner prepared by the TopDeck chefs Margo (from South Africa) and I climbed to the tallest free-falling waterfall in Europe. 

Today we woke up early for breakfast and boarded a train for Jungfeau- The Top of Europe. It's the tallest easily-accessible point in Europe. A rock slide delayed the trains, but we finally made it on to a Cog train to take us to the top. Margo and many of the Australians had never seen snow before!! It was gorgeous: 

We drank hot chocolate and went tobogganing before starting the long decent to Interlakken.

We got to shop a little before making our way back to the bungalows. Now it's time for some wine and fondue! 

Auf Wiedersehen!

Paris in the Rain

We got an early start in Paris this morning. Since our hotel was located a bit outside of the city, we took the Metro in. It was really easy to navigate. First, we used a lesser-known entry to the Lourve and got right in to visit these ladies:

The Lurve was an amazingly beautiful building. Our leader had said that if you spent 30 seconds viewing each piece in the permanent collection, it would take 9 months to see everything. We walked through most of the building and saw the highlights.

After the Lourve, we made our way through the pouring rain to the Pompidou Center. The Pompidou Center is a cultural/ modern art museum in Paris. We didn't have much time to tour the whole thing, so we stuck to just checking out the public (free) spaces. The building was really interesting architecturally: 

We found a great cafe for lunch and then took the metro from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower where we met up with Fat Tire bike tours.

Even though we got absolutely soaked and had to take cover under a bridge at one point, the bike tour was excellent. Our tour guide was from Brooklyn and was the only American I've spoken to since leaving Boston. We got to ride beach cruisers through the streets of Paris and the guide told pointed out places of interest and told us all kinds of interesting stories and historical anecdotes. 

Dinner was a soggy picnic at Champ de Mars. Even though the weather was dreadful, the picnic was good fun. We got to see the set-up and symphony rehearsals for tomorrow's Bastille Day celebrations. Having a picnic on a rainy day in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower as a full orchestra plays the Star Was theme is just SO Parisian!! 

After dinner, we boarded the coach and headed to a bar before the Cabaret. The Cabaret was possibly the strangest show I've ever seen. It was sort of a strip club/circus/drag show combo. At one point there was an act where female ballerinas danced alongside male karate masters. We're talking leotards and gees on stage at the same time- whilst euro trash techno beats boomed.... It was fantastically obscure....

One day was definitely not enough time- I already have a list of things to see when I return to Paris!

Au revoir!!