Nice I miss you
Day five of the tour "Two poles of passion":
Nice - I miss you!
Quite decent, as for Italy, breakfast and departure at 7-30 from the hotel. It hasn't even fully dawned yet. Photos around the hotel had to be taken at night.
Near the entrance to the hotel grows a huge hibiscus bush with scarlet flowers on the branches. But here's how you can indifferently pass by! I asked my husband to take a picture of me against the background of this hibiscus, and right there a huge cycas and ficus are still growing nearby. The beauty! Back in March, I appreciated the beauty of nature in San Remo, and now I am convinced of this again.
When we drove through the city in the morning, I again saw the beautiful embankment of the Empress, with its luxurious palm trees, the same bright flower beds on the streets. What a striking difference from stone Genoa! Too bad we don't have a stop here this time. Our bus goes directly to Nice.
I am going to Nice for the third time. But this is a city that I fell in love with immediately and forever. I am ready to return to it again and again.
In March, at the carnival, I was not able to fully wander around the city, since we paid the main attention to carnival events. But this time we decided to devote all our free time to the city.
We arrived in Nice at 9-30 to the parking lot in the port. Our guide Alexei was already waiting for us there. The first thing he did was take us to a candy factory, mainly to visit the free toilet before the sightseeing tour. Some sweets were allowed to be tasted there, someone even bought branded sweets there, but I didn’t try and didn’t buy anything, this is not my format.
After about 20 minutes, everyone left the factory, and we moved past the monument to the heroes of France along the Promenade des Anglais to the foot of Castle Hill. Obligatory photo session along the way. The weather is wonderful, sunny and warm. We stood for a while at the foot of the Castle Hill, waiting for the elevator to open. He starts working at 10 o'clock.
Passing through the tunnel to the elevator, Alexei told us the legend of the washerwoman who saved the castle from being captured by the enemy. Now there is nothing left of the castle, but the observation deck from the Castle Hill offers such magnificent views of most of Nice and the Promenade des Anglais that it simply takes your breath away with delight.
From this height, old Nice is in full view, and Alexei enthusiastically tells us about the history of Nice. We are more concerned with how to make more and more beautiful photos and videos of all the beauties that have opened our eyes. We were given enough time for this, and then we return again to board the elevator to continue our tour of the oldest Nice.
The elevator was rather cramped and stuffy, like an iron box. Those who suffer from claustrophobia, it is better not to sit in it. There you can go down and up the stairs on foot. But high, as we were told, the height of the mountain is 92 m.
After the descent, we go further along the streets of old Nice, we pass the famous fish market, then the flower market, we go to the theater, then to the town hall, where there is a symbol of the city's well-being in the form of a thumb. Everywhere we manage to take a photo.
Finally, we go to the Neptune Fountain on Place Massena, and then the group splits up: part of the group goes to Monaco for an elective course, but we have already been there twice, so we stay in the city.
There are 7 of us left in Nice. A bus should come for us at 2 pm and take us to Monaco to join the group. The collection is scheduled near the Meridian Hotel, which is located on the waterfront. The gathering place is convenient for us, since we were not going to go far.
We leisurely walked around Place Massena, a park in which carnival figures were located in the spring, and a carnival procession took place. I was at the carnival in the spring with my daughter, so now I am taking my husband along the carnival route and telling him how everything happened here. The memories were very pleasant!
In the park we find a bronze sculpture of a panther, how can you pass by! After walking in the park, we go further along the embankment to the Negresco Hotel. Next to it is the main office of the carnival. It already has a huge billboard advertising the carnival in February 2012. We take a photo of the hotel and the office of the carnival and move on.
The weather is beautiful, so we decide to go to the beach. Regardless of October, the beach is not deserted at all. People sunbathe and swim. Although, we have no more than two hours left, but how to get away from this azure and clear water? I wanted to wander at least knee-deep in the azure alluring to me. No sooner said than done! I take off my shoes, roll up my jeans to my knees, and into the water! And the water is warm, and the stones on the beach are even hot. The oncoming wave rolls over me much higher than my knees, and now I am forced to dry on the stones. I sit on warm stones, and quiet bliss spreads through my body.
But time flies inexorably, and before leaving we still want to have time to go to the Lafayette galleries to buy food, beer and wine for dinner. Again we go to Place Massena, In the supermarket of galleries on the minus ground floor we make the necessary purchases, and return to the park to the Meridian Hotel. While waiting for the bus, in the park on a bench, they sentenced two cans of beer with cold cuts, bought in the galleries. The bus came 20 minutes late, but we were not offended. After such reinforcements, you can now follow the rest of the group to Monte Carlo.
At 15 o'clock we are already in the underground parking lot in Monte Carlo. By the time the whole group had gathered, another half an hour had passed. But now everything is in place and we are already leaving one principality, and our path lies in another principality called Andorra. We need to drive there 644 km, of which about 160 km along the mountain serpentine.
Somewhere in the middle of the way at the gas station was a sanitary stop. Marina warned everyone that there would be no more gas stations or toilets in the mountains. And she also warned that if someone is afraid of mountain serpentines, then it is better to try to sleep. Well, we will arrive at the hotel no earlier than two in the morning. This was shown by the experience of the previous Accord group, which arrived at the hotel after 3 o'clock in the morning. It turned out that only the second group traveled on this new route.
Personally, the trip along the mountain serpentine gave me great pleasure. I am not afraid of such roads, and my husband and I all the time looked at these sharp turns, at the mountains on our right, and a deep gorge on our left. And the most amazing thing was that in this gorge there were settlements, with all the signs of civilization. High-rise buildings shone with windows, illuminated streets and roads below were clearly visible. The question arose: what can be done in such remote places? And aren't they scared here in the winter?
At about twelve o'clock in the morning, our bus stopped at a tiny platform near a bridge over a mountain river. Our driver needed a short break for a smoke break. We all got off the bus too.
The picture was almost unreal, close to fantasy: somewhere in the dark below us a mountain river murmurs, a huge moon and a clear starry sky shine above us, and around mountains, mountains, mountains... and our bus, lost in these mountains. And also frosty clean air, which I wanted to stand and breathe. . . I will remember this moment for a long time!
During our drive, we saw only a few cars that turned off the road down into the valley. The road was almost deserted. And it's not even winter. Marina said that in winter there is a danger of drifts and avalanches, so there are traffic restrictions on this road in winter.
Having stretched their legs and having a smoke, everyone takes their seats in a warm bus, and the last spurt to Andorra. In an hour we cross the border of Andorra, where no one even stopped us (we didn’t see any of the people there), and go to the settlement at the Art Hotel 4 *. I took the first photo in my room at 01:19. The hotel room is huge and comfortable, divided into zones: day and bedroom. The bathroom has a set of shampoo gels, a hair dryer and a telephone. From this it became clear that local tourists by no means can do without a phone in the bathroom. : ))))))
So, we reached Andorra two hours faster than the previous group. For this, we awarded our driver Mariusz a well-deserved applause. Departure in the morning is scheduled for 11 o'clock.
Therefore, we have the opportunity to do useful shopping after breakfast. Until then, we'll rest. We deserve it.
