2 Weeks in Europe: Part I

[kitvan]

Here's a trip report from my recent 2-week jaunt to France, Italy and Spain. :lust

The Plan: Spend 2 nights in the port town of San Remo, Italy. Meet up and spend 7 days with some friends in Nice, France. Spend 1 night in Aix en Provence, 2 nights in Nimes, and hop a train down the coast to Barcelona for our last 4 nights.

The Trip:

I met my parents at their home in La Cañada, CA at around 9:00am PST on a sunny Wed morning. We loaded our hybrid SUV up with (all too much) luggage, and headed out for the international terminal at LAX.

Loading Up
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LAX
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We departed on time, stopped over at London's Heathrow Int'l for a few hours, and continued on to the Nice Cote d'Azur Airport where we arrived at around 7:00pm local time Thursday evening.

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The next step was to navigate through customs (which turned out to be a couple cops casually glancing at the passing masses whenever their conversation broke), and to find the bus that would take us to the Nice Train Station, where we would connect with a 9:00pm train to Italy and our hotel in San Remo.

What we learned upon our bleary-eyed arrival at the train station, was that there was currently a train strike in effect, and that there were NO TRAINS or busses leaving for the rest of the night!!! :uhoh

Mom in distress
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So we joined in the chaos, chasing blue beret'd, french-speaking help deskers around like chickens with our heads cut off, frantically asking for help they couldn't give.
After an hour of this we found, who we later deemed to be an angel sent from the train gods themselves, and english-speaking, kind and helpful employee with 'secret' information on an unlisted train that would be pulling into the station any moment! :barb

So we hastily humped our luggage up to a mostly empty platform, and waited skeptically until a decrepit, graffiti-ridden, squealing train jolted to a halt in front of us. :clap Whatever! We're getting on.

So we rode this musty, flickering traincar through drippy, dark stations and over the Italian border where we finally arrived at the San Remo station at around 12:00am Fri morning. WHEW!!!! :crazy Crazy day.

Our hotel was right across the street from the famous San Remo Casino, which provided some nice views and the smallest showers we've ever used, but we didn't care.

:binge We found some dinner and wine and crashed hard.

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So we spent our first 2 days touring San Remo, at the end of which we wished we had longer.

San Remo
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San Remo in HDR
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Then we departed San Remo for Nice. This time things went smoothly, and with the recent lifting of the train strike, the Nice station felt like a normal, bustling public hub.

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Here are some of my favorite shots from our time in Nice.

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Eleanor
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Our Villa in the hills just outside Nice
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We left our friends with a teary goodbye and headed out for Aix en Provence, Nimes and Barcelona.

me on right
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Part II to come...


Thanks for looking!! :wave

[jasonstone]

Thanks for sharing - we're about to do the trip in reverse - flying from Europe to California :D

Aix-en-Provence is a lovely city - we always try to go to Provence on holidays every couple of years.

Cheers, Jase

[Moogle Pepper]

Whoa... you are soo lucky!! 2 week excursion into Europe?! Very nice photos!