One expensive taxi ride later....Nice, France

After the most beautiful 4 hour taxi ride I've ever taken (thanks to the train strike in Italy) we ended up at our hotel overlooking the water in Nice, France. We got something to eat and then explored old town for a bit. 

one of our views on the taxi ride

We walked down to the marina in Nice and marveled at the enormous boats that were docked there. Looking at all the things people do with their money was half of our entertainment in Nice and Monaco. 

At night we found a place to sit outside and do some people watching while enjoying some wine, and in Mom's case, a delicious chocolate crepe. 

The next day we woke up and did more exploring of Nice. We walked through a really beautiful park and then ran into a book market. The book market was really cool. They were selling a lot of old and new books as well as some really cool posters and old magazine ads. It was all really interesting the look through.  After the book market we came across a fish market with some interesting looking stuff.

In the Afternoon we took a train to Monaco to see the casino and all the fancy cars and some more big boats.  In Monaco's train station we got stuck in an elevator for about 5 minutes. It was a little bit scary, Mom was ready to break the window...but we ended up getting out just fine, no thanks to the alarm button that nobody responds to. But once we escaped from the elevator we made our way out to the city. It was really crazy to see so much wealth concentrated in one small area.  Our first stop was lunch. We ate at a cafe just outside of the casino. After lunch we went into the casino. It was beautiful in there but really pretty boring. Nobody was getting excited about anything.  Mom and I played some slot machines and video poker. I won 38 cents...it was pretty awesome.  After being in the casino we went to see the marina and look at more yachts.  Then, for our last hour or so in Monaco we sat at the cafe we had lunch at and watched the cars drive by.  I think they must just pay people to drive their cars around and park them in front of the casino because there were just so many of them and they just kept coming in a constant stream.  It was pretty cool to watch the cars but I think I liked the people watching just as much.  The shoes, coats, bags and jewelry some of these people had on were amazing..or a bit outrageous.  Either way it was really good people watching.

We ended our last night back in Nice at the same place we had drinks the night before. After a few drinks we went to a couple of casinos in Nice near our hotel.  They were a little bit more fun (and much tackier) than the Monte Carlo, but nothing compared to Vegas, or so I'm told. 

The whole trip was amazing! It was so much fun to see my family again and we got to do and see some really amazing things! But now its time to get back to the real world and study for my exam and write a paper.  And once that's done its time to go on SPRING BREAK!!!!

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre was my favorite stop on our trip.  We got there on a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon. It was a welcome change after cold Copenhagen and rainy Florence.  Our first stop was lunch. We went to a place overlooking the water and had some great seafood dishes along with a bottle of the local wine, Cinque Terre DOC. It was really good and had a really different flavor, a bit spicy or peppery.  

Having lunch with a view

Before lunch we had just dropped our stuff off at the hotel.  It was approximately 143 steps up to get to our room but well worth it.  We had our own little patio area and this was our view....

After lunch we decided to go to some of the other villages (we were staying in Monterosso). Our first stop was Vernazza.  Vernazza had a lot of cute gift shops and wine shops and BEAUTIFUL views from down by the water. I can't say enough how beautiful all of Cinque Terre was. Everywhere you went and everywhere you'd look there was something beautiful to see.

After seeing Vernazza we took the train to Manarola and then took the walking trail to Riomaggiore where we had dinner.  This trail is called the Via Dell'Amore, the Love Walk. It was a beautiful walk. We enjoyed some 5 euro wine on our journey while we watched the sun set on the horizon.

Made a friend on the trail...

The family enjoying some cheap (but good) wine on the trail

Riomaggiore was pretty dead when we got there, but we found this restaurant for dinner. It was calle Il Grottino. I had trofie with pesto, a common local dish. It was so good that I ended up having it everyday of the rest of our stay in Cinque Terre!  The trofie pasta was really different, it was like little, spirally, gnocchi but made with just flour and water.  

Il Grottino

The next day we went part way up the biggest hike on the tourist trails.  They were closed because of landslides so we just went up as far as we could so we could get some nice views of the village. 

We had been eating out so much on the trip that we decided to have a light lunch on our hotel balcony area this day.  We got some salami, some kind of really good cheese, focaccia bread, oil and some more of the Cinque Terre DOC wine. It was a nice change from eating out and so nice to just hang out on our balcony and enjoy the beautiful weather and the gorgeous views. 

After lunch Mom and I decided to hang out on the beach and just relax.  The water was a bit cold for swimming but we at least got our toes wet! Dan and Dad had been itching to go fishing so while Mom and I sat on the beach they went on a hunt for fishing equipment. Luckily they found the only fishing store in Monterosso and got some rods and maggots and headed to the rocks to see what they could catch.  They caught a few fish and although they were no bigger than a sunny you catch off the dock in Minnesota I think they were pretty excited about their catches. 

The next day Dan and I woke up early to hike one of the open trails. We went from Levanto to Monterosso. As soon as we had walked down from the hotel I realized I had forgotten my train ticket so I ran back up the 140 something stairs, got my ticket and started running back down. Unfortunately I tripped in the driveway of the hotel and completely wiped out cutting up my hands and knees. So that was embarrassing...especially because there were witnesses.  Anyway...I got my train ticket and we made it to the station in time to catch our train to Levanto.  After walking around Levanto for about 30 minutes we finally found where the hike began and were on our way.  

We got so high up on the mountain and had beautiful views the whole way up.  On our way we saw a bunch of houses and bed and breakfasts that were way up in the hills.  They all looked like amazing places and definitely had amazing views but I have to imagine they would be a bit of a pain to get to.  About half way through the hike we stopped at San Antonio. It was an old church or sanctuary. There was a landing just past the building where Dan and I had some left over salami, bread and cheese while we enjoyed and marveled at the view.  The last part of the hike was probably the hardest.  It was a steep walk downhill. I thought my quads might give out at some point...but we finally made it to flat land back in Monterosso and joined Mom and Dad for a cold beverage at one of the beach side restaurants. 

Our view of Monterosso on our way down

The rest of our time in Cinque Terre was spent relaxing, enjoying the weather, and shopping around all of the gift shops and wine shops. 

The day before we were supposed to take a train out of Cinque Terre to Nice we discovered there was a train strike in Italy planned from 9pm that night to 9pm the next night.  This was a bit troubling...

We decided to just go to the train station the next morning and see if there were any trains running that would get us where we needed to go but after 3 of our possible train routes had been canceled we gave up.  We ended up taking a 4 hour taxi ride to Nice...