Nice:
Nice, France was the last country we visited before heading home. After an amazing four weeks traveling all over Europe, I was exhausted. We stayed in Nice for one week. During this week we did a lot of relaxing and a couple of day trips to places nearby. Nice has a boardwalk along the beach you can use to walk to the main part of the city which was the older, historic area. There is also public transit, but we never quite figured out how that worked. The walk we usually took along the beach was about a half hour. The first time we did the walk, it was scorching hot, so we did regret it, but eventually a breeze started and made it bearable. The main part of the city is very touristy with shops and a big, open public market. I loved the market. Here we found fresh fruits, baked goods, dried lavender and more. At the market I bought a candle that I love. Just past the market is a series of stairs you can climb that eventually end at a water fountain/waterfall and a stunning view that overlooks the city of Nice. While the climb to the top does not seem worth it, once you get there, it is. Next to our hotel was a tattoo shop. I had been thinking about getting a tattoo for a couple of years, and this being our last destination of the trip, and having made such great memories over the previous weeks, it felt like a great time to do it. So I got one. My tattoo artist was great. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I collect postcards every location I visit, so for my tattoo, I decided to incorporate a postcard into a postage stamp to go with my collection. My problem was coming up with an idea of what to put in the stamp. In the end, what ended up in the postcard was an actual photo I took while in Venice of the side of a building with flowers growing in pots. Since I wanted to commemorate this trip and love the look of old European buildings, this was a great decision. This was definitely a great ending to five weeks in Europe.
Monaco:
Monaco was one of the day trips we took from Nice. This was a place I really wanted to visit and since it was only a half hour from our hotel in Nice, it was a very easy location to visit. Monaco has a rich history within the F1 community. Their race circuit is a street circuit, so even though the race for the year had already taken place, we were still able to see parts of the track. One of the very well known parts of the track we looked at was the hairpin turn. Monaco also has a hop-on hop-off bus that tours key places in the city. In one day, there was not enough time to see all of the stops, but we could pick and choose the ones that seemed best suited to our interests. We used the opportunity to just ride the bus around all the stops and view many parts of Monaco. In Monaco, is the Monte-Carlo Casino. I had never gambled before, but this is one of the most well-known casinos in the world so having the opportunity to gamble, we took it. The Monte-Carlo Casino was the first and only place I have ever gambled. This experience was how we ended our amazing day in Monaco before returning to Nice on an extremely crowded train.
Would I go again?
I really loved Monaco, but the most I would do to go back there is another day trip. Staying in Monaco is super expensive and doing a day trip gives you plenty of time to explore the city. Nice was a great place to stay, especially since it is a great location to do day trips from. However, I would probably stay somewhere else as a homebase, to explore different areas in the South of France.
Highlights of Nice and Monaco: getting a tattoo, seeing the hairpin turn on the Monaco F1 track, the public market in Nice.
Fun fact about Nice: Nice was not always known as Nice, but was originally Nike.
Fun fact about Monaco: Monaco is the second smallest country in the world.
Leave a Reply