on my own in Nice

James and I headed down to breakfast nice and early and then we went off to his conference and I was free to explore on my own. I had asked at the hotel reception about catching a bus to the walled village of Eze and so set off to the bus stop to catch the 82. I was early and so waited and waited and other buses came and went. After about 45 minutes a nice French lady came and told me that I was waiting in the wrong place and directed me to a different stop around the corner. I waited another 15 minutes and still no bus so I gave up and went to the modern art gallery instead.

The gallery is in a very cool building and has an amazing terrace on the top floor with views over Nice. Some of the art was quite unusual, but was a nice quiet place to sit and relax.






I tried to catch the bus again but to no avail so I went and had a coffee and a pain aux raisin and walked to the port. I asked at the band which bus to catch and they told me to catch the 100. I had seen lots of tourists getting on the 100 bus to Monaco and Eze is on the way to Monaco. It was a stunning ride along the coast line. I don't think a wander around the streets of Eze was on the cards today as I missed the stop and instead got off at another little village. I wandered down the narrow streets to the plage, past beautiful homes. I was half expecting to see Angelina Jolie walking the other way as it is the sort of place where I am sure celebrities would live. I thought I would have a coffee or glass of wine at the little restaurant on the beach, but I think at 22 euros for a glass of wine I don't think I was there target market!!!



I caught the bus back to Nice and spent the rest of the afternoon doing a bit of shopping. James came back and we went and did some shopping for him before going back to the conference to go out for dinner.

We were all loaded onto buses and taken to the Antibes aquarium where we had champagne, and then were treated to a marine show by their 6 orcas. They are beautiful creatures and seem well cared for although not sure about keeping such majestic creatures in captivity.



Mummy Polar bear with her very playful baby!


We then had a lovely dinner and in typical French style it was 4 courses, so felt very full. It was a late night and didn't get into bed until 1am so messed with my body clock a bit, although did sleep till 7am this morning which was good.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Exploring Nice

We slept ok but woke quite early so decided to go explore Nice a bit. When we came two years ago with the kids and James parents we had a lovely explore of the old city but didn't get much further due to limited time. So this time we decided to walk up to the gardens and castle ruins for a few over the city. It was a nice walk up and there was a gorgeous waterway at the top and lovely gardens to walk around. It was beautiful view overlooking the port on one side and the Nice promenade on the other.






We walked down through the old city and the beautiful Monday antique market to the waterfront. We decided to hire some city bikes and go for a bike ride. The help clerk at the hotel had told us that we couldn't hire the bikes as they were for residents only and instead gave us the number for a bike hire place. He told us to tell them that he had recommended them. It was quite expensive and we were sure that we could hire them if they were like the Toulouse ones so decided to give it a go and it worked. The system works that if you hire it would less than half an hour it is free. We stopped along the way and returned our bikes, took some photos and then rehired them and it was free for mine and 1 euro for James.

The cycleway was great and we felt very safe cycling along past the airport and beside lots of busy roads - without helmets of course. We stopped at the next town of Cagnes-sur-mer and returned our bikes, again costing us just one euro. We found a great little cafe for lunch where the service was very French as he chatted to every customer and took ages to get to us but then once we had him we had his undivided attention. Our tummies were still adjusting to the time zone so I had a salad and James had a good ole French steak hache, frites and salad and of course rose wine.





We jumped back on our bikes and cycled back to Nice. James had a meeting and then conference registration so I was free to explore. I had a nice look around the shops and bought a few presents for the kids. I found a little supermarket and bought some cheese and crackers for dinner and then went back to the hotel. I was a bit overcome by jetlag so ended up in bed asleep before James came home.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Long haul to London

Our trip started the way it was going to continue in that there was a difficult but it was overcome thankfully! First hurdle was in Christchurch due to fog. There had been flight cancellations in and out of both Christchurch and Auckland in the morning which led to flight delays all day. The lady that did our tickets was very doubtful I would get onto the 5.55 flight and then the next flights were all full. I was seriously thinking that I would have to go home and then try again on Saturday. James was confirmed so he got on the flight and then I had to wait with about ten other standby passengers and wait for my name to be called. My flight must have been looking after me as only four of us got on and I was one of them!!

We got to Auckland with about four hours to spare but ended up needing that much time as the link between LA and London was down and so no boarding passes could be printed. Thank fully they got it sorted and we got our boarding passes after about an hour. I had paid for an upgrade on my staff travel ticket but unfortunately the flights were almost full so I didn't get to be in business class with James. Luckily I had an empty seat beside me so had a bit of space. The flight went well and James and I met up on the airbridge. In LA even though we were just in transit we still had to through immigration. I also needed to get issued with a proper boarding pass as only had a standby ticket. We got to immigration security and my fingerprints were scanned and unfortunately they didn't match my passport. I had to be taken into the immigration secured office escorted by a big burly security guard. Luckily as I was in Transit I was priority and got seen quite quickly and was cleared. It was a bit scary though and I did worry at one point that I might get sent back to NZ - I must not look like much of a threat. James was waiting for me outside the door and lovely lady from AIr NZ (who was called Lovely) came to check on me and helped to hurry things along.

We made it to the gate with plenty of time to get my boarding card issued and unfortunately still no upgrade, even James didn't get into business class as it was full. He did get a premier economy seat though and he very kindly let me sit in it and he had my economy seat. It was nice to be in the nice seats with yummy food and a bit more space to spread out and the ability to have a better sleep.

I had a good flight although James didn't fair so well with not much leg room and the flight was much more crowded so no spare seat beside him. We arrived in London on Saturday morning which was a bit odd as we had been travelling for 30 hours and had left Christchurch on Friday evening.

We had a lovely taxi drive through London to our hotel and it felt surreal seeing Daffodils and blossom. Our hotel was right by St Paul's cathedral so after we checked in we had a coffee and then went and explored the beautiful St Paul's. James struggled with the no photo policy so just and to embrace the ambience. He was able to take photos from the top of the dome though as it was outside. I had been up there last time and so didn't go with him as the staircase is very steep narrow. The staircase winds up through the cone and is metal and open so you can see right down so not great for my fear of heights. James enjoyed it though and got some good photos.


After St Paul's we walked across to the millennium bridge and along the South Bank to the London eye. We decided to not go on it though and instead walked over to Big Ben and Westminster Abby. We were starting to get tired so decided to catch the tube home. The queue was really long for tickets so we decided to just jump on the bus. The buses no longer take cash and we didn't fancy having to go queue up again so tried to use our credit card to pay. It only worked for one ticket but the conductor let me on anyway.






So nice to get back to the hotel and then had dinner at the English pub down the road it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad