This morning we got off to another late start. We left the apartment by 11:00 but our bags were mostly packed and ready to go. We purchased a 10 pass card for the bus and trams today but we couldn’t figure out how to use it really. We probably have about 5 passes left on the darn card. No one was checking tickets the entire time we were in Nice.
We took the tram to Old Town Nice and wandered around before making our way up to Nice Capital Hill. It was a combination of staircases and walking paths that wound up to the top of the hill. It was a nice walk with lots of great views overlooking the city and the ocean. Nice really is a beautiful place, especially when looking from above. We walked around the entire hill and viewed a waterfall from above. We walked down to the base of the waterfall and it was quite impressive. The mist also felt good because it was about 36 degrees out and we were all dripping with sweat. It was also starting to get busy so we decided to walk back down the hill and find a place to order ice cream.
We made our way back to the square in old town Nice and found a highly recommended gelato spot. We all ordered a single scoop and it was amazing! We stood in front of a store while we ate and someone offered us samples of what looked like candy. I was so wrong! It was a truffle shop and they were really quite disgusting. Thank goodness I had just started my ice cream and was able to hide the taste! Yuck!
After devouring our ice cream, we walked toward the water to catch a glimpse of the famous beaches of the French Riviera. It wasn’t at all what I imagined. The beaches were made up of large white rocks. There was no sand anywhere. It actually looked nice. I was the only one in sandals so instead of walking along the beach, we walked along the road up to the “I Love Nice” sign and took some photos. Then we started making our way back to the apartment.
Along the way, I wanted to stop at the carousel because when we rode by earlier there was a market. By the time we got off the tram, the market was finished and the streets were empty. Only garbage and cleaners were left. We had to wait 5 minutes for the next tram so we decided to go into the large building behind. It turned out that it was the old train station and it was transformed into the coolest restaurant ever. It had a beach vibe with soft background music and chairs and tables all over. I tried taking photos but it really didn’t get the true atmosphere. If anyone goes to Nice, you have to check out the old train station by the carousel on the T1!
After returning to the apartment, we ate the food that was left over and packed our sandwiches for dinner on the train. We planned to leave at 15:30 to catch our train to marseille at :16:30. We actually got out early, but just as we were leaving, Addison dropped the box of Pighin wine on the street and the red wine bottle broke and made a mess. By the time we got it cleaned up, we were a few minutes behind. It all worked out though because we still got to the station 30 minutes before the scheduled departure and our train was already there.
We found a room of 8 seats and put our luggage above us. It was similar tot he sleeper car, but with seats instead of beds. There was a guy talking (or singing) quite loudly so Tavis went to the next car over and we found 2 sets of 4 seats. We moved there instead. Shortly after leaving, we realized the car we moved to had no air conditioning and there seemed to be a lot of people coughing. We ended up dragging our luggage back to the original car and shared a seat with a young woman who was only going to Antibes. The rest of the 3 hour train ride was quick.
When we arrived in Marseille Saint Charles, we got off and looked to see which platform our next train was leaving from. A man was doing surveys so we told him we would take the survey if he could help us figure out the platform we needed to be at. We found our platform and answered his questions about our time in Marseille (which was really only 5 minutes). Then we made our way to the platform. The train in Marseille is similar to Nice where you have to scan your ticket to open the gates. The problem is that it really doesn’t work well. The man in front of us couldn’t get his ticket to scan so we tried ours and we all went through together.
When we arrived at the airport train stop, we got off and that is where it got interesting. We were not actually at the airport, but we could see it in the distance. It was about 2km away. There was a sign for a shuttle but we had no idea how much or how often it came. We decided to walk toward where we thought the hotel was (according to our Google maps). We all walked single file down side roads, over an overpass, and across an onramp. There were no sidewalks and some areas didn’t even have much of a shoulder. It wasn’t really the best parenting moment, but we all made it without getting hit by any cars. We were happy to finally arrive at the hotel. Tavis asked at teh front desk if they had a shuttle to the train station and they said yes, we just have to let them know when to pick us up. That would have been much more helpful before! His jaw dropped when we told him we walked.
We were happy to finally settle in tour rooms. The kids are in room 362 and we are in 356. We all enjoyed showers and relaxed while snacking on peanuts and pretzels before getting ready for bed.
Tomorrow we are meeting for breakfast at 08:00. We have a car rental for the day but we have no idea what adventure tomorrow will bring.