One Month

My Sunday started out at 3 a.m. when the promised high wind storm hit. Our 6 room hotel had shutters on each of the 3 windows and I had not shut them, so at 3 a.m. I was awakened by loud banging. I tried not to bother Mike who was somehow sleeping through it and crept around opening the windows to lock the shutters. I was so tired but other people’s shutters were banging around waking me up. One of our windows would not shut completely and at 4 a.m. it burst wide open with wind and rain. I crept behind the curtain and worked on securing the window when suddenly Mike is grabbing me by the arms through the curtain and I’m screaming and he’s sure there is someone coming through our window!! I started yelling it’s me, the window was open, I was trying not to bother you and we both fell on the bed shaking all over! Good grief! After our hearts stopped pounding, he said he was gonna try to go back to sleep and all I could do was lay there and try to suppress the giggles!

I gave up and started getting ready. We left the room at 6 a.m. for our 6:50 a.m. bus ride to Milan. As soon as we closed the front door to the hotel, we realized the gate was shut and no way to open it because the instructions said to leave the key card on the table. So……….we climbed over the gate! Oh my gosh!!

We got to the train/bus station early but no bus. Finally it arrives with only minutes to spare, just as Mike realizes they changed the time on our bus from Milan to Nice–whaaaatttt!?!?!?! I was already so tired and we’d barely started our day and now I’m envisioning sleeping at the bus station or spending extra money on a hotel and losing money on our place in Nice. We were literally the only people on the bus.

But we got to the Milan bus station and lo’, there was bus 508 to Nice, woo! We had to show our passports since we were going to France, which kind of surprised me. The bus was full but clean and quiet. And soon we were heading due south from Milan to Genoa, Italy. If trains are great, buses are a close second! It was a beautiful trip and I saw birds and deer. The wind was whipping up sand in the newly plowed fields.

We stopped a couple times to pick up people. Finally we turned due west and soon the area started to change–there were terraces of vineyards and hundreds of huge greenhouses. The roads were very winding through the mountains and tunnels, and the side of the bus seemed like it would scrape the rocks sometimes. Eventually we could see the Ligurian Sea, although it was quite rainy.

As we crossed into France, they stopped us at the border and the police came on the bus and checked passports. It seemed pretty official, which I had not experienced.

The bus company is Flix, and the Flix Bus dropped us off at the Nice Airport. Now we had to find the tram that leaves the airport every 13 minutes for downtown Nice. It actually turned out to be fairly easy. 12 stops later, we were following our map to our Best Western Hotel in the rain.

Some of the rooms in the 5 story really nice hotel have balconies. When I explained to the exceptionally nice staff that Mike had never been to France and neither of us have been to Nice, so if possible could be please have a balcony, she rearranged some stuff. We got to our room and have a balcony and view of the main cathedral, wow! They gave us a cup of hot chocolate and showed us where the free coffee and tea bar was located, which was so nice to relax in after our long day! Here is our new view:.

I was so sleepy on the train and was fighting a headache and swore I’d take a nap as soon as we got to the room, but when that’s your view, well…..We ended up taking a short walk with a quick stop into the lovely cathedral you can see from our room, which is new by European standards, built in 1870.

I lit a candle as I often do and prayed for calm and peace. In many churches, there are various sizes of candles with specific suggested amounts for the offertory. The little candles are 1 euro, with smaller ones in a glass jar 2 euros. This church also had larger ones for 5 euros. You can light them just as you walk in, or at any of the side little chapels.

As fantastic as the pizza and pasta have been we were really ready for something else. We found a large, pretty café and had sandwiches. The bread in France is different, baguettes really, yummy with tougher crust. My tuna had no mayonnaise, but there was like a light dressing to put on it. Very good!

So it’s a huge relief to have made it through all the steps that got us to France. It was pretty tough actually, and a little unnerving, but we are here! Sunday was our one month travel anniversary, so moving to a new country seems like a great way to start!

While Mike sleeps in a bit, I’m sitting at the window watching Monday morning begin in Nice. The tram started at 6 a.m. but it is so quiet you can barely hear it. The church just chimed 7 a.m. and people are moving about on their way to work. Soon we have to decide where to go next, or should we stay in France for a while? Currently we are thinking Spain, but last night we were wondering about Portugal???

In closing out Italy, here are a bunchhhhh of church pics that didn’t make the cut on earlier posts. They were all fabulous and unique, all old, some busy, some quiet. Like Japan, religion is part of most people’s everyday lives here. Most were open all day for you to stop in. Frequently throughout all the places we went to, there would also be little tiny chapels or lovely Madonnas or candles with a cross just tucked into a little nook, maybe with flowers. All were obviously loved and cared for by someone, from the most magnificent cathedral to the smallest memorial.