Let me start off by saying, Nice is beautiful – as you can see by the picture above.  We boarded a train in Reims at about 3 PM and we didn’t arrived to Nice until about 11 PM at night on September 24th.

We awoke the next morning bushy tailed and bright eyed – it was nice in Nice (ok I will have to stop myself from over-using that pun).  We thought “hey, it’s really nice outside… and there’s a beach on the south of France!”, so we did what any tourist would do on a beautiful day, head down to the beach!  Although the beaches were a little crowded it didn’t stop us from soaking up the sun.  As we were basking we couldn’t help but over hear some German and some more English – phew, we’re not alone!  In fact, some of these German guys were buying beer from this beach boy and for some reason they had a Coke in there, so they pointed at us and with a friendly smile asked if we wanted it.  Wooohoo!  We would have preferred a beer though

After some walking around and taking in some southern France air, we decided to go for a little hike up Colline du Château – and what a hike it was.  I had to carry Andree on my back for the last 100 set of stairs while I jogged in agony without looking back, my muscles bulging and sweat pouring down my face… Ok that’s not entirely true, it wasn’t too treacherous and the view from the top was gorgeous!  We headed back down and went to grab some drinks, we found a nice bar right off of the main street.  Here is a view from Google Streets that shows you the bar.  The empty table on the left is where we sat!  We also took this picture of the Tram going by while we were sitting down.

Next up, Monaco!  We asked people if we should check out Monaco and without hesitation, they said “Yes!” so the next day we decided to hop on the train and go to the rich and glamorous city of Monaco.  The train ride was about a half hour to get from Nice to Monaco.  We got to Monaco and were in shock and awe with the landscape.  Our train goes through the hills and you actually have to walk down the hill to get to the city.  There was a Yacht show going on while we got there so you can imagine all the rich folks that were hanging around there,  it was a very exclusive yacht show.

We asked a lady at the yacht show booth for directions to the beach and she gladly pointed us in the right direction.   We went through some busy tunnels but eventually made it to the beach.  Needless to say, men in speedos and topless women in Europe is an accurate stereotype (hint: don’t stare, it just makes for awkwardness between the two of you).  Andreé and I played in the water, then went back to sun dry, then went back in the water, then went back to sun dry, then went back….  you get the idea.  After the beach we walked around a bit and ended up running into the ever-so famous Monte Carlo Casino.  You can bet we didn’t see any Ford pickup trucks or Chevrolet Cavaliers there!  Every car in that parking lot was either a Mercedes, BMW, Porsche or Bentley.   Andreé and I were pretty intimidated by it, especially since we were in front of it in our bathing suits – a bathing suit is still a suit though, right?

We were told that Monaco had Europe’s biggest aquarium, so why not check it out?  We hiked up yet another hill to get there but this time we had had previous experience!  We got to the top and i felt like a little kid again, I was going to see Sharks! Daaaaa naaaaaaa.  Daaaa naaaaaa. Daa naa daa naa daa naaa (Jaws shark theme).   We got our ice cream before entering the aquarium (as any kid would do) and walked around a bit, saw some little fishies, saw some ugly sea serpents and some tiny sharks.  We made our way through the aquarium in about 10 minutes and then made our way back upstairs.  I asked one of the workers if they had Sharks here, he said yes and that we have to go two floors down.  We just came from two floors down but I guess we must have missed them.  We had seen on a map inside the aquarium that said a “Shark Lagoon” was 2 floors down and we both knew we had already been there.  We decided to check it out again and sure enough, there were sharks but they were baby Sharks!  Awwwwww…  It was a good trip but the aquarium is just basically little fish, nothing spectacular.  Maybe we’ll come back in a few years when they have an Octopus, some Dolphins and a Great White Shark.

All in all,  Nice was our favorite and we would definitely go back!

Next up,  Munich for Oktoberfest!  Au revoir!