Nice Nice

After all this travelling we thought It's time for a short break. And what could have been nicer than Nice ? From the ferry the town already looked nice and when we left the ferry we realised that our feeling did not betray us.

At the harbour we met with Aurélie, a beautiful couchsurfer with whom we spent the next days. Too bad that she had to work during the days, so we only spent the evenings with her.
Her flat is not directly in Nice it's in Cagne sur Mer, a town close by the sea. From the apartment we had a good view to the castle close.

And the beach was not to far away. The beach was the first place we went to. Time for relaxing.

In the evening we met with Aurélie and went to a beach party with some of her friends. We had a good time there and also got a great view of Nice, especially cause of the red moon rising up above, too bad that we could not take a good picture.

As usual the night was very short, we spent a couple of hours talking before going to bed.
Next day we did what we usually do, exploring the city. Because we were staying in Cogne sur Mer first we got on the way to take a look at the old parts of town and the castle. The city has nice little alleys in the centre leading up the to the castle. We tried to get up there with a bike but Bernd couldn't make it up the hill, so we left the bike behind and walked up the hill. The castle is in a very good condition with a museum inside and also offers a great view around.

Leaving the castle was kind of funny, there was a glass door blocking the way out and you're supposed to ring the bell, so we did. And it was not a normal bell we rang, it was the one in the tower close by to the castle, what a great idea.

After another break at the beach we headed to Vieille Ville (old town) of Nice. Well first we arrived at a big square and some parks, but it was not nice there, it would be, but right now it's a huge construction area, not a place we wanted to stay at. The old town has many small alleys with some dead ends and several turns, feels like a small labyrinth.

From the old town some stairs lead up to the Ancien Château, more like ruins, still interesting cause you get a great view above the harbour, the old town, well and most of the rest of Nice.

There is also a water fall, offering a place to rest and relax.

At night I went to a after work party, Bernd was not in the mood to party so he stayed home. So I went to Aurélies office, but they didn't finish working on the layout and tested for the newspaper they got to finish this night. Short delay but not a big problem. I got introduced to her colleagues and had an awesome time. Most of the time they were speaking in French, not to keep me out of conversation, they still had to talk about some working stuff. Later in the hallway we made a office chair race, some acrobatic actions, took over the big bosses office and went down to see how the just finished newspaper gets printed. It was a very good and long night, too bad that I do not speak any French, at least all of them spoke a little bit English and several German words.

Again time past by, last day in Nice. We started the day much later as usual, first we went to the beach and in the late afternoon went to the harbour in Antibes, there were some small boats.

In the old part of the town is an ice cream shop offering some very especial tastes. Like mustard,  liver paste, olive oil with basilica or pepper. Because we were almost starving we decided to get something to eat, but not in this shop. We went to a nice small restaurant and ordered some French dishes, for Bernd it was not a good idea. We also got snails, he even did not want to try them, he acted like the British girls next to our table and said it's disgusting. Well I've never eaten snail in my life before, cause I'm braver than my travel partner, I tried them and I must say that they taste good.

It's always hard to say goodbye but our time has come to continue our journey, hope to come here again some day, see Aurélie again and maybe also being able to speak French. By the way rumours about the French seem not to be right, they are very friendly.