Nice Day 1

The first stop on our tour is Nice, France.

We had mostly uneventful flights. We left Chicago for Frankfort a little late, the lavatories on the right side didn’t work below 16,000 ft, but that was OK, since you can’t use them during takeoff and landing anyway. It just meant they don’t work on the ground during boarding. Made most of the delay up in the air. Had an hour wait to get through immigration in Frankfurt, and a long walk to our gate afterwards, but made it with 20 minutes to spare. We had an empty seat between us in economy on the long flight over the Atlantic. Neither of us slept well. We need to stay up till 9pm tonight to finish the time change, so we’ll try to keep moving to stay awake.

Arrived at the hotel in Nice at 10:00 am. Took showers, went to a local bakery for lunch.

Walked along the promenade in the former river area on the north side of old town. It was low 70’s F, but the sun is strong. The kids had fun playing in the fountain.

The streets in old town are narrow and winding, the houses are brightly painted.

Then we walked up to the castle ruins. It’s about 300 ft up. The ruins aren’t much to look at, but there are great views of Nice.

There are small mosaic art installations in several places up there.

Saw some birds, the Eurasian blackbird has quite a range of sounds and calls, and they can be quite chatty.

Had gelato and sorbet at Fenocchio’s at Place Rossetti. They have many flavors, nearly 100. They had a line, the ice cream place on the other corner of the square had no line. Highly recommended. We had pistachio, lavender and lychee. The pistachio and lychee were nice, intense flavors. The lavender was a bit subdued compared to the other two, but was quite strong for a lavender ice cream.

The cathedral is right on the square, so we spent a few minutes looking through it.

The church had one area dedicated to Ukraine. They displayed this prayer.

Had the welcome meeting at 6:00 pm and then went to dinner on our own after 7:00 pm and made it back to the room around 9:00 pm. Donna had duck and thought it was a little overdone.