Alright there . . . So we have once again fallen behind on our blogging because of computer and Internet problems. We have continued to have problems finding wifi that is reliable enough to upload anything within an hour or so, and now my trusty computer has started to bite the dust. Perfect timing since we still have a while to go and won't have English speaking computer techs until Ireland. So we are now typing on the iPad and I'm slowly learning the ways of a Mac product. Don't think I will be a master at it, but I might just start to like it. So the blogs might become a little shorter, on my end at least, but we will do what we can to bring Europe home to everyone.

So this Thursday we headed out to the playground of the rich and famous . . . Monaco! I had been there on my last trip to Europe and I was so excited to go back and experience it with heather. First of all I must say that travel in the French Rivera is amazing. Not only do you have a beautiful backdrop at every angle, any trip on the bus is only 1€ no matter how far. So for our 45 minute bus ride from Nice to Monaco and back it was a grand total of 4€. Beat that greyhound! The bus was pretty full so I ended up standing with heather sitting next to a man sleeping. We go along the coast, seeing gorgeous hills and blue seas and EXPENSIVE yachts. It took us a little while to get our bearings straight once we got off the bus, but eventually climbed to the top of the rock, arriving right in front of the royal palace.

 

 After doing some research, we learned more about the history of Monaco that you might be interested in. The Gramaldi family took over in the 14th century when Francisco Grimaldi (don't quote me on the name) snuck into the palace with his army dressed as monks. Since then the same family has been at the head of the sovereign state and been called the prince of Monaco. Monaco is the state with Monte Carlo being the city inside the tiny country. The country has no unemployed, no tax, the highest ratio of millionaires per capita, the second smallest country in the world, and the best aquarium I have ever been to. It's definitely worth reading the wikipedia article about the country.

So once we arrived on top and took some pictures we were just in time to see the changing of the guard. It was a very neat experience. As everyone was concentrated on the ceremony, we heard some ladies say the noticed a black tinted car drive behind the crowd and into another gate. From what they were saying, the palace uses the diversion of the changing of the guards to get the royals in and out of the palace without having to deal with the crowds. That was pretty neat we thought. We also both commented on how the guards were all very good looking. We both think that being good looking is a job requirement. And I will include the pictures for all the girls out there.haha. I just might put some hot girls in my next blog then;)

So after the guards we went to the aquarium called the oceanographic museum. It has some museum type parts to it where they highlighted the fact they are a research based aquarium and not just a show gallery. They had to include some weird and disturbing "art" that Europeans feel need to contaminate everything. Going down to the aquarium portion you are immediately treated by a fish tank that is two stories tall, has the footprint of a small house, and has room for every creature you can imagine from sharks to clownfish. We sat and watched for about 20 minutes just taking in everything. Going through the rest of the aquarium was gasp after gasp of awe and wonder. It was even better than last time with fish I had never seen before and some of the most active and giant specimens I've ever seen. We were so very lucky to catch most of the tanks during feeding time, something that I will never forget and goes down as a highlight of the trip. Seeing animals like crabs, lobsters, Moray eels, turbin, scorpion fish, and other fish duke it out for food was amazing.

After our fish adventures we walked through the gardens that line the coastal wall back to the palace. There we took a tour of the palace. We had an audio guide with a welcome from Prince Phillip who spoke great English. We later learned his mom was American which would explain that. On the other hand, the British voice that did the rest of the tour pronounced Mon-ah-co as Mu-knock-o. Heather said, "should have had a Canadian do it!". The palace was very beautiful with all the room having tapestry walls with ornate furniture and lots of history. Learning about what the royals do today in terms of influencing environmental and cultural topics have made Monaco my new favorite royalty to follow.

We did some wandering around on the rock before heading back down and walking along the harbour towards the Casino Monte Carlo. The harbour was still full of stands. From the Grand Prix from a few days earlier. When we got to the casino we knew we had arrived when we saw bentleys, a maserati, some porsches, and a Ferrari parked outside. No big deal! We kinda walked around before getting up the nerve to try and go inside, which when we got in found out it was 10€ to go all the way in. We just admired the entrance hall and glamour of what we could see before returning to reality. In the parking lot was a group of east Indian women posing with a Ferrari and its driver. The driver was definitely loving the attention and screaming girls and he reved the engine to get them to squeal. Girls and cars . . . Yup. Gratefully Heather can't get enough of the sunfire. . . OH YEAH!!

After our adventures in Monaco we headed back on our 1€ bus and chatted with some Oklahoma girls about Europe adventures. That night we ate at La Loraine again, with me having the mussels again and Heather having the four seasons pizza. We enjoyed it very much once again that we are planning on going back the next night too. With that we headed on home to rest our very tired feet.

Heather's turn! Lyle is sleeping and I am not so I figured I could try advancing this monster blog post so that we can eventually get it up. Friday was our last real day in Venice and we had a list of things that we wanted to do. First and foremost on the list was a salt shop that I had seen earlier in the week. They seemed to have 25+ flavors of salt, and since I love to cook I wanted to bring some back. When we arrived we found out they also sold flavored sugar and our challenge became more difficult. The salt flavors were overwhelming though eventually we settled on 2 (an Indian spiced salt, and one that had maple and a few other flavors), we also chose 2 sugars but Lyle insisted that we choose flavors that we would not see back home so we are returning with poppy and lavender flavored sugar. I am excited to see what we can find for recipes. We managed to find tea towels for marseille and Nice and had to head back to the apartment to meet the landlady. She was late so we busted out the rook deck (fabulous shower gift) and eventually some friend of hers came by to say she wouldn't make it, she hoped we enjoyed our stay and left some checkout directions.

We headed back to La Loreine for dinner one last time. This time we both tried out the fixed menu. Lyle chose salade Nicoise to start, steak and the lemon tart for dessert. Salade Nicoise is one of the local dishes...kind of like cobb salad but swap the meat for tuna and anchovies....he really enjoyed it. I hade caprese salad, steak and creme brûlée, the food was amazing! We really enjoyed the restaurant and the service and would recommend it to anyone in Nice.

Post dinner we decided to take a different route home and explore a new area. Ending up back on the beach I wanted to walk the shoreline back. It was a beautiful night for a walk and we sat on the beach listening to the waves crash for a while. Finally dragging ourselves back into the apartment to face the reality of packing we realize we are getting quite adept at stuffing our bags. Only problem is we will need to begin rearranging since Lyle's bag is at 19.7 kg and will be over the weight limit when we begin flying.

We set out bright and early the next morning to find a train station that we had not yet been to. We arrived in plenty of time and the very hungry Heather set out to find breakfast while Lyle waited with the bags. I returned with fruit, some focaccia bread pizza and a nutella doughnut... Now that is breakfast! We enjoyed breakfast as we waited for our first train of the day...there were 3 in total.

When the train arrived it was packed, so we squished ourselves in and headed towards Ventemiglia just over the Italian border. Gratefully at Monaco the train emptied and we were able to sit and breathe! We had a 45 minute layover before out next rain left for Milano, boarding this train in Italy we realize that trains are a bit nicer in Italy than in France, though england was the one country we had wifi on board. The train to Milan was 4 hours and we chatted with a friendly British couple throughout the journey. Our stop in Milan was only 10 minutes and it took us about 5 to get off the train, Lyle learned how fast I can move when I need to and we boarded our final train of the day for Venice. On this journey I had started reading Book of Negroes (which I highly recommend) and Lyle sat near the window and it was a fairly uneventful train ride. We arrived in Venice about 5:30 and I had past the point of hungry to feeling ill.

Back to Lyle . . . This blog really is a tag team effort. Heather wanted me to do the next part because she thought my humor would be perfect for what happened. Firstly, we avoided a meltdown and headed to the nearest food place for Heather. That happened to be McDonalds. I know, it's technically not "food" but it was the only thing we could find. We had our meals which are not worth describing, except for the fact that their mcflurries over here are a sad sad expression of what a Mcflurry should be. They put soft serve in a very small cup and the smarties or kitkat balls on top, then don't bother even mixing them up. So you get no swirls, no flavor in the ice cream except for frozen balls. FAIL! Also, the bathroom Heather used was a co-ed bathroom, not something I Think you could get away with in north America McDonalds.

So we headed out to find our campsite which, according to google map was about 3-4 km away. I had the route memorized in my head and it was pretty easy in terms of direction. At least that's what we thought. After walking about 45 we got to our third roundabout and were support to take the second exit. Well this exit was in fact an off ramp for the major highway. Fail google maps! So at this point I think I'm not remembering the map correctly, so after our first attempt down one street and feeling we were not going the right way, we backtrack and try the next exit. We are on the lookout for an open store to ask for directions, but wait . . . It's Saturday at around 6-7 and EVERYTHING is closed! There isn't a single place open for the next 30 minutes of walking. Remember, we still have our packs on and it's hot and Heather isn't feeling well after our McDonalds experience. Yes, our first opinion of mainland Venice isn't very good. Finally, after walking to the end of the known world, Heather has a moment of brilliance and remembers that the map is still on the iPad screen. So we see how for we have walked in the wrong direction and set out on a new path to try and get to the campsite. We also realize that had we continued along our first pathway, we would have nearly passed it, but heaven forbid you put any sign for a huge campground along the correct route. Grrrrr! So along our new path we hit a stretch where everything is open, and we find their version of wal-mart. Just our luck eh. Now we get to a point where the map won't load the full picture, so we somehow have to got the campsite that is set about 10 up and on the other side of the major highway. So instead of getting lost again, we decided to walk along the side of the highway. Obviously this is the safest choice because Europeans love to omit shoulders from their roads. So walking along we see the campsite across the highway, but can't cross the median, so we walk to the next roundabout and go against traffic, up an off ramp, and down a narrow lane to finally get to where we can reach the campsite. We found out later that there is a tunnel that goes under the highway we could have used, but was marked with a sign facing the wrong way and chalk on the pathway. Good job guys!

With that adventure over we are quite happy to just check in an spend the night in our tent. So the campsites we are staying at in Italy are a great find from my last trip. They are mostly similar and are all mini resorts for backpackers. This one had two pools, a large restaurant, market, showers, laundry, beach court, and you could either bring your own tent or trailer, stay in an army style tent with a bunk bed and single bed which we did, or rent a cabins/mobile homes that had bathrooms and some had kitchens. The price is great and you get everything you need if you like the outdoors. We even got free wifi, but it went down after our second day, but at least we got it right;) oh how low our expectations for wifi have become.

Hello again blog readers, back to Heather's account... Details might get a little fuzzy but I will do my best to share our journey with you. The next morning we headed to reception to book our spot on the next shuttle bus, which conveniently was only a 20 minute wait. Oddly you also have to book your return shuttle at the same time and there is no catching a different one once you have booked so you had better hope you make it on time, we chose the 8:30 return and hoped for the best. The shuttle bus dropped us off in what really is the least ideal spot... Not their fault seems to be a rule by the city of Venice that tour buses and shuttles cannot use the regular bus terminal but must drop passengers off in a parade which then requires a half hour walk or a 1€ ride on what they have named "the people mover". Really it's just a money grab in our opinion, but we bought our tickets and rode the two stops over to the main terminal area on the island and began our walking adventure of the day.

Our day was basically a day of walking while wandering. It was my first day in Venice, it also happened to be a Sunday and a holiday so many shops were closed and we used the day to get our bearings and just enjoy where we were. One of the neatest things is the quietness that prevails in Venice. The lack of cars really makes a difference to a city, there are still motorized boats but it seems as though you can go hours without hearing the noise if an engine. It was fabulous! We took a meandering path through the allies stopping to look at souvenirs and our new favorite shops which are stationary shops. They seem to be everywhere here in Italy and carry many types of homemade paper and journals as well as various types of calligraphy pens including ones made of Murano glass.

Eventually we found ourselves in St. Mark's square, it wasn't quite what I had expected. They certainly weren't joking about the number of pigeons there and initially I was overwhelmed by that but stay tuned for an adventure later in the week that should entertain you all. The church is huge and massively ornate, we decided we would visit later in the week, and all of this is surrounded by your high end stores... Those places that I won't even go into because I think it is absurd to pay 2000€ for a blazer.

We started to head toward the canal edge to continue our journey when I heard an all male choir performing, obviously I had to stop and figure out what was happening. This was not the first group I had seen in the square wearing matching shirts and so I was curious. The choir was phenomenal, performing under the domed ceiling of the walkway was the perfect place. (Burton if you are reading this you would have loved this) It turns out there was a choir competition earlier that weekend and the choirs were now giving random performances in the area around the square. We saw a second choir but the all male one was my favorite.
 
We walked along the large canal watching boats and heading for a park that Lyle remembered from this last trip. We explored the park and a nearby neighborhood before ending back up at a fountain at the beginning of the park that he wanted to show me. Sadly the frogs he remembered from his last trip were no longer inhabiting the fountain but it was a pretty fountain none the less that had water lilies growing in it.

We stopped at a little restaurant to have some pizza for dinner, Lyle ordered the "rustica" which has a sunny side up egg in the middle of it and is surprisingly really good and I had another 4 seasons pizza which is basically ham, mushrooms, artichoke and cheese. We slowly wandered our way back on very sore feet and legs, also discovering that it is 1.5€ to use a bathroom in Venice...you need a budget just for bathroom use over here! We decided that we were early enough to not use the people mover so we walked all the way back. My legs were incredibly sore as were all the joints in my legs and I was very grateful when the walk was over. When we sat down my legs felt like they were on fire and when I looked at the back of my calves I had massive hives down both calves. Thinking I must have come into something that caused an allergic reaction I was a bit concerned since I had no idea what it might have been. (A few days later it will happen again and we discover that it happens when we walk really far when my legs are already sore... Any of my doctor friends have any idea why this is happening?)

Anyhow we make it home and call it an early evening in preparation for what we anticipate will be another long day of walking.