Month: March 2013

The sleep came in handy. Today we don’t have anything planned – just see Nice.

There are not many people on the promenade as we leave for our ‘before breakfast walk’. Heading towards Monaco and around the point named “where your hat blows off in the wind”, we come across the marinas where lots of billionaires live on luxurious boats – magnificent – might trade in the Motorhome for one. We take a few photos on the iPhones as ‘we are on a walk’ and loads of camera gear slows you down.

We are really looking for a ‘nice’ cafe for breakfast but have to wait until we get back to the main promenade before we enjoy a mixed French and English breakfast while sitting at a table on the sidewalk. It is cold and windy and the street is gradually getting busy with tourists and morning diners.

Even after the breakfast, the promenade is still busy with joggers and late early morning walkers. We wander the streets with ease looking at shops, yes, ladies clothing and shoe shops. Lyn ‘tests’ the price of a nice light jacket – beautiful colour; €550, around $670. It is still in the shop.

After wandering around for a couple of hours, we drop into a supermarket and pick up some bagel sandwiches, fresh fruit and yoghurt to bring back to the motel. Sitting on the balcony watching planes come in at very regular intervals while having lunch overlooking the Mediterranean, is quite relaxing.

Mid afternoon, we decide to do the open deck bus tour of the city. Meandering through narrow streets, we have commentary in English about the majestic homes of the rich, the various museums, the river through the city which has been ‘covered’ to give more useable open public space. We notice the bus stops are named after famous people of the town and France.

After the bus tour, we try to find the famous patisserie pointed out to us on the tour so we could enjoy the delicious food, but to no avail.

Today, we must have walked 10km. That’s good because we need to use up all the good food we have eaten before it becomes part of us. We return to our balcony for hors douvres and decide its too much bother to go to dinner. Bed calls at 9:00pm.

Since a rather late arrival for a departure to Canberra some years ago, Lyn ensures that we are almost first to check in for any departure since. Sharlee took us to Tullamarine arriving some 3 hours before our scheduled departure for Singapore.

Lyn had ‘chatted up’ the Emirates sales rep to get us upgraded into Business Class but the effort only yielded 2 hours of eating in the Emirates Business Lounge and a ‘last on’ boarding of our 777 aircraft. (Not happy Lyn). Her response to me was, “it’s my turn to embarrass you”.

Airlines seem to think the best way to fill in your time on a long flight is to supply meals – we have had 4 since leaving Melbourne in just 15 hours after that delicious food at Tullamarine. The cabin service on Emirates has been very good tho.

We were late leaving Melbourne and so we were late into Singapore and a little late leaving for our onward journey to Dubai. You can tell when you have left Australia as Wifi is FREE at Singapore Changi Airport – imagine all those passengers texted relatives and servicing their Facebook pages all at once – and with speed. Who needs a Senator Conroy NBN service – just get good Wifi?
Emirates has 201 aircraft made up of 126 Boeing 777, 31 Airbus 380’s, 18 Airbus 340, 18 A330 and one Boeing 747 for cargo. It has an enormous network covering 130 major destinations around the world and each flight has a minimum of 8 nationalities amongst the cabin staff.

Arriving at Dubai at 5.00 am does not mean you are the only ones to be in the terminal; the day started years ago for Dubai Airport and hasn’t finished yet. Rarely is there a spare moment for the employees to have a rest. Even though the gate opened on time, punctuality was not going to prevail. From the terminal, we had what seemed like a 30 minute drive to where our aircraft was parked. Lyn and I held back and were in the last transfer coach to arrive at the boarding point. Just as we were completing the pre-flight instructions and push back, the lady sitting next to me decided to have a ‘medical problem’. After returning to the boarding point and much mucking around getting her baggage from the hold, we left 2 hours late. Ah … the lady was French – a great introduction. (We never did get to know what the medical problem was.)

We have yet another 7 hours flight to Nice over very arid Middle Eastern countries.

Arrival at Nice was in very low visibility with constant rain. Immigration was quick but baggage collection very slow. Lyn’s new suitcase is not hard to pick in a forest of ubiquitous black ‘boxes’. It was easy to catch the 98 bus that comes right along Promenade Des Anglais to our Hotel West End not far from the town centre but across from a great view of the Mediterranean Sea. Our room looks out over the Mediterranean.