28.01.2006, afternoon

To go from Nice to Monaco there are three main roads: the Petite Corniche, along the coast, the Moyenne Corniche, a bit higher up with very good views (which was the one we took on the first day, albeit in pitch dark) and the Grande Corniche, even higher up in the hills, with the amazing fantastic breathtaking views.

What a dilemma! No, not really, of course we took the latter one, but if you saw the photos I've posted earlier, you know it already. It was a longer road though, and there was some traffic leaving Nice, so when we got to the panoramic places our guide mentioned, the afternoon was nearly gone.


(click on image to see bigger version)

And it really was amazing and fantastic and breathtaking. At one point we stopped just above Cap Ferrat, and we could see the Nice airport and Cannes and the Esterel mountain chain just behind. The time of day seemed to yield the perfect light, and as it was winter, all the clouds were reflected in the very still sea. All that rain paid off, as the sky was way more impressive than it would have been during summer.

I felt one of those so called natural highs, just by being there. The wind was icy and piercing, but after I took all the pictures I could, I stayed for a little while longer, just trying to absorve it all, to burn the image into my memory and to clear my mind of all the other visual clutter. It was one of those images you see in photos (now you can see it in my photos) but that it's ever so stronger when you're actually there. This is what we came for, this image was the essence of my holiday.

However, the light was fading fast when we got to Monaco, and we failed to see it during daytime. It didn't dampen our spirits, nor did the rain... after that ride nothing would. Having seen the casino bit two days before, we headed for the bit we hadn't seen yet... the old town, the palace, the cathedral and the Oceanographic Museum, which we would've liked so much to have visited.

We left the car in the free park and climbed all the way up. We had a good view of the whole thing, and this much I can tell... Monaco is very ugly. Apart from the old buildings, which are kept in pristine conditions, the lack of space caused the hillside to be crammed up with ugly sixties style high-rises. All of a dirty yellowish colour... ugly.

As usual, the old town is the pretty part. But Monaco's old town is kind of weird. Pretty but really strange and fake-looking. I guess it's just for one reason: it's really clean. All the buildings appeared to have been painted that same afternoon, and you couldn't see the tiniest bit of litter. Twilight was adding to the eery feeling as well. Shops were closed and apart from a bunch of loud italian tourists, the streets were deserted. It did feel a bit like an amusement park after closing.

We contemplated the Royal Palace and the view over the bay for a bit and wen't back for yet another go around the Formula One circuit - duly recorded on my camera this time, although we must admit the traffic conditions weren't brilliant for fast lap. Then we left for dinner, somewhere just round the corner... Italy.

Sanremo to be precise, just for the fun of being in yet another country on the same day. It did look like a nice place, but we didn't get to see it properly. The nightlife of Nice awaited, and this time we did manage to find it. The old town was sizzling with activity, and we chose a little pub with live music for a G&T... or two... or more. There was a rock band playing, Fastdrive and although there was a an incredibly self important lead singer called Drive, who thought he was the hottest thing on the planet, they did rock, and he had a pretty good voice.

The following morning, I said my goodbyes to the beautiful blue sea and we made it for the airport. Back to work!

I know, I know... I still have the last bit of the story to tell. Later, ok?

For now, I'm pleased to say I have uploaded the two remaining photo albums - one regarding the beautiful city of Nice and one with photos of the coast, from Cannes to Monaco, where you can see why I fell in love with all that blue.

And here they are, the photos of the little trip up and down the mountains. Sorry, no photos of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea yet. Coming soon as well, the photos of Nice. It's only the Winter Wonderland for now.

28.01.2006, morning

The plan for Saturday morning was simple: get up early, eat breakfast, then go to Monaco. But Fran's idea was to take a very long detour, going all the way around through the mountains. Sounded perfect to me, so there we went.

Well, we're talking about the Alpes, not just some little mountains. I was indeed impressed. At first, the road was crossing a big plane, pointing straight at the mountains, that looked bigger as we approached. When we reached them, we were swallowed into a deep valley with a small river running through it. The road followed the river path and the enormous mountains surrounded us on all sides.



I felt trapped and small and soon came to the strange realisation that I have a small irrational fear of mountains. Nothing crippling enough to make me want to get out of there, but a weird uneasiness, a feeling that the mountains were closing in on us. My wild imagination kept seeing them wake up, feel itchy and squash our tiny little car like a bug. We kept stopping for me to get out of the car and take a few photos, but nothing can really capture that overwhelming scale.

Finally, the road managed to leave the valley at the bottom and start climbing up. Weirdly enough, the mountains stop being scary for me as I got higher and higher. I don't have a problem with heights at all, and being on top of a mountain is even exhilarating. I guess I just don't like the mountain to be on top of me...



We passed some postcard perfect little vilages lost in the middle of nothing, and I kept asking to myself... who wants to live here in this strange isolation? The snow was more and more abundant, but there were quite a few cars driving past and the roads were in really good condition. We were really enjoying this change of scenary. However, the road started climbing even more, twisting and turning on the mountain slope, and as we got higher, ice was making the road more dangerous.



At some point, it stopped raining and it was snowing furiously. Everything was white, and it was just the perfect image of winter. But the road was covered in ice and snow too, and at this point we realised we couldn't possibly go on... it was too dangerous. The mountain had won, we had to admit defeat and resign to go all the way back down. We put on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack (which only made the valley seem scarier to me) and got back to civilisation.

We were back in Nice for lunch and decided to head to Monaco by an easier route in the afternoon.

27.01.2006, afternoon

Cannes was a tad bit disappointing, specially after Nice and Monaco. I mean, once you've seen one marina, you've seen them all (unless of course you find huge yatches and sail boats a bit more interesting then I do). I think the extra-ugly Palais des Festivals made it for me... It really stands out in an otherwise cute litle seaside resort, with the pretty hotels and palm trees. We could see that the movies are a major theme there, though, as we spotted several cinema screens and lots of related imagery.



Our MO was the same as always: after locating a city map - easy as the Office du Tourisme was located in the monster building above mentioned - we tried to identify the places of interest: the old town, high spots... It helps that the old town is usually on or near those high spots.

We made our second climb of the day to the little castle on the top, through the interesting maze of historical streets with cool cafés, restaurants, shops and art galleries, way more interesting than the franchise ridden commercial streets we'd strolled downtown. As a bonus, we got panoramic views of the city on both sides, which were particularly interesting as there is a huge and beautiful mountain chain (the Esterel) just West of Cannes.



As it was a bit late to visit the museum - we actually managed not to visit a single museum during the short trip - we descended towards the port and decided move on. The parking fee was nothing short of a mugging... they do want to keep us poor people out!

Due to my now blossoming love affair with the intensely blue Med, I asked Fran to go back to Nice by the coastal route. While he was trying to keep his eyes on the road ahead, I was all oooohs and ahhhs and how-amazingly-beautifully-pretty-the-scenary's. We passed by Juan-les-Pins, Cap d'Antibes, and finally stopped in Antibes, which I tought was way nicer than Cannes.

Unfortunately the shops were all closing by then, but it was too early to eat, too cold to just walk around for too long, and too dark for pictures. So we went back to Nice, I had pizza again (big mistake) and then had an over priced drink at the hotel's 8th floor "panoramic" bar. It turned out to be a dull little room, not higher up then the surrounding builidings - at least not enough for the advertised city views - and already set for the following morning's breakfast.

27.01.2006

For Friday, I made sure I set the alarm, so that we wouldn't risk falling asleep and miss breakfast. Unfortunately, I forgot to set the time to local timezone, so we did.

We had coffee and croissants in a patisserie nearby. Amazingly, they do proper expresso around here!! Nothing like that thingy Nero, Costa and Starbucks pretend to be expresso in London.

The rain was giving us a break, so we headed to the old Nice quarter. Narrow streets, orange and yellow coloured buildings with green blinds, charming little shops with hand painted names, the occasional tucked in little church, a lively food market with old ladies selling fruit neatly organised straw baskets... It's lovely and unique.

After walking for a while, we spotted a staircase leading up to the castle (which doesn't exist anymore). It should have a beautiful view of the city and having skived the gym for months, I could REALLY do with the exercise, so up we went.

I'm a sucker for panoramic views, so I'll just say I was very happy. We could see the grey pebble beaches and the city stretching from the sea to the snowy mountains behind. Of course I took loads of photos...

We had lunch, fetched the car and headed West. Cannes awaited.

(to be continued)

26.01.2006, evening

After a much needed two hour nap we were ready to face the weather again. Actually, not really... Not the rain, at least.

As staying in or walking around weren't an option, we decided to take the car and check out neighbouring Monaco by night.

While Fran was enjoying driving up the winding mountain roads, I was looking out the window trying to imagine the amazing views we'd be seeing if it was daytime.

Arriving to Monte Carlo, we make a turn and we're suddenly facing the Casino. It's very fairy-tale-like, all illuminated, with gardens and fountains and a feeling of glamour hovering the whole area. Ooooh, pretty! - I say.

Weirdly enough, Fran looks very impressed with all of this as well. There is a strange glimmer in his eyes and a mysterious smile. I soon realised this had nothing to do with the pretty setting - he's a guy after all!

The answer is obvious: cars. Porsches, Ferraris and other fast machines abounded, why didn't I see it straight away? And there was, of course, the formula one circuit! You could read the excitement in Fran's face.

It wasn't raining much, so we walked around a bit, wasted some Euro in the slot machines at the famous Café de Paris, walked some more, and got back to the car for the eagerly awaited tour of the circuit.

Broad smile upon his face, Fran provided the commentary: -This is my favourite curve, they have to go real slow here... There is the entrance to the tunnel... Schumacher crashed right over here, and now we come out... No, wait... This isn't the tunnel after all!

We were in the wrong tunnel, but as it turns out, there is an awful lot of tunnels in Monaco. They're so squashed between the sea and the mountains, they have to make up for the lack of space.

They also don't have much space for houses, so some people are forced to live in boats. We felt sorry for the poor people of that poor country, as these yatches were slightly smaller than palaces. At least some of them.

We did find the right tunnel in the end, but failed to find Monaco's nightlife (or at least some place where they would let our jeans and sneakers in) so we left the pretty principality and drove back to Nice.

26.01.2006 Morning

Fran: What time should we be leaving for the airport?
Me: 6.30
Fran: It's 6.30 now. We should get up!

Later, in Gatwick...
Fran: What time should we be going to the departure gate?
Me: 9.15
Fran: It's 9.15 now. I hope the waitress brings our breakfast really fast!!

We did make it to the Côte d'Azur and now I know the reason for the name: the sea here is truly blue. Not greenish blue, just pure, amazing blue. Unfortunately the weather turned out horrid, by which I mean, very wet and cold. Oh well... It is winter, what did we expect?

After much driving around Nice, we managed to find the hotel and went straight out for a bit of food, shopping and looking around.

Modern Nice somehow reminds us of Lisbon, with the occasional eyesore mixed in the rather beautiful architecture. I think it also has to do with the light, a strange brightness despite the overcast sky.

I confess, I never diet while traveling. So at the first opportunity, I gulped down some pizza, and we could tell we're really close to Italy just because of how tasty it was.

We wandered around some more, but the weather finally beat us, and instead of exploring the old town, we headed back to base. Soaking wet and freezing cold, there was no better program than drying our socks and warming our bones in our hotel room. It was 6pm, dark outside... And we dozed off.

Meet Alex Boyd. He's a very talented young photographer, lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful places in the UK (West Coast of Scotland) and to study in a city bubbling with musical events (Glasgow). The result is a brilliant combination of stunning landscape /urban photography and live music photography.

While waiting patiently for his portfolio website to be built, he started posting his recent work in a blog, so you can actually check it out by yourself. Here. And if you happen to be in the Ayrshire area, don't miss "Tide Reflects Sky", his first solo exhibition in Cunningham House - Irvine.

Keep an eye on this guy, he's only just starting!

While impatiently waiting for my short break in Nice, a couple of weeks from now, I had a surprisingly quiet and different weekend.

It just so happened that all the jobs I have on my hands were on standby as I waited for all my clients to send me texts or images. So when I was invited to go down to Brighton for the day, instead of my usual have-so-much-work-to-do reply, I just answered "Brilliant idea!". And it was bliss to get out of here without any should-be-working-instead guilty feelings.

I'm back to work now, as clients start sending me the goods and letting me know how urgent it all is. Oh well, at least I got my batteries charged!

Ok, it's yet another site of flash games, but there are tones of them, and some are even quite good. So if you're not as busy as I am, and are bored out of your wits, go on, have a look.

And it's back to work for me...

The third series of The O.C. is on! Tuesdays at 9 on E4. Yummy, I say.

Yesterday I received an antecipated birthday gift from my partner: a much needed short break, away from London or Lisbon, somewhere I have never been to. By the end of this month we'll be heading to the lovely french riviera city of Nice. Nice!

My trips to Lisbon, apart from all the eating out and drinking, never feel like real holidays for me, specially because I stay at my parent's, which is still home to me, and always tend to keep working while I'm there. So this means I haven't had a proper break-away since June.

I'll be away for four days only, since I'm so busy right now. But it will be more than enough to recharge batteries. And I'm happy I was told in advance, because now I'll have more time of the antecipation excitement that comes with it. Hee hee hee, I'm counting the days!

Hello and happy 2006 to all my readers! If I still have any, after all this time without posting... This year holds many surprises in store, and I'm actually excited about it. How about that?

I'll keep you posted (literally) about them as things happen, but for now, here's a little lovely site to keep you busy. It's called Fray and it's full of personal stories, beautifully illustrated. Some are funny, some are touching. They are all worth reading.