Mon 14/09: Nice & Monaco

Today was a nice bludge day in Nice. Similar to Luzern, we were given a few suggestions as to things we should try out. Instead of trying to do lotsa stuff, I relaxed for a change.

Wandered down the main shopping strip, bought a pair of thongs for the beach.

Ran into a couple from the tour group and had lunch with them - fantastic food!!! I had an eggplant pannini (is that how you spell it???).

After lunch, I then sunbaked out on the beach, resting on a deck chair with a bottle of sparkling water... lazed on the beach enjoying the sun and sights (3 very liberated, topless women!). Mindful of getting sun-burnt, I slowly made my way back to the Hotel; along the way - bumping into out tour group friends. I made the effort to do something nice for the planned night at Monaco by buying a leather jacket (110 euros). This complemented well with my slacks and coffee-coloured shirt.

I ate at a cafe a very large tortellini pasta dish, no dessert!

We left as a group at 5pm from the hotel for Monaco. Our first stop was on the cliff-top for a group photo overlooking the amazing Mediterannean sights. The next stop was at Monaco itself the Rock district with the over-water aquarium/museum and the Royal Palace. They really have excess canon balls!!!

On the way to the casino areas (Monte Carlo, American and another one... Royal??) we saw the famous hair-pin bend of the GP circuit - our appointed meeting place. With a hour or so of free time I immediately ventured into the famous Monte Carlo Casino (passport & 10 euro entrance fee,). In stark contrast to the large-scale of Melbourne's Crown Casino, this casino was a series of 4 rooms, each imbued with the class and elegance - limited playing areas for craps, roulette and even the poker machines. After "studying" the 6 roulette tables, I joined one. From my limited experience, I knew to split the odds and placed a series of 10 euro bets on neighbouring numbers. This paid out 3/4 times, each time I siphoned away the nice green chips (yellow chips being the lowest denominator). Tipping 10 euros at the end, I walked away with 5 green chips - which ended up being 250 euro!!! (Basically I had made 200 euro from my initial 50 euro outlay)

Feeling generous, and a little bad that I seemed to be the main winner, I decided that I would share my winnings with the group who had spent most of their free time in a bar outside the casinos... after all, I had actually set aside some money (100 euros) with the intention of gambling it away - so I was actually 300 euros up for the day/budget...

I think that night, particularly my shouting a round of drinks at the bar definitely ensured that the TopDeck group would remember me, and our host did say that I was by the far the biggest winner ever that any of her tour groups had had...

Sunday 13/09: Mt Rigi > Nice

Another day of travel...

We again were warned of the early start - we all had to catch the first train service down Mt Rigit to the coach.

(1) arose at 6:45am for breakfast at 7am. We left the Hostellerie at 8:10am and caught the 8:20am train down the slopes.
(2) This train is one of the steepest trains around... the angle was ~45 degrees, and we took turns taking photos of people seeing how far they could lean towards the train cabin floor.
(3) back on the coach, we passed thru Italy to get to the French Rivieria, with one service stop within Italy.
(4) reaching the French Rivieria mid arvo was eagerly anticipated - we all crowded the seaboard side of the bus (left) snapping away at the picturesque scenery. This was my very first sighting of the Mediterranean!!!
(5) part of the tour was a stop at a Perfumery factory. For us guys, there was a Ferrari experience exhibit outside... I didn't have my camera on me, but a friend took a photo of me with this Ferrari... must remember to get a copy of this!!! Honestly, inside while the mandatory tour was provided, I struggled to differentiate the scents, although I did like the one which was supposedly more sensual and appealing to the guys...
(6) We briefly passed and saw Monacco; but Nice itself was like a beachside version of Paris. Kinda reminded me of Melbourne with the main tram line... We had free time between 4pm and 7:30pm when we were to meet for a group dinner at a local restaurant, so I ditched my bags in the hotel and went for a wander on my own. This paid off because the weather was perfect and warm - I got a lot of photos of the main downtown street - whereas the following day was more overcast. Nice on a sunday arvo is fairly quiet, but there were a few street entertainers.
(7) dinner was not very good - altho honestly, the waiter was quite uptight. At our table we did mistakenly use the salad dressing as a dip for breads, which may have rubbed the waiter up the wrong way, and we did ask for balsamic and oil for the breads... 2 of us on the table shared a whole bottle of red - drinking had started early!
(8) we walked across town to the bar - Chez Francis (Francis Bar) where I had my first ever tequila shot (and a 2nd!). Interestingly, I didn't really feel the punch or the effects of the alcohol... O_o. I had a beer as well... I did come to the realisation here that with the same amount of alcohol the others (anglo Aussies) were getting very stupid and started dancing on the tables to the live band - for me this amoutn of alcohol just wasn't going to get me that loose and stupid (not sure of the right way to describe this...)
(9) While at the bar, I happened to see on a tv screen the US Open final between Federer and del Potro. Returning to the hotel, I watched the entire 2nd set and the start of the 3rd. At this point, I decided to sleep. I later woke up at 4am-ish to see Federer on the way to losing the final 5th set...

[Addition to Sat 12/09 post: I had seen a bit of the US Open semi between Federer and Djokovic]

Sat 12/09: Mt Rigi / Luzern

(1) "sleeping in" to 7:30am we all left as a group for the gondola to go down to Weggis (pronounced ve-gis). From Weggis, we caught the ferry service across Luzern Lake to Luzern ~30min.
(2) a lot of us were told to stay on the main floor so we all went to the very back of the ferry and were taking photos there for ~10min until a guy came and kicked us out of the "1st class" area! whoops!
(3) in Luzern we were all taken on a walking tour thru the bridges right up to the obscure Lion's Gate memorial. This is known as the saddest memorial in the world. We had learnt back in Paris that the Swiss Guard were massacared at the start of the French Revolution, allegedly ordered to lay down their arms by King Louis XVI... (read Wikipedia on the Swiss Guard to learn more!) This Lion's Memorial was built by one of the Swiss Guard who had been absent on the day of the massacre and he had the memorial built, a lot of symbolism included within. Again, wikipedia has a link...
(4) From the Harry's shop of watches/swiss knifes I left the group and explored the old town, quickly locating the MacDonalds were my aunt works! She kindly got me a complimentary coffee and when I returned after exploring the old walls and a Red Cross area, I waited on one of the tables. While waiting for my aunt to finish her work shift, a local girl joined me! As it turned out she spoke 5 languages (the norm being 2-3: English, Swiss-German, Swiss-French) and worked as a primary school teacher.
(5) lunch was at a local cafe with my aunt - a pork schnitzel on tagliatelli (yes I still remember these details - even today 12 days after!). After lunch she drove me to her apartment in Emmen. We didn't have a lot of time as I needed to reconnect with the TopDeck group at the ferry terminal at 4pm. Fortunately we met up with my cousin at the ferry terminal so I finally got to meet both aunt and cousin for the first time in my life!!!
(6) there were 7 of us returning to Mt Rigi - we all had skipped the earlier ferry to visit the Mt Rigi summit - my excuse was obviously to meet family, but the weather was overcast and apparently too foggy for a view from the summit.
(7) we caught the gondola back up (apparently the train took an hour) with the intention of starting drinks early!
(8) I had been given Toblerone chocolate - 2 big and 2 small - by my aunt & cousin; I used one small one to "tip" the female waitress who got me a nice glass of red wine during dinner! She had also gone to the effort to dress up in the traditional swiss costume! She was later seen with her boyfriend who bought a large large bottle of whisky...
(9) dinner was unremarkable - thus I don't remember the details! however I remember the bar afterwards for the dart board games and the way the girls kept hitting on this cute 19yo local waiter. Apparently he was going to Perth later that week, so one of the girls offered him her bedroom. Part of the joke was that this waiter was very shy of girls, so these interactions kept him blushing all night... in one of the funny twists, he did pick up the half eaten large Toblerone I had put under my chair, AND his girlfriend apparently spoke 5 languages... sound familiar??? Although it probably wasn't true, we connected the dots anyway and had more fun that night...
(10) i didn't sleep until after 12am, whereas my room-mate had turned in earlier... so out of decency, I took the room nextdoor so that he wouldn't suffer from my snoring (apparently I snore, but not that loud...)

Friday 11/09: Paris > Mt Rigi

We had been warned prior to this day that we would be leaving super early in order to get to Mt Rigi on time for dinner.

Basically the day was spent on the coach, from like 7:30am thru to ~4:30pm, including the 3 service stops - 1 of which was a 30min lunch stop. The last one was within Switzerland.

To get to Mt Rigi, one can either take:
(1) the train, OR
(2) the gondola

We were taking the gondola up on Friday. This was a 20min journey, somewhat like a cable car ride. We all squeezed in to the cabin with all our bags, plus a handful of locals who were journeying up the mountain.

We were staying at the Mt Rigi Hostellerie, which was the best accommodation of the entire tour. Not the biggest room (Rome) but the most comfortable! The room adjoining ours was actually un-used so my room-mate took that on the first night and then I slept there the following night (since he had gone to bed first in our assigned room on the 2nd night).

Dinner at the Mt Rigi Hostellerie was 3- courses:
(1) cheese fondue, with unlimited bread: on my table of Asians we kept eating and eating the bread dipped in cheese. The waiter had joked that he wouldn't remove our cheese fondue pots until he could see the bottom...
(2) the main course (!!!) was turkey (although the style of cooking made me think it was chicken) and mash pototatos. Lotsa mash, so I didn't finish it.
(3) finally, we had dessert which was ice-cream cake with strawberry topping.

Afterwards there was a bar session, but not a huge one and with only one bar-tender the drinks were a little slow... went to bed at a respectable midnight...

Thurs 10/09: Paris Day 2

(1) brekky was at 7:30am (woke up 7am and was one of the first to arrive)

(2) coach ride was fairly slow (Paris morning traffic) considering the proximity of our drop-off point for the day - roundabout next to Seine/Louvre gardens.

(3) I dashed off to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa/Denon Wing (there are 3 wings - i only saw one) Weather-wise it was spitting rain, but not heavily... I exited the Louvre via the Lion Gate *Note: anyone going to the Louvre - avoid the queues and enter via the Lion Gate!!!

(4) walked along the garden/river side and finally got to the river cruise landing - about halfway beween the Louvre and Eiffel Tower... the cruise was great and fortunately the weather had cleared up - so I made up in terms of the no of pics taken...

(5) Lunch was at a place called Eiffel Tower Restaurant/Cafe - around the corner from the landmark. I walked in and the waiter immediately addressed me in English - "What table would I like?" - NOT happy with this as I wanted to practice my French... I ate a beef tartare - in a similar arrogant fashion the waiter said: "Are you sure? It's raw beef!" [I know waht beef tartare is... sigh]

(6) in between the cafe and the Eiffel Tower I saw this interesting building wall completely covered in vine/grass except for the windows...

(7) I mucked around at the base of the Eiffel Tower (ET for short from now on) before I decided that with under an hour, I would dash up the ET instead of waiting in queues for the elevator... (no queues for walking up the stairs!)

(8) on the first stage I ran into a work colleague who has been holidaying in the US as well as now in Europe! Small World!!!

(9) with time running out (bike tour meets at 3pm South Tower base) I had to take to the elevator to the second stage. views of Paris were awesome and totally worth the climb! Didn't have enough time to go to the final/third stage, so caught the elevator down...

(10) met 7 other TopDeck guys who with other tourists embarked on the bike tour. We waited for quite a while, and fitting out took another 15min due to the large size of the group - about 30 of us in total doing the bike tour. we would ride and stop, with the second last stop being a 30min cafe break in the Louvre gardens... saw more of the Armoury/Military Academy and Napoleon's tomb - similiar to the bus tour the night before... but this time in detail.

(11) TopDeck organised picnic dinner at 7pm. We all tried the escargot - one NZer really liked them! (but he also likes cows - part of his profession...)

(12) Cabaret at Paradis Latin. Basically - I picked ALL options that topDeck offered for Paris. was the only single guy here... plenty of single gals tho! on our table it was like a bottle of wine to 2 ppl... lotsa drinking!!! the performers were all very talented; the topless girls were very slim and muscular, some a little bony even... O_o the male performers were ok, not very buff, but ok... my favourite bit was this carousel of motorcycles ridden by hot hot girls in leather boots, the jacket and helmet. they first removed the helmets and did that hair wave thing... then they removed their jackets!?!

(13) after the Cabaret a group of us returned to the hotel via the Paris Metro - my main memory of this experience was that our TopDeck tour host kept yelling out "TopDeck" @ time we had to get off the train... (this would also be repeated for marshalling us all together thru-out the whole tour around Europe!!!

(14) got to the hotel ~12:30am so a really really long day. Apparently I slept almost immediately.

Wed 09/09: Paris Day 1

Early start this morning - woke at 5:45am!
We all met up at the reception area of the Umi Hotel.
Didn't really sleep well - kept waking periodically - is it time to leave yet???

We took a transfer coach to Dover where we caught the ferry over to Calais. While on the bus I slowly woke up (wan't the only one...) and got to know my fellow travellers - at least those I was sitting around - 2 couples, a couple of single girls and guy. In total there were ~35 of us, 6 more joining in Paris, 12 of us leaving in Rome but being "replaced" with 12 newbies in Rome...

the bus journey was ~3 hours to Dover. Dover cliffs are impressive (and famous for the movies they have featured in...) The Ferry was fun, kinda like a cruise ship in size and feel. Unfortunately we couldn't get access to the really fun areas with the best views... Sighting the European coastline was a great moment - we all turned to look out the window, a few of us attempting to capture the moment in photos...

From Calais, we were introduced to our coach driver who took us thru the rules... ~ boring ~
Travelling on coach essentially is in 2~2:30 hour legs, with a short 15min service stop each time. 15min service stops for a group of ~40 is actually quite a challenge... but as a whole we worked within the apportioned time...

We entered Paris in the mid to late arvo, the weather quite hazy - not sure if it's 'cos of the pollution... Arrived and checked into the hotel and then set-off on our TopDeck guided tours of Paris: walking and bus. The walking tour was a block of 1hr for us to explore and get dinner. A few of us had dinner together in a typical Parisian restaurant - sampling the crepes and red rose wine.

The bus tour was really crazy - we were driven round in the coach past all the key sights - Lourve, Arc de Triumphe, gardens, palaces, shops, and of course the Eiffel Tower. My camera ran out of juice from all the photos I kept taking - left, right and centre... at one point it was like - every angle had a great shot. I managed to get a single night shot of the Eiffel Tower - a pretty good shot of it with the night lights with my iPhone - and this is my new wallpaper!

A long day that set the pace of our tour...

Europe Uncovered (TopDeck tour)

This post focuses on the general tour and overall thoughts...

The tour is a discovery tour, TopDeck take care of the accommodation (2-3 star hotels) and the travelling via coach. The entire tour is split into two legs:
1: London to Rome (Western Europe)
2: Rome to Amsterdam (Eastern Europe)

I was 1 of 13 ppl who only did the first leg. Another 12-13 ppl were participating in the second leg only. The remaining 20+ ppl were going all the way from London to Amsterdam...

Quite a few (6) ppl joined us in Paris, not in London...

We covered the following main cities with day-trip visits:
a: Paris - 2 nights (passing thru Dover, Calais from London)
b: Mt Rigi, Switzerland - 2 nights (day trip to Luzern)
c: Nice - 2 nights (evening in Monacco)
d: Florence - 1 night (stopover in Pisa)
e: Rome - 2 nights

The age range was roughly between 21 - 30 with the majority of ppl being couples. A smattering of Aussie Asians, 2 Kiwis, 1 Canadian, 1 English girl. Quite a few ppl from Perth and NSW outside of Sydney...

Hotel rooms were small (altho maybe the 2 star rating was why). Some were quite cramp..