Rather Nice (9)

After a late and lazy start to the day, we found a good bakery to provide our breakfast croissants/tarts/coffee,etc.

Note: not the actual breakfast that we had, but rather typical.

Then it was down to business: off to a laundromat to get up-to-date with washing and, between times, to the tourist office.  We booked a trip for the following day, with Med Tours.  I can recommend these guys, as I've done two different tours with them, and been pleased both times.

Vieux Nice is one of my favourite parts of the city, so we headed there next to wind our way through the narrow streets.  Stumbled upon the famous flower market, so Mum was well entertained.  Then we wound our way up to the entrance to the Colline du Château, and went right to the top to get a fantastic view over the Baie des Anges.  Mum thought it was almost as good as the Marine Parade, in Napier.

Dad's shot, as we headed up.

My panorama of the view won't embed.  :(  So hopefully you can see it here.

Consolation prize: 1 photo of the view from the Colline du Château.

Descending again, we needed a bit of a rest, so got a platter in the Distillerie Idéale.  Nice to just chill out and have a light lunch in a peaceful atmosphere.

I then decided it would be a fantastic idea to hire a bike and cycle along the pathways on the Promenade des Anglais.  Seemed especially appealing to glide along on a bike after all the walking we'd just done.  However, it was not to be...  Give me the Toulousain/Marseillais/Lyonnais system any day, because I could not, for the life of me, work this weird Niçois one out.  So, no bikes for us.

Cheers, Best of Nice blog...

Interestingly, the Best of Nice blog recognises the difficulties.  Turns out, we just missed an improvement: "The Velo Bleu share-bikes are great in concept, but in practice there have been a few… shall we say, speedbumps.  One complication is that if you didn’t plan ahead, you need a cellphone to sign up, and if you are a tourist, that means racking up a big cellphone bill during the protracted automated set-up call… and suddenly the 1€ a day Velo Bleu doesn’t seem like such a good deal any more.

To address these issues, the city has just installed credit card terminals at several of the most popular bike stations around town... The machine prints out a ticket with the code, which you use to pick up bikes at any stand anywhere in town."

Having been quite set on a nice bike ride, I had to content myself with heading to the Christmas market, and drowning my sorrows in vin chaud/mulled wine.  Mum found champagne, so she was set, too.

Still couldn't be bothered walking too far to find tea, so we ended up at Attimi, and got some huge, tasty pizza-like things.

As we were heading back to the hotel, we came across some breakdancers who were, I suppose, busking. A very impressive display, especially among the giant, illuminated Christmas trees and other decorations.