Cannes - Nice

After leaving Antibes, we took the train down to the next stop - Cannes. Home of the film festival.  Following are the images I took as I walked through.  First up is a street not far from the train station...

It was only a hop step and a jump from the train station to the waterfront...

Anne on the red carpet where the stars arrive for the awards...

The big luxrious hotel of Cannes...

Brightly coloured mural on a building...

We climbed up the hill where the museum was to get a good view of the town...

I loved hte orange rooftops.  We climbed back down, stopped and sat and had a beer, then headed up the main road looking at alll the shops...

We caught the train back to Nice, and got there just as it was starting to rain. Walking back from the train station we found a big cathedral and popped our head in to take photos...

We dropped our things at the hostel, then headed out to find somewhere for dinner.. On the way we passed this water feature.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel, stopping to take photos.  As it was raining it made interesting photography with the lights reflecting in the pavements.

Nice - Antibes - Cannes

I'm really behind in the blog now.  Several reasons - firstly I lost my reading glasses and couldn't see even to type, let alone to see the actual images. Secondly, I was without an internet connect for a while, and thirdly, I've been too tired at night to organise everything, and didn't want to seem to be rude to the people I was staying with, by working on the computer!! 

Anyway - We arrived in Nice on Friday night.  I was pretty unwell with a bad cold, so Anne let me sleep in that morning, so we didn't get to start exploring until 9am on Saturday.  First up - on the way to the train station to catch a train to Antibes, I found this shop that did childrens clothing with the name of Lisa Rose. My cousin.  Very upmarket and very expensive.  And gorgeous quality and clothes.

We stayed in a hostel in a very nice area of Nice.  All around us were the shops - Louis Vuitton, Armani, Cartier, etc...  The hostel was cheap in comparison!

We arrived in Antibes by train and wandered down to the waterfront...

Little cobblestoned streets...

We found a covered market selling all sorts of food and had fun tasting everything... Macarons...

White Asparagus (we didn't taste these!)

I found a whole cart of courgette flowers for sale.  I've found a new market for our shops in New Zealand - I will start picking the flowers!

More little alleyways with lovely boutique shops along them...

Like this shop for of olive oils.  They looked so nice with lots of different flavours...

By the church, we found the Picasso museum, but unfortunately it was closed so we didn't get to see it.

 

On the way back to the train we went through the market again, and decided to try this dish.  I think it was called a Nicoise or something similar.

That's our piece she's cutting and seasoning - note it's steaming hot.

On the way back to the train station, still more shops with gorgeous cobblestones on the street..

And a fabulous choclate shop.  The cakes and chocolates were amazing.

And an interesting water feature not far from the train station.

Next stop - Cannes...

Beautiful Bruges

Up early again this morning and checked out of my hotel after breafkast.  Then headed to the Antwerp train station and put my bag in the locker for the day. Jumped on the train to Bruges and arrived 1.5 hours later.  Found the info centre, got a map and set off.  Decided to just wander at a leisurely pace and photograph what I saw...

Bruges is the Capital of Belgium and located in the North. The historic city centre is a Unesco World Heritage site. Along with other canal based cities like Amsterdam it's known as the Venice of the North. It was very impressive and lovely houses with cobblestoned streets.

Brightly coloured doors...

St Saviour's Cathedral. To get to here I was told to just walk toward the spire and eventuallly I'll find it.  I did indeed. 

Very impressive inside...

This is the spire of the Church of Our Lady which wasn't far from the first one...

Equally impressive inside, but under restoration..

Outside weary tourists were resting their feet. I loved the trees being trained to grow along wires.

 

I carried on walking around, but not always sure what I was seeing.  Couldn't find this one on a map!

The spire again of the Church of Our Lady...

I decided to take a friends advice to do a half hour trip on the canal, which would allow me to see more than I would in 3 hours of walking. She was absolutely right...  It was a great tour - but even though I had an English boat - I couldn't hear anything as I was at the back!

Back up on land again-  I wandered around the shops. Every second one was chocolate. That's the Belfry in the distance.

I decided to walk along the canal where the boat had taken us, just to get a few photos. It's a really pretty place.

The reason I wanted to was to get this photo of this amazing window with the dog curled up on a cushion. What a life - I would trade in an instant! So long as I didn't have to eat dog food!

I headed up to the main square to find an organ grinder..

Gorgeous Square...

Decided to stop and have a glass of champagne and rest my foot! Cheers!

While sitting and drinking I realised that if I didn't scarper, I'd miss my connection back to Amsterdam, so rushed back to the train station and got there with just two minutes to spare!  Fortunately the distances aren't great!  On the way to the station though I took some grab shots...

Waiting at the station...

I then managed to get my bag out of the locker and find the correct platform for the train to Amsterdam.  I think I'm really getting hte hang of trains now!  Arrived back in Amsterdam about 8pm. What a great 3 days - Belgium and Luxembourg are fabulous.