Queen's Night - Queen's Day

I stayed in bed most of the morning as I was still sick with a heavy cold and miserable. Anne texted me from work reminding me to buy the lotto ticket for Queens day before midday to make sure I was in the dreaw, so I wandered over to the lotto shop and bought one.  I am hoping it's the 33m euro winner!

Jori and Anne cooked dinner, then we headed out to walk around the streets.  Everywhere we went were people partying on the street..  Bands/music played from trucks.  The whole of Amsterdam was Party Central!

We had our cameras so played around with some night photography.  I managed to lose my prescription reading glasses around here somewhere. They must have fallen out of my bag when I lifted the camera out.

The Red Light District...

We headed to Dam Square where people wee already camping out to get the space up front with a view to the balcony where outgoing Queen and the incoming King would wave from..

Some went all out with their costumes...

The next day we headed out again. Now instead of parties on every corner, market stalls had sprung up everywhere, and everyone was wearing Orange - including Anne...

 Boats went up and down the canals filled with party goers.  Load music was pumped out of these boats and people were dancing...

Even the dogs were dressed up...

Seems to me the whole day was the day to let your hair down and just have fun...

Cupcakes beings old complete with iced crowns...

The streets were awash with the colour orange..

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 More cupcakes for sale, but right next to these, two young girls were selling pancakes.  The competition was very tough.  We bought the pancakes!

We headed back to the apartment for a late lunch, then packed the backpack up with beer and headed down to Vondelpark.  I took my big 400mm lens with me for the birds...

But also got the crocodile! The wind was freezing. It wasn't that warm, and this would have been cold.  No doubt he had been drinking beer so probably coudn't feel it!

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Did catch this black faced gull in flight as well.  We had a great day!

Menton, Monaco, Nice, and back to Amsterdam

It was pouring with rain by the time we got from Ventimiglia to Menton - just 10 minutes down the train track. We had one umbrella to share between us only!  That was enough though to keep our cameras dry to take some photos, and the wet pavement gave off lovely reflections of the colourful buildings as well.  With the rain, it wasn't that warm either, so we tried to walk briskly to keep warm.

Menton is beautiful - one of my favourite places along the Coast in this part of France.

We stumbled into a Lemincello shop that were giving tastings.  So we tasted everything which made my bad cold feel better, and also warmed us both up. I would have loved to have bought a bottle it was so nice, but unfortunately we were travelling light - no checked in baggage so it was out of the question!

Some of the bottle sizes were ginormous!

We wandred down to the waterfront and to the pier and took photos of menton reflected in the sea.  Such a beautiful town

We had bought a french pastry which here is still wrapped - it's a chocolate meringue but with a very hard outer. It was wrapped in plastic.  We devoured it at the train station later and I made a real mess! Chocolate meringue everywhere!  But it was very yummy!

We decided to climb the hill towards the big spire to see what that church was like.  So this is going through the colourful alleyways.

We found the spire!!!!  I must be so fit now compared to when I left NZ with all the hills I've climbed!

Back down to the bottom of the town then we walked back to the train station to catch a train to Monaco, our 3rd country in one day!

Monaco was very pretty - starting right from the train station.  Anne said 'Look - the window shutters are dirty' then realised they were marble and not dirty at all!

By this time it was pouring with rain and we were wet and miserable, so we walked straight to Monte Carlo Casino. The gardens were beautiful...

No photos were allowed in the casino, and this is the only one I got of the casino  - it is a reflection in a glass ball sculpture outside.  I did have a flutter though, and won 20 euros.  I gave Anne 5 euros and she lost that. So 10 euros up - I was happy!

We then wandered back to the train station along the waterfront.  Huge super yachts were parked there, gearing up for the Grand Prix.  Signs of the Grand Prix were up along the streets, and seating was being put in place as well. 

We found the pedestrian subway to get to the train. Pretty fancy with marble and mirrors!  So we had a play!

The the train station pedestrian subway itself - a very long tunnel all in marble.  Very flash!

Just a few minutes wait for the train and we were off back to Nice.

We picked got changed into dry clothes, then packed our bags and headed for something to eat, before going to the airport and flying back to Amsterdam.  A great Weekend!

Four Countries in one day - first up - Ventimiglia

On looking at the map while in Nice, we noticed that Italy, on the border, was just a half hour train ride away.  Without knowing much about it, we decided to head to Italy, then Menton, then Monaco, back to Nice, before heading back to Amsterdam.  Four countries in one day has a nice ring to it, however each of these countries apart from Amsterdam, were all very close to each other.

At first glance when we came in to Ventimiglia, it looked run down and dingy.  The dark sky didn't help, but we got off the train and wandered down to the waterfront then crossed the river.  From the bridge we looked over to the ancient city and historic town.  

Ventimiglia is the ancient Albium Intemelium, the capital of the Intemelli, a Ligurian tribe which long resisted the Romans, until in 115 BC it was forced to submit to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. In AD 69 the city was sacked by the army  of Otho and Vitellius, but recovered to remain prosperous into the 5th century, surrounded by walls with cylindrical towers built at each change of direction.

In the Gothic Wars it was besieged by the Byzantines and the Goths, and later suffered from the raids of Rothari, King of the Lombards, but flourished again under Rodoald. In the 10th century it was attacked by the Saracens of Fraxinet. After a period as an independent commune, it was ruled by the Counts of Ventimiglia, and often had to fight with the Republic of Genoa.

In 1139 the Genoese attacked it by land and sea and forced it to surrender; the count continued to hold the city and countship as a vassal of the victors. The city rebelled more than once against the Genoese and sided with their enemies. In 1271 in a war with Genoa, Ventimiglia was thus temporarily held by the Dukes of Savoy (1389 and 1746) and King Ladislaus of Naples (1410). In 1505 it was annexed to the Genoese Republic, sharing its history until the early 19th century.

Looking up the River.

And out towards the sea.  Hundreds of swallows were diving and zooming around on the water..

We wandered around the shorefront first.  It was cold, about to rain, yet this hardy couple was sitting on the seat reading their books in the inclement weather...  I admired them for their hardiness!

At this stage neither Anne nor I were much impressed with the town, but we decided to head up the hill into the town to have a quick look..

We are so glad we did as it became really interesting.  Little alleyways between houses, colourful paint, and really old churches made this town incredible.

From the top, we looked over the lower city and out to sea. Again I loved the rooftops...

One of hte 3 old cathedrals we saw.  This one had a christening service in progress so I was unable to take photos.

It was Sunday and the locals were busy socialising or going to church, which gave the town a real villagey and friendy feel to it which I really enjoyed.

We found a place to stop for breakfast and had a lovely meal for 4.50 euros for the two of us, which consisted of Courgette, Aubergine, and Foccacia bread.  Very yummy.

We continued to wander the cobblestoned streets...

And stumbled across this amazingly old Cathedral. It had an 11th century baptistery and is built on the ruins of an earlier Lombard church which was in turn on the site of a Roman building, possibly a temple.

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 Back outside we continued to wander through alleyways...

And stumbled on another ancient church - The Church of San Michele Arcangelo which was erected in the 10th Century by the Counts of Ventimiglia on the foundations of a pagan temple. In the 11th/12th centures it was rebuilt in Romanesque style.  In 1628 it lost the aisles after an earthquake.  It houes milestones from the old Via Lulia Augusta, two of which are used as stoups and one supports the crypts wall.

After this, we decided we should head to our next stop so we didn't run out of time, so we wandered back to the train station.. On our way back it started to rain..

At the train station, we had a little wait, so we checked out the shop.  I found these GIANT jars of nutella for 36 euros.  Damn the airlines weight restrictions!!

Now onto Menton..