Mediterranean Coast

We are in Nice. Do I dare to say it is nice? I do.

The scenery on the train from Barcelona was incredible. Mountains, fields, cute villages, sea-side, power stations, cliffs, castles, Cannes, Antibes and little churches on the top of coast-side peaks. This would be a good coast on which to own a holiday home.

We had a great time in Barcelona. Yesterday morning we took the metro to the Olympic Park on the top of Montjuic. It is basically on top of a mountain. We were tired after reaching the top, but we got to see the Olympic Stadium. It was built in the 30's for an Olympics that they didn't get to have until 1992. The main stadium was shockingly small. A lot smaller than either of us expected. Our lunch there was a huge rip-off, but we got to feel Olympic.

We then headed over to the Museu d'Olimpic, and it was closed on Mondays. Louvre flashback. This was really annoying, partly because we had looked up the opening hours that morning (and it should have been open), and partly because we had just climbed a mountain.

We then headed to the Beach. Thanks to my awesome navigation skills we got off at the wrong station and walked through the Marina district to get to the Beach. It was very pretty, but we were tired. We eventually collapsed on a grassy knoll to watch the beach bums.

Then it was off to El Corte De Ingles to experience shopping in Spain (and practise a bit of our Spanish). Unfortunately because everyone around Barcelona speaks Catalan, a lot of things are not labeled in English or Spanish. So a lot of our learning was not able to be put into practice.

We then had a salad buffet for dinner and had an early night, because today we were travelling on the train for about 12 hours or so.

Tomorrow in Nice we plan to go to the Beach. And swim in the Med.

Here is some stuff I forgot to include on earlier blog posts:
- We went to the Louvre. It is HUGE! We went straight for the Mona Lisa. Here it is:

They had set up a D barrier, and given that it is only about A4 in size, it was even less impressive than I expected. We liked the paintings by a guy called Guido Reni. They were all religious, and there was one with an Angel and Mother Mary that had great lighting. Then we left the feeding frenzy that was the Italian Masters of painting to go and check out Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts and sculpture (including the Venus de Milo - which was assembled from two halves). We then looked at the ancient foundations of the Louvre (when it used to be a castle), and finished up in Mesopotamia, Ancient Sumeria and Persia (which was abandoned compared to the rest of it).
- Here is our view from our Paris hotel:

I am not sure I mentioned it, but Paris is the land of the midgets. Everything was tiny and I was constantly stubbing my toe, or hitting my head or shin. I think it was all built for Napoleon.
- In New York we were on TV. There was a sports show doing a bit on baseball, and we could stand behind the hosts and be visible through the glass. Everyone else was just waving, but then I started jumping up and down as high as I could, and we started a little moshpit which was clearly visible on the screen.
- Also in New York we randomly wandered into the Magnolia Bakery and got some of the best cupcakes ever. They are world famous, and the icing was in-cred-ible.

More pictures to come!

Cameron Out!