Quelle Surprise!

Yeah so I know a few words French but still pitiful little, trust me...

So we left a day earlier in the hopes we could enjoy Amsterdam without any downpour but after driving for about 10 hours (incl. pitstops...) we realized we would not make it all the way to NL in one day, which never was the plan! We took a different route, this time through Belgium. Around 9 pm we stopped to get something to eat at a AC restaurant (it's a Dutch phenomenon). They offered unlimited mussels and fries.... YUM!!!

J chose meatballs and tomato sauce while he watched me in disgust wolfing down one and half pot of mussels. What can I say? It had been a while and I like me some steamed in white wine) mussels. Again, it's a Dutch thing lol.

There was a sign when we entered the gas station/restaurant area mentioning a hotel nearby. I figured the next exit should be the one to find it. It had become dark outside and so we were searching for some kinda hotel in the middle of nowhere in the woodsy Ardennes. We eventually saw a sign saying "Chateau" towards a small country road, we almost passed it. So I backed up the car and saw the little bed sign, meaning HOTEL. Yay! A place to sleep...

OK so this one-nighter was our most expensive place to stay but damn!

oh I do have to say there was no AC and it was frigging hot.....
But... they had a loooong old fashioned tub and J and me finally could share a bath!!! The good times that created made up for the mosquitos and warm room.




The next morning we were seeing all this.....




The car on the left is the Renault Laguna we've been driving for the French part of the trip. Our room was just above, see the half cirle windows.

We decide to stay for breakfast and I drove the final few hours to Hoofddorp, close to the airport. Later today we're driving again to the Transferium, a ginormous P&R / parking garage for stadium, where we can and park the car and take the train to Amsterdam Central for a a merely 6 Euros total.

below the breakfast room:

Blogger drama.... Sigh

So I finally had the chance to use the laptop online (wifi for free! Yay Bastion hotel!!) And started editing the previous posts typed while driving back to NL. And then the shit hit the fan... After changing a lettertype I must have accidently replaced all that was marked for well I don't know what but the window was empty. WTF? I checked if there was any way to go back or redo this and as far I know: nope. Yeah ummmm thanks for that non-option Blogger grrrrr

Then to make things worse I made the stupid decision to safe the post with merely a title as a draft and basically overwiting the text that previously has been available.

Holy fucking shit people! A long ass post typed ever so slowly on my blackberry GONE.

So I figured the best damage control I can do is dig up the email I had sent on the blackberry and resend it. Yea and then my phone says it can't do that since it lacks coverage area. Grrrrr!
So after dinner I'll go outside and see if around the corner there is magically more coverage.
update: did not do fuck! Like I experienced before: emails with an photo attachment won't be send out. and that posting had a picture.....


Oh and little tidbit:

Every time I visit The Netherlands, irregardless of what month, the week(s) I'm there the temperature drops, rain starts falling etc. Same for whenever my friend P comes to visit in the States, whatever month, whatever state.

We're having 20-ish celcius after a warm week. Sunday it will go down to 15 C, umm 60 or so F? Someone please explain the logic...

Some remarks about Nice (the reposted version...)

Without getting all too whiny about the rude French people, since most of them are, we did enjoy our trip a lot. Since we're both not morning folk most days we just slept in, had some brunch at one of the many little bakery/cafe's and walked around town or along the boulevard. I dared not to hit the beach until late afternoon since my skin burns like crazy. Then eventually we would make our way back, sometimes picking up some yummy chinese/vietnamese take out or kfc for J.

We loved the fact that we could go for a late night stroll, still warm outside, plenty of people walking around and tho casually dressed we'd end up in a club and dance the night away.
So less fancy dining but with the over the top prices we saved up to use that for the 9 euro a drink clubs. Partying til 3 on a monday night? Unheard of in San Diego.
So we rested, no kids waking us up in the early morning, spend endless hours together either wrapped up into each other or each doing their own thing side by side. Everyday we walked for one to three hours. I think I might even have lost a few pounds hah!

Yesterday we managed to get to the Museum of Modern Arts after yet another long walk in the heat. Great pics made from the rooftop terraces and of the building.... The first was a building we passed in some random street. I liked the ornaments.

The museum is circular and from the top downwards this was the view....

and two from Nice.....

The one posted below is of the cathedral in the street we walked through most : Rue de Medicin.

Oh and I almost finished my book I started reading this trip: Animal, vegetale, miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I used to get a weekly supply of local organic produce from the CSA Be Wise Ranch and I was thinking about starting it up again. Now that I'm reading this book I most definitely want to! Eat Local people. More about that another time.

Once we're back I need to fill in the gaps of which there are plenty. I'm typing this on my blackberry while J is driving. It's 2.13 pm Thursday afternoon, we left at about 10.30 am. We're north of Avignon, drove about 400 km so far ( I drove the first leg). We just passed Chateau de Roussillon close to Isere. Mapquest it to know where we are lol. Wine country, people. Bummer we can't take any along.....

Random Observations

Differences between California and France and/or The Netherlands:

• If you drive on the highway in Europe you pass the little villages, the small farms, cows, sheep, churches etc. In the States.... Not so much. Nice landscape to look at while travelling.
• Dare we say we hate the long stretches of highway with only two, as in 2, lanes? And then trucks overtaking other trucks driving 88 and 92 km ph respectively. Aaaaaagh!!
  On the other hand I love the possibility to drive fast on the French highway lol. Especially when there are 3 lanes I'm going 160-170 km ph (about 110-115 mph) ahhhhh heavenly
• Pedestrian lights in the French streets get completely ignored. I dunno who ever invented them and took the effort to put them everywhere but people are jay walking here all the time. Craaaazy. That and the wild driving vespa's made J decide to leave the city driving up to me (I'm more used to it....)
  It's true: the French love their language and rarely speak a few words English. Even people in their twenties whom I assume had some English lessons at school say Non when asked if they speak English. It made for me practicing my French as good as I still kinda remembered it.
  
• As a friend in The Netherlands had predicted: topless sun bathing is out of fashion. Only the ahem "older" generation who is used to let it all hang out is keeping up the tradition. Yup you can count me in with rest of the 30plus crowd.

(below view from atop the museum)

and then the smoking.....
Wow never was I more surrounded by so many heavy smokers. The French government better start saving up for the all lung cancer patients that they have to deal with in the next years.
People in France are completely arrogant, rude and dirty when it comes to their cancer sticks! Smoking en masse, tossing their ciggy butts where ever literally littering the streets with them. While dining, they sit at the table right next to you (1 feet away) happily puffing away between sips of wine. Bon Appetit!
Since July the law has changed in NL, forbidding smoking tobacco in any establishment where one can eat and/or drink. This to the chagrin of many bar owners. I thought it was a pleasant change not to be surrounded by smoke. Now the smokers sit outside on a terrace. Good luck with that in the cold winter!

(art work from Nikki de Saint-Phalle outside of Museum of Modern Art)

It's 7.45 pm now and we're getting close to Luxemburg. I'm guessing we'll be staying the night somewhere in the south part of the Netherlands or Belgium. Driven over 900 kilometers (told you I was speeding lol). J keeps the speed at about 140.
Photo's will be posted soon.
And to those who read this blog and know us: leave a comment will ya?

J chilling on the beach and feels no need to get a suntan lol

Just some streets in Nice

It's after 8 pm and it will be still light out here for a while. I'm dining out here on one of the many restaurants with there terrace on the sidewalk. A big no-no in the States. J's taste palate and stomache are not used nor happy with the surprise French ingredients so he decided to sit this one out. All is well with us but the French food is not his thing, as I kinda expected. We've been eating more Chinese food than ever. I needed something Mediterranean tonight. And J and octopus and the likes don't mix well lol.
We decided to go back to Amsterdam one day earlier than planned. We really liked it there but to me the weather sucked. J actually enjoyed the rain wtf?
We expect to be in NL on Friday.... More later

Fountain in Nice

We pass this fountain everytime we go back and forth to the beach. I thought it was interesting you can see the men's wieners!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

View from our window and at the beach... and bitching about Europe

Observations:

1. the drinks in France and The Netherlands, hereafter called Europe compared to the USA are small and much more expensive. Free Refills we found only at the KFC today in Nice (first time in over a week!)


2. no free wifi, anywhere!!! but we had to have it, ok me more than J, but dammit, you gotta pay for everything


3. parking is a bitch and expensive.... tiny narrow parking spaces and hardly ever it's free or even a space available


4. I don't think they could have made this hotel room any smaller and unfortunately they're all the same size in the whole hotel. And hotel Ibis is not that cheap!


5. People walk everywhere here (guess they gave up on the whole finding a parking spot part....) Oh well, we'll just have to think of it of our daily exercise.


6. The nearest beach is about 20 minutes walk away but at least we won't have to drive around in the busy streets of Nice and search a space to park (and pay for it) and then return to the parking garage next to the hotel and do another search party.... sigh

This picture is of the street down below where supposedly the parking is free..... First of all good luck finding a spot, then hopefully you're good in parellel parking in small spaces with a medium size car.... Now it's 12 Euro's daily for the parking garage. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!

All food is strange and unfamiliar to Jon, who can't stand anymore McDonalds after eating it daily in NL. I on the other hand will eat anything fish/seafood and veggie so no problem so far...

I added some pics we took from our room on the 7th floor....

the ones at the beach we're taken 7.30-ish tonight.... I have sunburn from the 7-8 pm sun.... wtf??