WOW !! What adifference a day makes. Yesterday was the day from hell, while today has been wonderful.
We had stayed & had a great time in a village 40klms North of Nice & were convinced by the lady of the house to make a detour
to Grasse, to see the vast fields of flowers that are grown & processed for the large perfume houses of Channel & Dior.
At this point I must explain there are many tunnels in the alps that the road goes through mountains. In 1 area of several
tunnel entrances there were some road closures due to tunnel works, so of course we entered the wrong tunnel, which would not
normally be a problem as the GPS has been great & does an instant recalculation (which it did this time too), unfortuneately
the revised track took us through Nice, just west of Monaco, where the traffic is worse than Paris.We spent several hours in
this horror, at an average speed of less than 1 klm/hr. On finally reaching Grasse we find it just an extension of Nice, as
western Sydney is of Sydney. Full of tourist & perfume shops & no parking at all & as the French park on footpaths or
whererver they feel like, there was not 1 square inch spare.
(There were NO vast fields of flowers only vast fields of traffic)
We reprogramed GPS to take us around Nice to Menton, through the mountains, which happened as advertised except the double hairpin
bends on roads a little narrower than the car & 2000 metre vertical ascents proved very trying. So after only 9 hours of driving
we arrived about 40 klms southwest of where we started.
At this point the only good experience of the day occured when we lucked on a lovely old hotel in the mountains with large &
comfortable rooms, (Europe is severley over populated & we often find hotels are often booked out)
We also discovered that the entire Med coast is built up into a city.
So today we took the tollway the 300k to Cinque Terre which took about 3 hours including stops with a 130 klm/hr speed limit.
The toll freeway straight through mountains & over ravines, some tunnels being a couple of klms long. All the while overlooking
the Med towns & villages. It was 24 Euros well spent & we are now sitting in the shade overlooking The Mediteranian from
Colle Di Gritta above 'Monterosso Al Mere'with several hours to spare in the day & a cold drink in hand.
Currently about 32 degrees.
A couple of hours later...
Had an afternoon rest, (WHAT A LUXURY) & we are soon going for a walk down the mountain into Monterosso, via the lookout point
& dinner on the beach. We will be catching a shuttle back up to the hotel as the hill is very steep. I am typing this offline
as internet in this hotel is only in the foyer & restaurant & I feel too lazy to walk down to upload.
Tomorrow we intend to walk Cinque Terre & take the boat, that stops at all jettys, home.
We had stayed & had a great time in a village 40klms North of Nice & were convinced by the lady of the house to make a detour
to Grasse, to see the vast fields of flowers that are grown & processed for the large perfume houses of Channel & Dior.
At this point I must explain there are many tunnels in the alps that the road goes through mountains. In 1 area of several
tunnel entrances there were some road closures due to tunnel works, so of course we entered the wrong tunnel, which would not
normally be a problem as the GPS has been great & does an instant recalculation (which it did this time too), unfortuneately
the revised track took us through Nice, just west of Monaco, where the traffic is worse than Paris.We spent several hours in
this horror, at an average speed of less than 1 klm/hr. On finally reaching Grasse we find it just an extension of Nice, as
western Sydney is of Sydney. Full of tourist & perfume shops & no parking at all & as the French park on footpaths or
whererver they feel like, there was not 1 square inch spare.
(There were NO vast fields of flowers only vast fields of traffic)
We reprogramed GPS to take us around Nice to Menton, through the mountains, which happened as advertised except the double hairpin
bends on roads a little narrower than the car & 2000 metre vertical ascents proved very trying. So after only 9 hours of driving
we arrived about 40 klms southwest of where we started.
At this point the only good experience of the day occured when we lucked on a lovely old hotel in the mountains with large &
comfortable rooms, (Europe is severley over populated & we often find hotels are often booked out)
We also discovered that the entire Med coast is built up into a city.
So today we took the tollway the 300k to Cinque Terre which took about 3 hours including stops with a 130 klm/hr speed limit.
The toll freeway straight through mountains & over ravines, some tunnels being a couple of klms long. All the while overlooking
the Med towns & villages. It was 24 Euros well spent & we are now sitting in the shade overlooking The Mediteranian from
Colle Di Gritta above 'Monterosso Al Mere'with several hours to spare in the day & a cold drink in hand.
Currently about 32 degrees.
A couple of hours later...
Had an afternoon rest, (WHAT A LUXURY) & we are soon going for a walk down the mountain into Monterosso, via the lookout point
& dinner on the beach. We will be catching a shuttle back up to the hotel as the hill is very steep. I am typing this offline
as internet in this hotel is only in the foyer & restaurant & I feel too lazy to walk down to upload.
Tomorrow we intend to walk Cinque Terre & take the boat, that stops at all jettys, home.
Setting off on a summer alpine walk from just outside our hotel.
Crystal clear creek running along the side of the mountain.
View of part of Briancon from a hill.
Yvonne entering the Citadelle over the moat 150ft below.
The Grand Hotel verandah, looked straight out at the mountains.
Lost, sort of, had to back track from here.
Looking down at another village we just ascended from.
Another view from our 9 hour detour. The little white lines are the road at the bottom we came up from.
The really high & diffuclt roads remain unphotographed as Yvonne was too nervous.
Finally, paradise in the mountains. This old place in the middle of a mountain village had THE most magnificent room. We loved it. Our room was the verandah just to the left of the white chair.
