Visual Inspiration 365 // 246

Quote // Opportunity knocks at the strangest times. It’s not the time that matters but how you answer the door – Steve Gray

– Hello hello!

After waking up to a text this morning from my lovely sister saying that mother is beside herself with angst and worry that I have disappeared off the face off the planet as they hadn’t heard from me (ok slight exaggeration on my behalf – it was nothing like that)  but I have a feeling that’s just because they just want to hear about all the places we visited in Rome etc 😉 and Rae messaging wanting updates on Paris…….which we haven’t even reached yet and a handful of other enquiries as to my whereabouts (I almost feel like Where’s Wally!) I thought I should probably pen a quick little note for anyone interested.

To bring this little travel tale up to date, we are currently in Nice, France, but before I embellish on Nice I better work this back in chronological order and continue on from Amsterdam which I think was the last time I was heard from…

// London to Amsterdam

Wasn’t sure what to expect from Amsterdam, aside from the stereotypical “special brownies” and red light district…….which it lived up to in that respect.

Was so strange to see the girls working there “thang” in the little windows and then know that when money talks they get busy in the same little room behind the curtain. I’m not sure where they learnt their marketing techniques but the common sale’s pitch was to swing the door open and close and then do a little “come hither” wave. The alleys you have to walk through to get past them are so tiny that I had to wonder if they have ever been doing there little “come here” wave only to find they are waving at a family member or their local butcher or someone else they know!?

It’s a very strange city indeed by night…….and as I overheard someone say “This is just f#$%* up”

Surprisingly though by day, it’s actually quite a delightful little city would you believe it!

As I think I may of already mentioned, by day we visited the house of Anne Frank – I had studied the book back in highschool so I thought I owed it to my schooling to see the real thing and was glad I did. Put it in perspective of having to live inside a house for two years when outside you can see the seasons change and know there is a whole world of things to do outside your front door but not have access to them all. Crazy times indeed.

After that we hired bicycles – this was an adventure to say the least. Thankfully B was the map-meister otherwise we would have quite possibly been killed by trams or roadraged by other cyclists. We cycled leisurely to the Vincent Van Gogh exhibition, took in the ambience of art and then peddled again on our merry way, stopping here and there and shopping.

Yes. I quite liked Amsterdam 🙂

// Amsterdam to the Rheine Valley, Germany

After Amsterdam we drove to St Goar which is one of the many pretty little towns along the Rhine River.

Before we actually got to St Goar though we drove via Cologne (also spelt Koln), Germany which was a nice surprise as we weren’t actually scheduled to go there. We visited the Cologne Cathedral, which is the most massive cathedral I’ve ever seen and it was so intricate (Renita you would be flippin in love with the architecture and detail of it all).

We also went for a wander down the pretty streets to go shopping and we stumbled across a Pandora shop, which prompted a spontaneous bead purchase to add to the bracelet 🙂 Ended up taking forever for the lady to serve the customer in front of us though so by the time we got our bead it was a mad dash back to the coach….we felt like we were on “The Amazing Race” bahahah.

After Cologne, we continued on and got in quite late in the afternoon so sadly didn’t get much light to see it by but driving along the river was beautiful. I recall that a lot of cruise ships do cruises for the oldies and I could imagine that it would be a very beautiful scenic trip for them, heck, even I would do it…..

Shuffleboard and bingo with beautiful castles and vineyards as my background – sign me up and call me Agatha!

After a mandatory “beer stein demonstration” at a local souvenir store we dragged our bags up a good few hundred (also a minor exaggeration) stairs to get to our rooms. They like to conserve electricity which means that the hallways have their lights on a timer……..terribly convenient when your halfway up a set of stairs and the lights turn off.

Epic fail to say the least.

We also had the chance to go to a wine tasting in the cutest cellar you ever did say – it felt like a massive cold cave and it felt just a little “oh la la” to be sipping “Rhine Valley” wine……and by sipping I mean sniffing/swirling/cheers”ing and munching on cheese and then handing most of my samples to B to finish off anyway.

Oh gosh, I realised I’ve just written a small epistle and its not even anywhere near where we are now……and I have to go out to explore Nice, France where we currently are!

So for dearest family anyone else, here’s a quick overview of where we have been and I’ll fill in the rest shortly:

London England // Amsterdam Holland // Cologne Germany // St Goar Germany // Lucurne (Luzern) Switzerland // Leichtenstein // Innsbruck Austria // Venice Italy // Rome Italy // Florence Italy //

……and last but not least, where we are currently located as I write this: Nice, France.

So now I must away, I have pastries to munch on, the French Riveria to dabble my toes in the water and “merci’s” and any other french words I can recall to be lavishing upon the French…bahahahha because I so know they will appreciate my feble attempts at communication 😉

And on that note – I send my international love to everyone!

Som

p.s tonight we are going to the Monte-Carlo Casino in Monaco…Watch out high rollers, Viva Las Monte-Carlo! bahahah…

I’ll probs drop a whole $20, although that probably wouldn’t even buy me half a breadstick.

p.p.s AP is STILL rocking out her outfits and headbands. She is quite possibly the most stylish traveller I’ve ever met. Every morning it’s a highlight to see what she comes out wearing.

p.p.p.s this photo was taken of the door handle at the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany