Back to School Shopping........in Old Town Nice

Today we finally got Cindy/Mommy all to ourselves. Her three days of intense training for her new role is over and 15/8/2013 (that is August 15th European style) is a recognized holiday in Europe. It is to celebrate the assumption of Mary into Heaven. I am sure all of you good Catholics out there already knew that. After sleeping until 8 am (late for us) we decided to take the hotel shuttle to the old part of Nice with no idea what we would find. The shuttle left the hotel on time and got us there in good shape. Driving along the main road along the sea the beaches were already super crazy full, much more so than any other day that we have been here so far. When we got off this was the first view that we had.

We were standing on the promenade of angels next to the sea. We really had no idea where to go so we just started walking. I had previously marked where a McDonald's was located since that seems to give the kids a feel for home. It was next to a park that I noticed on google maps satellite view.

I think it important to share with everyone how well we have managed with our limited connectivity. Cindy has a TI Blackberry (teehee, giggle) phone that she reached her monthly data limit on in three days per TI policy. I do have a new Samsung Galaxy 4 but both of us have managed to not make any phone calls on turn on mobile data due to the warnings we have heard about exorbitant data roaming charges in Europe. We have managed with WiFi connectivity so far. This will be important later.
Sure enough we managed to find a busy shopping and eating area after walking for a few blocks. It was late morning and the full sun and humidity was hot. It was nice to find some shade off of the promenade into the city.

This is a pretty good representation of block after block of little restaurants and shops open on this busy holiday. We had already seen the McDonald's and walked a ways from it, but now it was about time for lunch. We had promised to come back to McDonald's, so we made the walk back. The kids both ordered chicken nuggets and fries. After that we made our way back towards the shopping area, Cindy and I were eagerly looking for our lunch place wanting to try something new. One thing Cindy noticed and got me to recognize was the number of people carrying around a loaf of bread, usually eating it as they walk. At any given time you will see 3-4 people out of 100 walking and eating french bread. Cindy stopped into one of the Boulangerie Pâtisserie shops and picked out her own. We walked and ate it, and it was good.

 

We also came across a street performer painting himself to be a statue. Katherine was mesmerized watching him dry the paint and get into his mental state to play his role. Even thought the kids saw him getting ready and watched him pat a little girl on the head for giving him a tip they were scared to go near him. It was only after much coaxing and Mommy going with them that they did. He made a funny chirp sound and would tip his cap as a thanks. Stopped by the Louis Vuitton store to see if they happened to be really cheap here, maybe a little less than in the US but still really expensive.
We continued our walking around and shopping and snapped a few more pictures. I am not sure any of these places have relevance, I just wanted to capture the area and some of the buildings.

 The family is in the above shot.

 This was a tiny shop with tons of scrumptious looking chocolate stuff.

We did find some cool shops and even a mall type facility with three floors and many indoor stores. We bought the kids some cloths to prepare for school starting next week. Cindy found a few nice shirts in a couple of different stores. We even found some good shoes for both kids. Not a bad day.

It was not until close to 14:30 that we were worn out and just wanted to stop anywhere to rest our feet and finally get some lunch. We found a little Italian place that had air conditioning so we were in. One thing I am really tired of............smoking. Everyone in Europe (where we have been so far) celebrates the summer by being outside as much as possible and there are no designated areas for smoking outside. As you might imagine space is limited and the tables are very close. Most places do not have A/C so it is much hotter inside than out. In most cases you have smokers all around and you have to just deal with it. For dinner last night we were dealing with a motorcycle scooter thing on the sidewalk next to us running along with smokers. I cannot believe the percentage of people that smoke. I have noticed in the US it seems to be declining over the last few years, here no. People smoke everywhere including the kid friendly places I have been to with David and Katherine. Getting off of a slide David sees the parent holding the infant in one hand and their smokes in the other hand. David is really not on board with the smoking. I asked him to remember how much he hates it now, so when his friends ask him to try it when he is older he will refuse.

Our return shuttle was supposed to pick us up at 17:30 where it dropped us off. We were there 15 minutes early ready to get off of our feet. Bus after bus and car after car, but none of them ours. Because of the curve of the shoreline David first noticed our hotel off in the distance. The Radisson Blu does not have a lot of architectural appeal. It was easy to spot the white facade seven stories high and very straight. It was past time for the shuttle to arrive and this is where the phone limitation comes in to play. All day I was able to find little WiFi hot spots and update my map to know where we were going among other things. Now I needed to call the hotel and find out what is going on or we could try to get a taxi, or we could walk. Not knowing exactly how far it was we decided to get walking. Once we arrived back at the hotel about 25 minutes later I walked directly to the concierge desk to ask what happened. After waiting for a couple of people in front of me he looked my direction as if to help me. Immediately I got attitude back from this guy. He pointed at a little tiny note written in french apparently saying the shuttle pick up location had changed to another area due to street closures. He further explained that it was not posted until this afternoon. I asked him if they knew about the street closures before this afternoon and he bluntly told me yes. I asked why the alternate pick up location was not communicated this morning he said they did not post it until this afternoon, THANKS!! When I explained to him that we were there and the street was fine, no closures, he acted like that was nothing. I asked for a manager, he said he was a manager. I asked for the general manager, he said he was gone. Then this idiot had the never to tell me that I interrupted him and he needed to attend to another guest. Furious at this point I showed him the flyer that I picked up off of the shuttle showing the pick up time and place and asked him to confirm again that they knew about the street closures before this afternoon. He turned his nose up at me and said he was not going to be yelled at right now. I actually said to this guy, "you are the most worthless person I have ever met and you should probably look for a job that you are better at" and walked away. This is a nice hotel with a good location but they have some issues.

We took a short break on the way back to snap this shot.

It turns out the walk was about 2.5 kilometers that was additional abuse on our feet after an already full day of walking around. As much as we hated to give this hotel any more money we did order some room service to avoid more walking and more smokers. The room service meal was good and we are winding down another day. The shuttle thing did not ruin it and neither did the smokers. It was a great day and we got to see a lot of cool places. Not bad for no planning and walking around aimlessly as we started out.

Happy Assumption Day everyone!