Up at 09:00, breakfast and out to visit the colosseum. Quite interesting, it’s the best preserved colosseum in the world – did you know that the original gladiator fights had a referee, and that most didn’t end in a death? Nor did I. Apparently the gladiators were hired, and if they died the hiree had to pay for them. They still use it for concerts and bull fights.
Left the colosseum and walked around the town again – too early for lunch so stopped at a patisserie for a coffee and cake. Still 2 hours till the train so will wander a bit and have lunch. Sunny again and warm, more people around today.
I printed out my train ticket and discovered that I have an hour and a half at Marseille train station, which is why the journey is 5 hrs. We usually use 1st class on the long train trips because it’s not much more expensive than normal class and you get a power point for the gadgets, plus it avoids the hordes of backpacking teenagers.
Went to the Paul’s bakery at the station and bought a camembert roll for lunch.
Got to Marseille with over an hour to spare, sat in the waiting room and read, keeping an eye on the departure board. I noticed that my train didn’t appear when others after it did, so asked a staff member (in broken French) who pointed me to an earlier train leaving in 5 minutes. When I got there I asked another guy who said it wasn’t my train. Checked the board again and mine still wasn’t up there so asked a third guy who said it was my train. It was going to Nice so I thought I’d get on it and argue – they could try to throw me off. There were lots of people standing in the corridors so I assumed that my train had been cancelled. Since I had a first class ticket I found an empty seat and claimed it. No one checked the tickets anyway.
Most of the scenery was fields, but then we came to the coast and the views were nice – lots of small towns with marinas that contained expensive yachts. Passed through Cannes and Antibes, then arrived at Nice.
Walked to the hotel, dropped the bags and went for a walk along the Promenade des Anglais. It was brilliant. Magnificent buildings along the front, and an amazing view out to sea, and lots of people strolling along. I think I’ll retire here for the Australian winters.
There were a few restaurants along the front, but crowds seemed to be heading into the town so I followed and found tons of restaurants, all buzzing. Spoilt for choice, stopped at one at random and had a steak with blue cheese sauce. Left the restaurant and headed to an ice cream shop. You may be seeing a pattern here.
Decided to visit Monaco tomorrow, because, why not?