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Tag: travel

  • Madrid (20th to 23rd October, 2024)

    Majestic Madrid – a grand building on the Gran Via

    Coming out of Madrid Atocha train station, I found that there was a strange and quite steep, rolling travelator to go upstairs to get to the station exit. It was not just inconvenient with luggage, but actually hazardous. The middle-aged man on the travelator behind me saw me trying to keep my big suitcase from falling and looked slightly alarmed (probably concerned for himself as it would have likely slid and landed on him if it fell). Somehow, I managed to keep it upright by literally draping my entire bodyweight over it (this was necessary since I´m not exactly big). I must have looked a sight, but then I thought, who cares, this has to be better than letting my heavy suitcase tip over and slide downhill, knocking us both to the ground.

    I had nowhere booked to stay for the night, so heading out of the station, I saw some brightly lit hotel signs in the distance and decided to walk towards them. It was already quite dark as it was around 8 pm. The weather was cool and dry, and similar to how it was in Barcelona. On the way, I saw the Ministry of Agriculture, a ornate and very regal-looking building, which is beautifully lit up at night.

    Palacio de Fomento (Ministry of Agriculture)

    image credit: Tripadvisor

    I went into the NH hotel, but they had only one room left for close to 300 euros! The man at the reception said that it was because the demand was so high. I hadn´t realized, but demand in Madrid increases in winter as people tend to go to the seaside places when there is good weather and then head inland to Madrid when it gets cooler and to see the Christmas lights etc.

    If you go there in summer thinking you´ll save because prices are a bit lower than in winter, you´re still going to pay in one way or another, because you can´t really be out during the day anyway, as it will be around 40°C. Basically, what you have to do if you want to pay a reasonable price, is to book rooms way in advance (months in advance) at a hotel that is not in the center of Madrid, but some distance outside (around 20 km), and then take a bus into the center (or ofcourse the usual, stay with family or friends if you have any in the area.

    Tip: I really don´t recommend staying with friends or family because inevitably, your friends and/or family will disappoint you by behaving in ways you wouldn´t expect, and the relations between you will never be the same again.

    The man at the reception of the NH suggested trying a two star place, located just yards away. I thought, well I might as well try, so I walked there, passing a McDonalds that is open 24hrs. The girl at the reception had a deep voice that did not match her appearance. She reminded me of someone and so felt strangely familiar to me, but to this day, I can´t figure out who that is.

    Anyway, she said there was just one room left and it was a single room available only because someone had cancelled last minute. ´We are fully booked, but I would be happy to give it to you for 150 euros´, she said in the tone of a generous benefactor. I´ll take it, I said, given that I had very few options as it was already night and I didn´t think I should be wandering around the city alone with my big suitcase searching for a hotel, though ofcourse I didn´t actually want to pay 150 euros for an absolutely tiny room in a 2 star hotel. The elevator in the hotel was so small that when the doors opened, I recoiled in horror and said, I´m not going in there. The girl made no reaction, then nodded sagely and said, yes, it´s a bit small. She suggested that as my room was only on the first floor, I could take the stairs and send my suitcase up via the elevator, which I did.

    The intricate glass facade of Madrid´s train station, Estacion de Atocha is beautifully lit up in blue and purple at night

    image credit: http://www.madrid45.net

    The room was clean, but absolutely tiny and reminded me of spartan student accommodation, with a narrow single bed and miniscule desk. The mattress was extremely uncomfortable and the bathroom was tiny, but clean. I woke up with terrible back pain and thankful in many ways, that the hotel had no availability that night, so I would have to leave and find another hotel.

    I had to check out by noon and so I started to pack my things and to search online for a new hotel. However, at that moment, the wi-fi went on the fritz and the connection was not improving. I called the reception and mentioned this and asked if they could try resetting the router. They said they would look into it and I said, okay, thanks, but I have to check out soon anyway. At five minutes to 12, there was suddenly a loud thumping on my door and man shouting in a deep and booming voice, ´Five minutes! Five minutes!´ Shocked, I shouted through the door, What? Who is it? What do you want?

    Again he banged the door, and shouted, ´Five minutes! Five minutes!´At this point, my blood began to boil.

    I thought, what? Are you kidding me. I have paid 150 euros for a tiny room with a very uncomfortable bed, checking in only around 9 pm the night before, and now you are banging on the door to tell me that I have be out in five minutes!!! I again said, ´What do you want? What do you want?´(Yes, I said it twice. So you can just imagine how stressed I was getting by this point).The man again shouted in his booming voice, ´Five minutes!´. I shouted, Go Away! and did not open the door.

    After about 3 minutes of silence, suddenly I hear a knock on the door and a young girl from reception (a different one to the one who was there when I arrived) saying, Hello, we are here. Please open the door. I thought, what? OMG, is this really happening? They´ve come up as a group to force me out of my room on the dot of noon?

    I opened the door and the girl from reception was standing there smiling, with a large, expressionless, pale, middle aged man wearing a very long and very black T-shirt standing next to her. WHAT is going on? I said. She told me that the man was their IT person and had come up to try to sort out the wifi issue. I was very confused as I had already said I was about to check out and no one had told me that they were sending anyone to my room for any reason! I said, Why on earth was he banging loudly on my door and shouting Five Minutes!

    Now, I don´t mean to generalize, but have you ever noticed that people who work in IT (most of whom are men) often wear very black T-shirts and have a rather pallid and unhealthy complexion? I guess it makes sense, I mean they spend most of their hours staring a screen at work, and many of them, it seems, choose to spend their evenings playing computer games, so there´s really not much chance for sunlight to hit their faces. Anyway, I digress….

    I crossed the street and ended up near a side entrance to the Prado. Looking ahead, I could see a small street with a restaurant called El Botanico on the corner, and decided to head there. Unfortunately, the road was a bit steep and the paving around the Prado made it very difficult to get across with my suitcase. Once at the entrance of the restaurant, I discovered that to actually get down into it, I would have to go down a small set of stairs. Nightmare. I suppose I could have sat at one of their tables outside, but I was really looking for somewhere inside with wifi where I could search for a hotel.

    Immediately after getting down the stairs and taking a seat (high stool actually) at a very small, round, tall table, I encountered two ladies in their 50s sitting near me. One was American and from California, and the other was her friend, her friend since highschool, a lady from Madrid who lived in A Coruna. The American lady was very pretty and I thought she looked like a model, so found it very amusing when she told me her name, which is indeed the same as that one of the 90s supermodels, who is also from California! Her friend was plainer, but very kind and friendly and gave me suggestions of hotels a bit outside of Madrid that might be more affordable.

    The American lady asked me if I was okay and I said that I´d had a crazy morning and ended up telling her about the bizarre altercation at the 2 star hotel. She told me she was travelling in Spain on her own too and suggested seeing some sights together in Madrid and quickly wrote down her number on a small piece of paper and handed it to me. At that moment, I got the distinct feeling that, for whatever reason, I was indeed supposed to meet this American lady at exactly this moment in time. I wrote down my name and number on some notepaper from the Vincci hotel in Barcelona and said, here, let me give you mine as well. The ladies had to head off as her friend had to get back to A Coruña and it was then that I realized that I had only met them by chance as they had only stayed in the restaurant for about five or ten minutes to chat with me and had actually been about to leave when I arrived.

    I ordered some vegetables, which were advertised on the menu as being a casserole or similar. In fact, they were just steamed vegetables (broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower in a bit of butter/olive oil). Apparently, this is quite a typical dish in Spain and is not considered to be a side, but is an actual dish on its own. Intrigued, but hungry, I asked whether I could have some chicken as well and luckily they provided me with some grilled chicken to go with it. The lack of carbohydrates on the menu was striking and something that I have noticed at other cafes and restaurants in Spain. Is everyone in Spain on a diet, I wondered. Feeling slightly irritable at this point, I thought, I need my carbs! Where are the potatoes? Where is the rice? I need bread! (You know the thing is, and this is something I´ve been told by Spanish friends, many women in Spain are actually on a diet and smoke to suppress their hunger and to keep their weight down).

    After wolfing down the chicken and the vegetables (minus the cauliflower as I lack the ability to digest cauliflower), I searched online for a hotel and eventually found one. It was horribly expensive, but was located just off the Gran Via, so I decided to try it. I won´t name it as it was a huge disappointment, but at least the location was good. I took a taxi to the hotel, marvelling at the amazing architecture of Madrid along the way. Once checked in, I discovered that the whole area around the floor of the shower was covered in black mold! Apparently, when the tiles and floor are black, this means that you don´t have to clean them as no one will notice? Disgusting.

    And this, at a four star, absolutely extortionate hotel off the Gran Via. It was disappointing to say the least. I called reception to complain and a cleaner came up. She had to spend a good 20-30 minutes getting the shower and bathroom properly clean! As usual, there was no window or exhaust fan in the bathroom. I unpacked and tried to rest in the tiny room which overlooked some rooftops. I received a message from the American lady, suggesting we could meet for dinner. However, her hotel was located quite far away from mine, so we decided to meet the next day instead, at the royal palace.

    In the evening, I decided to go out for a walk. The sun had nearly set and suddenly, I felt the energy on the Gran Via changing and the whole place coming alive. People were even moving differently and there was a kind of energy in the air as they headed into restaurants, shops, cinemas, and emerged from taxis, dressed up to go to the theatre. A pretty, smiling, young African American lady, in a stylish dress, who was clearly on vacation, dashed across an intersection, calling out to her partner (who was still on the pavement), while hailing a taxi. Though the taxis were white, not yellow, for a moment, I felt like I was in New York!

    The Schweppes building on the Gran Via, Madrid at dusk

    Gran Via at night

    Gran Via at night

    The buildings were grand and the lighting made them look even grander. The UNIQLO store (a Japanese brand) had a beautiful chandelier at its entrance, hanging from an ornate white ceiling. The entrance was a surprise as it was quite a contrast to the interior of the store with its simple, functional, and minimalist clothing. (Indeed, I have a simple, long, black dress from UNIQLO that I bought in Montpellier in May this year, that has been very useful on my travels. Importantly, it dries fast after being handwashed, AND has pockets! I also got a black, drawstring, washable, crossbody bag, that has served me very well on my journey and beyond. Both items were quite well-priced).

    The Airism dress from UNIQLO

    Entrance of UNIQLO on Gran Via

    I did very little actual shopping for myself on my travels, apart from for my niece and nephew, given how much I had to spend on hotels and trains, but at KIKO Milano (a good quality and reasonably priced makeup store that I really like), I splurged on a KIKO Bridgerton lipstick from their new collection, after being advised by a man wearing a full face of immaculately applied makeup, in shades that suited him perfectly (sort of in an Adam Lambert style if you know what I mean). I particularly liked the pinky red lipstick he had on, but he told me, No, for you I would definitely get this pink neutral one. So I did.

    The lipstick I got: KIKO MILANO x Bridgerton Ballroom Beauty Satin Shine Lipstick in Ballgown Blush

    Heading back towards my hotel, I passed a few theatres located directly on the Gran Via. I found this very cool and interesting as I was comparing the Gran Via to London´s Oxford Street, which has no big theatres directly on it (as far as I´m aware).

    Teatro Capitol on the Gran Via, where the musical, El Libro was playing

    I walked back to the Gran Via and had dinner at a Chinese buffet place called Wok Garden. It was 20 euros (all you can eat) including a drink and desserts. I can highly recommend this place because pretty much everything I tried tasted really good.

    The next day, around 1 pm, I decided to walk to Plaza Espanya from my hotel as it was only supposed to take about ten minutes. On the way, I stopped at a Chinese restaurant that I thought looked good. Oh what a mistake! The menu was very limited and the food was bland and seemed to have been adapted to European tastes. What a disappointment. At least I was not hungry, I thought, paying the bill, and feeling relieved to be leaving the restaurant.

    It was a bit chilly and a bit grey and I wondered whether it was going to start raining. Luckily, it didn´t. I walked for a few minutes and found myself in Plaza Espana, which is a very big square, surrounded by very tall and grand buildings, with statues and monuments at one end. I walked past a small park and found my way to the side of the Royal Palace (Palacio Real). Close by, I found a Haagen Daaz cafe which was entirely empty, was very clean, and had comfy seating. This will do, I thought, and ordered a coffee and a single scoop of dulce de leche icecream to erase the memory of the highly inauthentic ´Chinese´ food I had just had.

    Santa María la Real de la Almudena (1879-1993) Cathedral located in Madrid, Spain. Neoclassical style (exterior), neogothic (interior), neo-Romanesque (crypt).

    Image credit: http://www.pinterest.com

    The American lady had just completed her tour of the Palacio Real, so came and met me at the cafe. We had a quick chat and then the lady went to buy a snack at a nearby cafe, while I went to see the huge square in front the palace and panoramic views of Madrid from there. We then queued up to see Almudena Cathedral which is right next to the palace. The interior of the cathedral was very beautiful and had quite a modern and colourful artistic style. After coming out of the cathedral, we headed to the small and quaint square, Plaza de la Villa, which still has buildings from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. We then did a quick walk around inside the famous market, Mercado San Miguel.

    Mercado San Miguel, Madrid

    Image credit: http://www.citysecreto.com

    Coming out of the Mercado, we were standing on the pavement talking, when I saw a car with the license plate 777 directly across from us. It turned out that this had meaning for the American lady too. If you know, you know 🙂 I´ll tell you more about that another time, but a couple of days later, the American lady sent me some of the photos she had taken while we were doing our little tour, and in amongst them, was one of the car with the 777.

    The American lady was suffering from major foot pain just like I was, so I told her about Cinfadol (an over the counter cream which a pharmacist in Alicante had recommened to me for my terrible tendonitis acquired on the cobbled streets of Antibes). We headed to a pharmacy so she could get some. Quite honestly, it was probably the most useful purchase I made on my trip!

    By this point, we had managed to see most of the sights that we had planned to, so it was time for me to head to the Prado and for the lady to meet up with her daughter who was studying in Madrid. We took a taxi and the American lady kindly dropped me off at the Prado. As I was quite hungry, I headed into a Mediterranean restaurant called Murillo cafe restaurant, which is situated very close to the Prado and just steps from El Botanico, where I had met the American lady the previous day. I had a cafe con leche and a nice house salad and some bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then headed to the Prado.

    Just as I was preparing to leave Cafe Murillo, a primly dressed, slim lady with short, closely cropped, curly, blondish hair, who looked to be in her early to mid sixties, and who was probably Scandinavian, came in to the restaurant. The service was quite slow and no one was coming to her table and she was looking around slightly perturbed. Indeed, I had had to wait ages to even get a menu, let alone order, though I must say the waitresses were polite when they did finally arrive.

    Eventually, the waitress came by and asked the lady what she would like to order. The lady said that she only had a few hours in Madrid and really wanted to try Spanish food and perhaps tapas. The waitress said that the restaurant served more Mediterranean food and did not really have anything that was particularly Spanish. The lady asked her if she knew of any restaurants nearby that served Spanish food and tapas. In case you´re wondering why I was listening to their conversation, well I was standing very close by at this point, unplugging my iphone from the wall where I had left it charging. The waitress said to the lady that she did not know of any restaurants nearby that served Spanish food.

    Taken aback, I said to the lady, excuse me, sorry I don´t mean to intrude, but I overheard you, are you looking for somewhere to try Spanish food? Yes, she said, and I only have a few hours in Madrid, so I really want to try some typically Spanish food! I looked at the waitress with my head very slightly tilted to the side, and said, in the tone of someone who knows Madrid like the back of her hand (and not someone who just someone who arrived in the city less than 48 hours ago), but what about El Botanico?? The waitress became awkwardly silent.

    I said, yes El Botanico! (as if I go there every week). It´s literally around the corner! The lady said, Really? I said, yes, I had lunch there yesterday and it´s typically Spanish and they have tapas and also pintxos at the bar. I can show you as I´m also leaving now and it is literally steps from here. The waitress tried her best to not look annoyed and to keep her face blank, but said nothing.

    The lady and I quickly left the restaurant and less than a minute later, were inside El Botanico, where I showed her the pintxos at the bar and explained about how they count the little toothpicks on your plate aftewards to figure out how many you had. I suggested an item on the menu that I had spotted too late and wished I had ordered the day before (a pork and potato casserole that is baked in a terracotta dish). The lady said she might like to try it, so I left her with the waiter, asking him to help her to order as she only had a few hours in Madrid and wanted to try real Spanish food.

    As it was about 7 pm, I only had about an hour left before the Prado would close and so, after getting a free ticket (available from 6 pm as I had discovered the day before), I swiftly headed upstairs to the first floor and just managed to see some very impressive and original paintings by famous Spanish artists such as Velazquez and Rubens. Unfortunately, I did not have time to see the Goya paintings and others, but hope that perhaps one day, I will be able to go back there (though I think that if I do, it will be a day trip, perhaps from somewhere like Toledo (also supposed to be a very interesting, though I am told rather hilly, city), in order to avoid staying in a hotel in Madrid.

    Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares, on Horseback. Painted by Diego Velazquez. Museo del Prado, Madrid

    Image credit: http://www.theequinest.com

    Emerging out of the Prado with everyone else streaming out at closing time, I walked down the large staircase and then searched for an entrance into the enormous Retiro Park which is located just next to the Prado, where I was meant to be attending an event. However, the park was closed and all was dark and all the entrances were locked! I hopped into a taxi and gave the driver the address of the event. He had to drive all the way around the park and dropped me off at an entrance that was open on the other side.

    Luckily the venue for the gathering was just inside the entrance. I stayed for just a short time and then walked out into the chilly night. I crossed the street to Starbucks, but it was closing, so went into to a nearby local to get a takeaway ham and cheese toasted sandwich and then took a taxi back to my hotel off the Gran Via which gave me the chance to see some more historic monuments, including the Puerta de Alcala, which was all lit up. Madrid is truly a grand and majestic city.

    However, it´s also unbelievably and eye-wateringly expensive, so I decided it was time to leave. I felt I was being called to head South, so I booked a one-way ticket to a city that I had long wanted to visit……Malaga!

    The next morning, I took a taxi to Madrid Atocha train station. The taxi driver was rude and aggressive and drove very badly, so I was very glad to get out of the car when we finally arrived.

    Unfortunately, to get to the platform, I had to go on one of those steep travelators again – except this time, going down! Somehow, I made it. Next, I had to get my suitcase up three, horrible steps to get into the carriage. It is quite astonishing and disappointing that all these very impressive high-speed trains were not designed to be step-free. If you have mobility issues, beware! Not only that, the carriages really don´t have a lot of space for luggage. After having to shuffle around some of the smaller bags people had placed into the luggage compartment so that I could get my suitcase in, I settled into my seat, which this time, was a window seat (I usually get an aisle seat).

    The train carriage was quite packed and there was a man sitting next to me in the aisle seat, who was travelling with some friends who were sitting behind us and all chatting with each other. They looked at me curiously, clearly wondering where I might be from, but never actually asked. The chatting was getting a bit louder and I thought, oh no, is this how it´s going to be the whole way to Malaga….but luckily, once the train departed, several of them, including the man sitting next to me, decided to decamp to the buffet car for at least an hour of the journey, no doubt to enjoy some cold beers and a good chat, and were pretty quiet when they came back.

    As we travelled further and further south, it became sunnier and there were some nice views through the window. Just 2 hrs 40 minutes after leaving Madrid, including a very short stop in Cordoba, we were already arriving in Malaga! Getting off the train, I felt glad to be back in warm weather and in a city that I had always been curious to see for myself. I´ll tell you all about my trip to Malaga in my next post!

    Merry Christmas everyone, wherever you are! xxx

  • Barcelona (16th to 20th October, 2024)

    image credit: http://www.viator.com

    Checking out of my hotel in Valencia, I could find nowhere in the lobby to sit or indeed to plug in my laptop. A short-haired Italian woman wearing heavy-framed glasses and who was likely in her late forties, gave me a contemptuous look and swiftly sat down in the last available space on the strange round sofa-like seating in the lobby. Fine, I thought, and headed off to the Plaza Ayuntamiento, dragging my suitcase behind me. I went into another hotel, the Melia Plaza Valencia, located in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento as they had a much nicer lobby with comfortable seating and floor to ceiling windows that let you see what´s going on outside. The lady working there was polite and friendly, so I thought, right we´ll stay here. I had a nice freshly-made salmon and avocado sandwich and a cafe con leche and then began searching for somewhere to stay in Barcelona. I must say I was quite excited about going to Barcelona as the last time I had been there was in around 2009! Also, I had never arrived there by train before.

    Map showing the locations of Alicante, Valencia, Tarragona, and Barcelona

    image credit: Google Maps

    The train journey was nice and peaceful as the seat next to me was empty and though it was not a silent carriage, most people kept pretty quiet. As we approached Tarragona, I could see the sea to my right and then as the train finally pulled in at Barcelona Sants, I felt a slight thrill at being back in Barcelona after so many years. Coming out of the train station, I was not sure where to go, but knew I needed to find a cafe where I could get something to eat, but also find a hotel as I still had not booked one.

    I saw a large cafe/restaurant nearby, the name of which now escapes me, and headed there. I had a nice chickpea salad and a coffee and started searching for a hotel on my laptop. The place was clearly a local hangout and was run by some friendly Chinese guys who kindly showed me where to get a taxi when it was time to head to my hotel and warned me to avoid taxis other than the black and yellow official ones. Ultimately, I decided to try another Vincci hotel, and so I booked the Vincci Mae which is located on the famous and very long avenue that traverses the city of Barcelona, called Avinguda Diagonal.

    I headed to the taxi rank which is located at another corner near the train station and joined the orderly queue. I noticed that while it was not cold, it was considerably cooler than in Valencia and that by coming to Barcelona, in just two hours and forty minutes (high-speed train) I had basically left summer and travelled into Autumn. I suddenly realized that it was going to be necessary to wear my jacket and proper shoes and tights! And alas, to put away my flip flops and sandals for the first time since I had left London.

    The taxi driver was friendly and polite and the traffic was not too bad, so it only took about 15 minutes to get to my hotel. After checking in, I took a walk along the Diagonal looking in through the windows of the huge stores. Eventually, I got a burger and fries to take away from Five Guys. The weather was cool, but not chilly, and there were several joggers passing by. I noticed when crossing Diagonal, that you have to very careful because they have installed bike lanes on both sides of the street, running along right next to the pavement. So if you just go ahead and cross because you don´t see any cars, well, you could still get knocked down by a speeding cyclist! In my opinion, it´s not a great design and there are not even signs to warn pedestrians (and especially tourists and visitors to the city) that there is a cycle lane there. So, if you are in Barcelona, make sure to look both ways even if you see no cars and that goes for streets other than Avinguda Diagonal as well.

    Europa Cafe, Avinguda Diagonal

    image credit: Google.com

    The next morning, I crossed over to the other side of the street to the stylish looking Europa Cafe, where I had a coffee and a croissant. The service was polite and professional, though you had to go up to the counter to pay, which was a bit unusual as it was not a self-service place.

    Leaving Europa Cafe, I turned right and walked along a few yards until I came to a shop that does DHL deliveries that I had seen the night before. I decided to go in to find out how much it would cost to send a package to the US. However, after going in, I saw that there were a few people waiting at the counter and I did not feel like waiting. Also, I felt as if all eyes were on me instantly as I walked in, so, I decided to have a quick look around the store, but did not touch anything. The shop was not very big and sold mainly things like office stationery, so it was not particularly exciting. I made a quick round and headed out the door.

    Seconds later, I saw a young woman, likely in her early 20s, walking towards me. She looked possibly Russian, had blue eyes, blonde hair, and was wearing a very bright pink, I would say fuschia, sweater. It was the bright pink that made me notice her and look at her. She looked straight at me and immediately gave me a look with her eyes that seemed to be warning me to look behind me! Somehow I understood her and turned to look behind me.

    At that moment, I saw the security guard coming out of the shop I had just left, marching towards me and glaring at me aggressively. I was very surprised. He barked something at me in Spanish which I could not understand. I said. ´What?´He did not respond and kept glaring at me and marching towards me in an aggressive manner, and then came around and stood in front of me where I was standing, to see what I was holding in my hand. All I had in my hand, was my very basic and old Samsung phone that I had bought in Mallorca back in 2016. He was clearly surprised when he saw that all I in my hand was my phone, said´Oh okay´, then quickly turned on his heel and marched back towards the shop. Shocked, I said, ´You thought I took something? Oh my God!´He did not answer, did not apologize or look at me, and quickly went inside and closed the door.

    This type of occurrence is actually common in Spain, where certain people assume that if you are not white and are of Indian/Asian appearance, that you must be a Roma/gypsy and there to steal from them. Indeed the way in which Roma people are treated in Spain is highly racist, shocking, and vile. We´ll talk about this more another time.

    The Sagrada Familia and Diagonal

    image credit: http://www.arup.com

    I decided to walk to the Sagrada Familia, joining many other tourists along the way, who formed an almost-procession to the site. It was mostly a straight line, but took a good 30 minutes to get there. As it was a bit cloudy, the lighting wasn´t the best for taking photos. Still, it was great to see the Sagrada Familia up close. I walked around to the front of it to see all the intricate, carved details, and then, feeling a bit nervous about the big crowds and potential pickpockets, headed back towards my hotel.

    I stopped at a shop called Natura on Diagonal. It´s a chain that I really like that sells ethnically inspired clothing, jewellery, gifts, and items for the home. However, there were two men trying to fix something in the ceiling and one was standing on a ladder right across from the tils where you pay. The area where they were working was not cordoned off in any way and there were no signs to direct customers a different way. The man bumped into me as he came down the ladder, but said nothing. No apology, nothing.

    Sadly, all of this is very common in Spain, where people often bump into you and don´t say sorry, don´t hold doors open for others and let them slam in your face and, no apology. Ofcourse not everyone in Spain behaves like this and some do have manners, but on the whole, this lack of respect and consideration for others is very common. I left buying nothing, and headed back to my hotel.

    Note: Health & Safety is a concept that is still quite new to many in Spain. In fact, if you say this to Spanish people, they will often say that they don´t know what you ´re talking about because Spain has very good healthcare (which it does), as they often think that by health and safety, you mean healthcare. Many Spanish people have never heard of the term ´Health & Safety´.

    View from the rooftop of the Vincci Mae, Barcelona

    After the incident earlier on, I did not feel comfortable as I noticed that whenever I went into any shop, the shop assistants would stare at me and watch me intently as soon as I entered the shop. In fact, the whole time I was in Barcelona, I felt a certain unease and a heightened level of stress, which I definitely had not felt on my previous trips to Barcelona in 2008 and 2009. I felt I was being watched constantly, while at the same time, spent much of my time worrying about my bags potentially being snatched from me. Barcelona is an amazing city and it certainly does have a vibe! However, sadly, it does seem to have gone downhill with regards to cleanliness and increased crime.

    After reporting the racist incident to the appropriate government agency, I forced myself to leave my hotel despite the way I felt. I did not feel like going out at all, but thought I really have to make the most of being in Barcelona. I turned right coming out of the hotel and headed down Diagonal and found myself at a waffle place called Goofretti, where I ended up having a stack of pancakes with bacon and honey, along with a pot of English Breakfast tea. It all tasted pretty good. Just after sitting down to eat, I looked up and saw right across from me, some sparkly angel wings (which had a lot of meaning for me, but we´ll talk about that later) on a stylish black leather bag with slim handles, hanging from the back of a stool that a girl with long, black hair was sitting on while chatting with two of her friends.

    A Zadig & Voltaire bag similar to (or possibly the same) as the one I saw

    Just as they were leaving, I asked the girl where she got her bag from. It turned out to be from Zadig & Voltaire (as you may know, their logo is a pair of angel wings). I ended up having an interesting conversation with the three girls, who around 17 or 18 years old. They were very nice and friendly and also I should say, very smart and stylish. All in all, I found that people in Barcelona dress very well and have great style! In fact, one of the girls was wearing a very cool, chunky, golden choker-type necklace with a large heart locket. She told me that it was from an Italian jewellery store called Vestopazzo (amazingly, just a day or two later, I actually came across a Vestopazzo near Urquinaona, where I ended up getting my niece a necklace (also with a heart but a different style). They make stylish jewellery from silver, recycled brass, and rose gold.

    The necklace I got from Vestopazzo

    Anyway, getting back to what we were talking about, I ended up telling the girls about the horrible experience I had had that morning and they said they were really sorry to hear about it and that it should not happened, but asked me not to judge Barcelona by it and to give the city another chance. I agreed to do so. We also talked about the over-tourism in Barcelona and how it was affecting their own lives, with rental prices being far too high for them to consider moving out of their parents´homes in future. They also talked about how despite not living in the center of Barcelona, their neighborhoods were starting to receive greater and greater numbers of tourists, which had not been the case in the past. It was lovely to meet these intelligent girls who helped to change my perception of the city. Funnily enough, soon after they left, I walked a little further down the street and turned the corner and guess what….there in front of me, was a Zadig & Voltaire store (which turned out to be one of only two in Barcelona). Ofcourse I went in and had a look, though I did not end up buying anything. However, I do really like their bags.

    Plaza Catalunya

    image credit: http://www.meetbarcelona.com

    After two days on the Diagonal, I moved to yet another Vincci hotel, Vincci Gala, as it was located just a short walk from Plaza Catalunya, a large square which is the main meeting point in the city. It was a good choice as I was able to walk around Plaza Cataluyna where there was a free concert going on. I also went into the Apple Store on the corner to try to get my phone issues sorted out and had lunch (salmon and avocado bagel which came with some hummus and potato crisps on the side and a frappuccino type drink) at the well-known and well-located (though highly overpriced and not very well-managed cafe), Farggi, where I chatted with two elderly ladies at the table next to me, who turned out to be sisters. They had grown up in Barcelona and one still lived there, while the other was just visiting. They were very nice and it was a good opportunity to practice some Spanish!

    Mercat la Boqueria, Barcelona

    image credit: http://www.througheternity.com

    In the evening, I walked most of the way down Ramblas, clutching onto my bag as the area is notorious for pickpockets. Still, it was nice to be in amongst the crowd of tourists and locals, walking this way and that through the Ramblas, just to feel the vibe and hear the many different languages being spoken all at the same time. It was dark by this time and I headed into the busy and bustling Mercat de la Boqueria just off the Ramblas. It has a great vibe and is full of stalls with colourful fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and all manner of things, as well as many places to stop and try some tapas and many other kinds of food.

    Bruma Las Ramblas

    image credit: Google reviews

    However, in the end, I decided I wanted to find somewhere indoors where I could actually sit down at a table and have dinner in peace and quiet. I ended up at Bruma Las Ramblas and was not disappointed. I think this place is considered to be quite touristy and it´s not cheap, but it was good and the service was friendly. You basically get a table and then go up to the counter and tell the man there which pintxos etc you would like and then he puts them onto a plate and brings them to your table. I must say, I especially liked the spicy breaded king prawns on wooden sticks.

    The score

    image credit: http://www.espn.co.uk

    After two nights at the Vincci Gala, I found that the hotel prices in Barcelona city center had suddenly gone up massively overnight and that it had basically become unaffordable for me to stay on in Barcelona. It turned out that this extortion was due to a very big football match (UEFA Champions League) that would be taking place in Barcelona on the 23rd of October (Barcelona v Munich). And so, I thought… it´s time to head to a new city. I had already been to Parc Guell on my last trip to Barcelona many years ago, so did not go there this time, but it is ofcourse well-worth visiting.

    The famous Antoni Gaudi-designed Parc Guell with its gingerbread houses and colourful mosaic tiles

    image credit: http://www.barcelona-tickets.com

    As I was on the enormous shopping street, Passeig de Gracia, I thought I should see a few shops and a bit more Gaudi architecture before leaving the city. I hesitantly asked a dark-haired Spanish lady if she knew the way to Casa Batllo. She was wearing dark sunglasses and sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette, looking down, and trying to ignore the crowds. She half-looked up and sort of gestured with her arm to show which direction it was in. She looked like she lived in the area and I could see that she was absolutely fed up of the throngs of tourists all around. Frankly, I can sympathize. There were groups of people on guided tours, stopping literally every 10 to 20 meters! I would say that nowadays, there really are too many tourists in Barcelona and the numbers do need to be regulated better.

    Sweet baby blue wallet at Pretty Ballerinas

    I was just passing a little boutique-like store called Pretty Ballerinas on Passeig de Gracia and saw a very cute, black, patent leather belt with a bow in the window, and thought it could be nice for my niece. I went inside taking my big suitcase with me as carefully as I could, onto their plush pink carpet. Luckily, the store assistants did not mind. In the end, I did not buy the belt as it was quite expensive and not really for a teenager, but I found a very cute, baby blue wallet, which I had to get for my little niece.

    La Pedrera/Casa Mila

    image credit: http://www.barcelona-tickets.com

    At this point, I was getting quite hungry and needed to find somewhere to stop and have a quick lunch before heading to the train station. Without realizing it, I had already passed the point where I should have gone down a side street to see Casa Battlo, but instead, I went down a side street that was right next to the Antoni Gaudi designed building, La Pedrera/Casa Mila. A beige, curvy building with artistic curls of twisted black metal forming the balcony railings. Some way down the street, I came across a refined looking restaurant called Dora Tapas Bar.

    Dora Tapas Bar

    image credit: Tripadvisor

    It was very green inside, with a well-stocked bar and lots of lamps and plants hanging from the ceiling. The waiters were polite and helpful. I had a simple lunch of a nice house salad, some bread with olive oil, and some sparkling water with lemon, then headed off to look for a taxi. As I could not find a taxi, a girl at the tram stop kindly gave me directions to a bus stop where I could get a bus to the train station. However, on my way to the bus stop, I got a bit lost and found myself in front of a five star hotel called The One. (I realized only while writing this post and looking at the location of the hotel on a map, that it was literally across the street from the Dora Tapas Bar where I had had lunch only a short time earlier. So basically, I had done a circle and come back to where I had been without realizing it!)

    Anyway, the manager of The One was very polite and helpful and despite me not staying at the hotel and not even ending up having a coffee there, which had been my plan, he very kindly arranged a taxi for me and off I went to the train the station.

    Actually, I would say this quite a good thing to do if you find yourself stranded. Head to a five star hotel and they will help you whether you are staying there or not! The staff tend to be trained well and know that it´s important to be friendly, helpful, and professional, no matter who you might be as 1) it reflects well on the hotel and 2) who knows, you might come back there and stay there one day.

    In fact, earlier in the day, after leaving Vincci Gala, I had gone to another hotel close by where I had thought of staying for one more night as it was just slightly less expensive. I didn´t have a booking there and as soon as they heard this, the reception staff instantly became unhelpful and aloof. I left and crossed the street to a five star hotel directly across the street and guess what? Despite knowing that I would not be staying at their hotel, the lady at their reception helpfully looked up the way to the train station on a map on their ipad and offered to call me a taxi. (I really should have taken a taxi to the train station at that point, but I suppose I didn´t feel quite ready to leave the city, plus I was getting a bit hungry).

    This is the difference between good customer service and zero customer service and unfortunately in Spain, there is just no consistency from one three or four star hotel to another, but in general, I´ve found that the five star hotels usually have good customer service and ofcourse, it all comes down to training which is badly lacking at many service-oriented businesses in Spain.

    At Barcelona Sants station, I took a number from the machine (make sure to do that or you will never be able to reach the counter to speak to anyone!) and then spent a full hour waiting for my turn to go up to the counter. During this time, I had no idea whether I was going to head back to Alicante or go on to Madrid, a city I had never been to. However, when my number was finally called and I got to the counter, I found myself saying, ´one ticket for Madrid please!´ Right, I thought, so you are continuing your trip. Yes, let´s go see Madrid!

    I decided to wait another hour so that I could pay around 50 euros instead of 70 euros and was able to get a seat in the silent carriage. That gave me time to wander around in a store inside the station called Divers, where I got some souvenirs and gifts for my niece and nephew and a well-made egg sandwich for the trip. The ladies working in the store were very friendly and helpful, which was nice after the horrible experience I had had at the store on the Diagonal.

    Onwards to Madrid!

    The train journey to Madrid was great. I was impressed by the clean and quiet carriage of the AVE train, its spacious and comfy black leather seats, nice carpeting, wifi access, tray table, and charging points at each seat. I especially liked how smoothly it travelled and that quiet darkness when it goes through tunnels. It felt a bit like being in first class on a plane, except better, as no turbulence!

    It was peaceful and ideal for doing some work as there was not that much to see out the window as most of the terrain on the route from Barcelona to Madrid is either flat and just fields, farms, and agricultural land, or lots of low mountains as you get closer to Madrid.

    Train route from Barcelona to Madrid

    image credit: Google Maps

    Just as we were approaching Madrid Atocha station, I asked the young lady sitting next to me working on powerpoint slides on her laptop, whether she might have any suggestions of where to stay and what to see in Madrid. She was very kind and had actually helped me with my suitcase earlier when I was boarding the train, and then just after that, it turned out that our seats were right to next to each other! As it was a silent carriage and she was working on her laptop, I had not wanted to disturb her during the journey (though at one point, I did mention to her a very stange, small, and darkish cloud that was hovering all on its on in the sky above the rolling farmland that we were hurtling past at high speed – she agreed that it did indeed look quite odd!)

    The lady told me that she was from Valencia, but that she had been living in Madrid for many years. In the five minutes left of the journey, she very kindly showed me all the main areas of Madrid on a map on her phone and suggested which sites to focus on and where to stay. I´ll tell you all about my three days in Madrid in my next post!

  • Valencia (10th to 16th October, 2024)

    Seafood paella with Aigua de Valencia at La Moma near Plaza de la Virgen, Valencia

    Arriving in Valencia, I decided to take a taxi to the L&H Gran Via hotel since l had nothing booked and had been looking at that hotel on my phone while on the train. The taxi driver was a young Latin American guy who was showing quite a bit of attitude and that immediate aggressiveness you get from certain people in Spain when you speak English to them. It seems to be a combination of annoyance at more English-speaking people arriving in their city and frustration at not knowing how to speak English. Apparently, for these people, the solution is to be rude and aggressive to English-speaking people!

    I typed the name of the hotel into his phone so the GPS could look it up. I felt quite glad to get out of the taxi when we arrived at the hotel and went into the reception dragging my big suitcase. I told the guy at the reception that I didn´t have a booking and needed to know how much it would cost to stay there. As it was rather expensive and also was not located as close to the center as I had thought, I decided I need to find a hotel closer to the center. The guy was really helpful and made some suggestions of places to stay and gave me some directions.

    It was an easy walk especially as the weather was good and also Valencia is flat and not too crowded. I soon found myself near the Mercado and felt much better once I began to recognize the streets around from the two-day trip I had made to Valencia from Alicante back in September, 2023.

    Chicken and prawn spring rolls at Cappuccino Grand Cafe, Plaza de la Reina, Valencia

    image credit: www.cappuccinograndcafe.es/en/valencia

    I walked to Plaza Reina and headed to the Cappuccino Grand Cafe as I am familiar with the chain and always liked it when I lived in Mallorca. It is a bit on the expensive side though, so I only tend to go to their cafes occasionally. I sat at a table outside and had a perfect plate of crispy prawn and chicken spring rolls with an icy jug of fresh and minty lemonade. I then headed inside the cafe with my suitcase and found a sofa and coffee table at the side where began my last minute search for a hotel from my laptop. It was already around 5 pm and I really needed to figure out where I was going to be staying.

    Eventually, after about an hour of searching, I managed to find a serviced aparthotel with good reviews called Parker the Urban Flats, and as it was slightly outside the center, decided to take a taxi there. Actually, it would have been better to walk, as there is a one way traffic system and traffic lights every 50 meters or so in Valencia city center, which makes taking a taxi pretty much pointless.

    The Parker flats were nice, but rather grey, corporate, and soulless. On the plus side, the bed was very comfortable and had high quality linens. Also, the apartment had a dishwasher, which is always good. On the other hand, there was basically no view – the view from the very narrow balcony was of a large concreted area which was sort of inner courtyard with concrete apartment buildings surrounding it and lots of sad looking fake plants. The walls of the apartment were paper thin, so literally every sound in the building could be heard, including children crying, people talking, and water flowing through the pipes! For some reason, I was absolutely exhausted and so for the next two days, I simply rested and did not even leave the aparthotel.

    Delicious garlic prawns with sobrasada spread and fried egg at Bardebares, next to the Mercado Central

    On the third day, I walked to the Mercado and had the same dinner at the same restaurant, Bardebares (see above) as on my last trip to Valencia which was for just two nights in September, 2023.

    El Asilo del Libro bookshop near the Mercado Central, Valencia

    After dinner, I went for a walk, first passing by the old book shop, El Asilo del Libro, that I had popped into on my previous trip. The bookshop needs a serious tidy up, but it does look quite interesting for rummaging around if you have the time. I strolled into the center passing Sagardi, where I had some excellent pintxos (highly recommend) on my last trip and then headed onto towards Plaza Reina.

    Delicious pintxos at Sagardi, close to Plaza Reina, Valencia

    Plaza Reina had a bit of a buzz with groups of young teenagers milling around, likely on a school trip. In the corner of Plaza Reina is the Cathedral, which I had not had a chance to see before. Going in, I found that the interior of the cathedral was very peaceful and beautiful. I came out and walked around a bit more and then headed back to the aparthotel.

    Volumes of the famous novel Don Quixote, written in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century by the Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra at El Asilo del Libro

    On my fourth day in Valencia, I decided to move a bit closer to the center and booked a room at the Vincci Lys. After the first night, I asked to be moved due to very loud construction noise next door to the hotel that started by around 8:30 a.m. Luckily, I was upgraded to a larger room on the other side of the hotel. The staff at the hotel were all very nice and the new room was fine, although the bathroom smelled very strongly of mold, and as is typical in hotels in Spain, there was no exhaust fan and no windows in the bathroom. The bed was comfortable and the room was spacious and clean, but the drab colours of the hotel (shades of beige and bluish-grey) made me feel very tired and eventually, exhausted!

    Ayuntamiento, Plaza del Ayuntamiento, Valencia. Can you see the bat?

    It was nice to be so close to the huge square, Plaza del Ayuntamiento, which is ofcourse the location of the Ayuntamiento (town hall). It is beautifully lit at night. There was a little bit of life, with some screaming teenage girls taking selfies near the fountain, again, probably on a school trip. I watched the colours changing in the fountain, walked around, got a well-made burrito from Burritos, Calle Ribera, listened to a street performer singing some old Spanish songs, and then headed back to my hotel room.

    Beautiful architecture of Valencia. Above, is a photo I took of the baroque exterior of the National Ceramics museum, Valencia.

    In fact, overall, something about Valencia was rapidly draining my energy and I just couldn´t figure out what it was. It´s a clean, safe, very walkable, pretty city with beautiful architecture, amazing food (as you can probably tell from all the photos, one of my favourite things about Valencia was the food), and really nice people. In fact, three ladies working at a bank or insurance type business near Carrer de Colon (the main shopping street in Valencia), actually came out of their offices to help direct me to the Vincci Lys hotel and one even ran after me to make sure I didn´t go the wrong way. They definitely gave me a good feeling about the people of Valencia. And yet, I just could not feel any real vibe in the city. It just wasn´t there! I found myself thinking, hmm…maybe this trip is not over. Maybe it´s not yet time to head back to Alicante yet!

    City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia

    image credit: http://www.spain.info

    I had already done a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Valencia on my last trip, so did not venture out again to the modern City of Arts & Sciences with its highly futuristic buildings, though I would say that the buildings and the museums that they house are impressive and worth seeing.

    And so, after thinking about it for a day or two and feeling like my energy was just draining out of me and that I needed to be somewhere that felt alive, I booked my train ticket to….Barcelona! I´ll tell you all about my amazing four days in Barcelona in my next post!

  • Cagnes-sur-Mer (22nd to 23rd September, 2024) and Alicante (23rd September to 10th October, 2024)

    View from my hotel room in Cros de Cagnes

    Arriving at Cagne-sur-Mer train station, I somehow managed to get my suitcase off the train, but then got lost after taking the elevator up and across and then down again to get to the exit. I came across an elderly couple who like me, was also stuck next to an exit gate that was locked! Luckily, we came across a young Indian girl, who told us that we had to go back up in the elevator and walk all the way down the platform to a different exit at street level. As I emerged from the station, I looked for a taxi, but there were none to be found (no surprise). An elderly Swedish couple was standing at the taxi stand and told me that there had been no taxis arriving for the past 15 minutes. I went back inside the station and asked the lady behind the counter if she knew anything about the taxis and she said there likely wouldn´t be any coming as it was Sunday.

    I then asked her where I could get a bus to the vicinity of the hotel that I had booked for just one night, ahead of my flight the next day. She kindly googled the address of the hotel from her mobile and discovered that it was a bit far away and that it was actually located much closer to another train station called Cros de Cagnes. I had to rush to the platform with my suitcase after buying a ticket, as the train going to Cros de Cagnes was just about arrive. An American lady in the queue behind me was freaking out as she needed to get onto the same train and she had no ticket. I think we did both somehow manage to get onto the train, though into different carriages. Luckily, it was only one stop from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Cros de Cagnes and the hotel was apparently located about 100 yards from Cros de Cagnes train station.

    When I arrived at Cros de Cagnes, I discovered that it was an absolutely tiny station with no elevators and so once again, it was a case of dragging the suitcase down some stairs, walking, then dragging it up some more stairs to get out of the station. I walked towards the seafront as I knew that the hotel overlooked the beach. When I arrived at the hotel, I was confused. Round the back, was a red door which turned out to be an entrance to the back of a restaurant with a side door into the kitchen, but there was no actual reception. At the front of the hotel which faced the sea, was the entrance to the hotel´s restaurant. The view from my room, which was a couple of floors up some stairs (thankfully, the owner carried my suitcase up as there was no elevator and I was told the building used to be a fisherman´s house), was of the main road in front and in front of that, was the sea. It was nice to have a seaview and the view was nice enough, but nothing special, I thought.

    View from the beach in Saint-Laurent-du-Var. (If you look closely, in the background you can see an Easyjet plane getting ready to take off).

    The owner of the hotel told me that there was a very big shopping center close by and that I could walk there in about 15 minutes. Clearly, he had never walked there (or perhaps anywhere) himself and had no clue how long it takes to walk there, because in the end, it took me 40 minutes to walk to it. My foot was hurting quite a bit due to the tendonitis that I had acquired in Antibes, so I decided to stop at a crepe place along the beach in a place called Saint-Laurent-du-Var for lunch. I had a crepe with ham and cheese and a fresh orange juice. It was nice except for the fact that there were a few wasps that kept trying to sit on my crepe. After about 30 minutes, I carried on to the CAP 3000 shopping center.

    The CAP 3000 shopping center near Nice Airport

    image credit: http://www.rfr.fr/en

    The CAP 3000 shopping center is very big and does have many shops. Indeed, it´s name is an abbreviation for Capacity 3000 places. Quite honestly, I found it too big and overwhelming and lost interest in doing any shopping within minutes of walking inside. However, in the end, I did find a pretty little necklace for my sweet little niece and then headed back out.

    Before leaving, I got a takeaway from the Five Guys at the shopping center and then walked to the viewing area close to it, to watch the planes at Nice airport taxiing and taking off. I would say that´s probably the best thing about the CAP 3000 actually. Not the actual shops, but it´s location so close to the aiport. One thing I just don´t understand though, is why no matter which city I am in, when I go into a Five Guys (burger chain), there are ALWAYS pigeons roaming around inside! This Five Guys branch was no exception.

    I left the shopping center and walked to the taxi stand. No taxis to be seen anywhere. I spoke to some teenage girls at the nearby bus stop. They seemed to be on their way home from school. They were all very nice and friendly, but none of them had never even heard of Cros de Cagnes! Luckily, there was a Novotel hotel near to the taxi stand, so I went in and asked the man at the reception if he might be able to call me a taxi, which he did. It was supposed to arrive in five minutes, but took around 25 minutes to arrive. I later discovered that the reason why there were no taxis at the taxi stand was because there was some sort of sporting event (a women´s Ironman type event) going on in the area and some of the roads had been closed.

    The taxi cost an extortionate 25 euros to travel the ten minutes it took to get back to my hotel. On the way, the Lebanese taxi driver told me that taxis are actually considered to be a luxury in the Cote d´Azur and that people living there only used them for special occasions as they are so expensive. He recommended using Uber or Bolt. He was talking about how expensive life is on the Cote d´Azur and told me that the previous weekend, he had taken his two young children out for dinner and it had cost him over a 100 euros for himself and his kids to eat out at a restaurant in the area. As we arrived at my hotel, he told me that as a child, he had grown up in the vicinity of that very hotel and that he used to go the beach opposite. I got out of the taxi, climbed the many stairs up to my room, and decided to have an early night, as the next day, I would be flying to Alicante, Spain. Little did I know what awaited me the next morning….

    I slept relatively well, but woke up around 7 am to the sound of heavy rain and lightning and thunder outside, as a storm descended over the sea. I was worried that my flight might be delayed because of the storm. However, after a few hours, the rain seemed to be clearing. I headed down to breakfast, which was in the adjoining building, and was immediately accosted by the same cleaning lady that I had seen when I arrived the day before. She was possibly Vietnamese and was working in the breakfast area as her boss had not come in due to the weather.

    She immediately and repeatedly began to ask me if I had checked out and started asking me to take my suitcase out of the room because she needed to clean the room and finish her work so she could go home! This was at about 10 am and checkout was not until noon! At this point, I had not even had a chance to serve myself from the buffet or sit down to eat my breakfast. The woman, who looked to be in her mid to late forties, seemed to be very (abnormally) hyperactive and overly excitable. As she continued to harass me, I told her that she was making me stressed and asked her to leave me alone. I then called over the friendly young French guy who was working in the restaurant as a waiter, and who had been the first person I met when I arrived at the hotel the day before, and I complained to him about the woman´s behaviour. She witnessed this, became quiet, and stayed at a distance, going back to cleaning windows in the restaurant.

    I finished my breakfast and asked whether someone could come and help bring my suitcase down at noon, the checkout time. The French waiter guy said he would, but at noon, there was no sign of him. However, suddenly, the Vietnamese woman arrived at the top of the stairs where I was waiting with my suitcase, and began doing a lot of really exaggerated, super fake crying. I said, ´Why are you crying?´ She said, ´I´m SOOOO soooorry for youuu´, then began bawling, but in a totally fake and obviously exaggerated way, then did some more fake crying (including instant and copious fake tears). I said, ´Stop crying´. She immediately stopped and her face became serious instantly. The fake tears stopped as well. Like switching off a faucet. She was clearly quite experienced at fake crying. I saw that she was about to take my suitcase down and so I said, ´No, you will hurt yourself. It´s too heavy. The man is supposed to bring it down, you should call him´. It seemed pretty obvious to me, that the whole thing was a set up and that he had sent her up to do the fake crying and bring down the suitcase in the hopes that I wouldn´t write a bad review (believe me, their ruse did not work).

    So at this point, her tears have already disappeared completely , she´s looking serious and showing zero emotion on her face and calmly says, ´Okay´. She went downstairs and called the man who was standing down there waiting. He came upstairs, said nothing, and carried my suitcase down. I started to walk down the stairs, but suddenly, at the exact moment when I passed by a room that I didn´t know she was in, I hear the cleaning lady through the slightly open door of the room in which she is crouched down on the floor, pretending to clean. She stares at me and starts bawling and fake crying AGAIN! I was quite shocked, but looked away, ignored her completely, and carried on down the rest of the stairs. I went outside and stood next to my big suitcase, waiting for the taxi that I had asked the guy to book for me. I said to the guy, ´Is she normal?´´I don´t know ´he said, in that very French way, and grinned. He said bye and went back inside the restaurant while I continued to wait for the taxi.

    You would think that that was the end of it, but you would be wrong. Oh No! Every few minutes, the cleaning lady would pop out of one of the two adjacent doors of the hotel (the one leading to the restaurant or the one leading to the rooms) and look directly at me, while sticking her head out from behind the door, and then fake crying with fake tears and bawling, then coming out and going into the next door building. A few minutes later she would come out of that door and repeat the whole sequence and then go into the other building!

    This carried on for at least ten minutes, and then she finally gave up and disappeared as I was not looking at her at all and had wheeled my suitcase further away from the hotel in order to increase the distance between her and myself while waiting for the taxi. The chef, who I could see in the kitchen, saw me and nodded. I nodded back. I was thinking, I´m sure this man (and all of them) must know full well that this woman is an absolute crackpot. Quite honestly, it was one of the most insane and disturbing experiences of my life. It was all very surreal and highly disconcerting. Finally, the taxi arrived and it was a short journey of about 15 minutes to get to Nice airport. Short, but still expensive at about 30 euros.

    At the airport, I realized that my phone battery had drained and there was no way to get into my whatsapp messages where, a lady I had met in Antibes was going to message me about meeting at the airport, as she was also heading to Spain that day, around the same time. In any case, eventually, it turned out that she was at a different terminal, so we didn´t meet up afterall and she later ended up stranded in Barcelona airport overnight as her Vueling flight to Granada got cancelled last minute.

    I couldn´t check in my suitcase as I was too early and you can only check in luggage from two hours before the flight. There were no plug points to be found apart from two near a seating area that were already being used by a Bulgarian man in his 30s who seemed so relaxed that I wondered if he actually lived at the airport. However, a polite young guy from South America (I think he said he was from Colombia, but had lived in Germany), who was probably only around 19 or 20 and who was sitting next to the Bulgarian guy, very kindly let me use his powerbank to charge my phone. Later, I looked after his luggage as he went to look around the shops for a charging cable. It turned out that he was on his way to Barcelona for a job, but his employers had booked him a very late flight and he would have to wait at the airport for about six more hours! He was going to be picked up at the airport in Barcelona and then driven an hour north to a port where he would be working on a boat.

    I thought it was very exploitative of his employers. I mean, there are so many flights to Barcelona all day long, it´s a short flight, and yet they made him take the flight late at night, knowing he would have start work on the boat the very next morning! No doubt they got him that flight because it was cheap… He said he´d had to leave the crew house that he had been staying at due to their checkout time rules. It turned out that he had previously worked on boats in Mallorca as well and that his mother lived there and had been there during the pandemic, during which time I was living there too (will tell you all about my island girl years another time).

    So anyway, it was finally time to check in my luggage, but oh what a mess it was at the queue for checking in luggage! Instead of announcing over the intercom, when passengers for certain flights could come to the front of the queue and cut the queue due to time running short, or managing which passengers entered the queue first, there were just a couple of women staff who would occasionally shout the name of a destination, but not very loudly at all, and only a few people, who were already at the front of the queue could hear them! Luckily, I had already waited in the winding queue for about 40 minutes, so was close to the front, when the woman said (not even loudly), ´Alicante´. I finally got my suitcase checked in and headed off to security and waved goodbye to the young guy, who was now settling into his seat in another area of the airport lobby for his six hour wait.

    Bye bye Nice, Hello Alicante

    image credit: Google Maps

    When the plane finally took off and we were somewhere between France and Spain, I can´t describe how relieved I felt to be leaving the south of France and going to Spain. The relief was mainly due to knowing that I could stop having to pay so much for so little once I arrived in Spain. I did really like some of the places along the Cote d´Azur such as Mandelieu-la-Napoule and the Old Town of Antibes, and I found French people (apart from the crazy woman at the hotel), to be very nice, polite, and helpful. However, overall, I felt kind of cheated.

    The Cote d´Azur is always presented as being very chic and beautiful. Well, tbh, I didn´t find it to be particularly chic. It is pretty, but, I would say that the beaches in Mallorca are far more stunning, and while Mallorca is not cheap, it´s nowhere near as horribly expensive as the Cote d´Azur. (However, I have to be honest and say that the level of xenophobia and anti-foreigner resentment and hostility towards foreigners in Mallorca is high, whereas I never experienced that on the Cote d´Azur). In any case, I started to understand why so many French people go to Spain instead of the south of France for their seaside holidays and why my friend from Grasse told me that it´s mainly wealthy, older, or retired people that visit the Cote d´Azur or live there and that there aren´t so many young people there. It´s simply unaffordable.

    And so, after just an hour and a half in the air, I was already landing in Alicante and feeling quite good about it. After arriving in Alicante, I took the bus to the city center, getting off at Porta del Mar, which is very close to Postiguet beach. I decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants at the beach and ended up having a really nice seafood paella while looking at the very pretty, pink sunset. I then walked into the city, to find the hostal that I had booked for two nights.

    Dinner at Vino y Mas on Calle de las Setas (Mushroom street)

    The second night, I had a nice dinner sitting outside at a restaurant on the well-known ´Mushroom street´. The next day, I was supposed to be moving to an apartment in Gran Alacant. However, the booking, which was with booking.com via an external partner, was not honoured by the owners and so, they had taken my money, but I had nowhere to stay! I had to spend endless hours calling booking.com for the next two weeks to try to resolve the matter. Therefore, I absolutely do not recommend external partners on booking.com as it is the second time that I had a last minute cancellation by them, that left me stranded.

    So anyway, then began the frantic search for a place to stay and finally, I ended up at a hotel close to the Ajuntament (town hall) in Alicante city center, where I stayed for two nights. I booked a different apartment in Gran Alacant and as my taxi approached the area, I thought…where on earth are we? It was quite far from Gran Alacant Centro Commercial (and from pretty much everything), where I had stayed the year before. It was very hilly and a very strange locale. A bit like a tiny village with 50% English from the north of England, and 50% Spanish. A very odd and insular enclave. Not unfriendly, but not welcoming either. However, there is a very good Indian restaurant, called Good View that also does Mexican food and indeed, it does have a very good view from across the street!

    Zoomed in view from across the street from Good View restaurant, Gran Alacant. To the very left, you can see the hill that Santa Barbara castle is on.

    Delicious chicken madras with pilau rice at Good View restaurant, Gran Alacant

    The apartment was peaceful initially, but then began the usual construction noise that you have no matter where you go in Spain (this time from the apartment directly above, which was apparently being renovated). However, there were very nice views from the apartment, of pine trees and the sea, including views of the bay of Alicante. The hill that the Santa Barbara castle sits on was also clearly visible.

    Sunset view from the apartment in Gran Alacant

    I tried the tourist train that does a circuit via Gran Alacant Centro Commercial and back. Okay, what can I say. It was a VERY bumpy ride as it seems to have extremely bad (non-existent) suspension. It was truly awful (likely hazardous to your joints and bones) when it went over the speed bumps, and the lady driver did not stop at my stop on my way back despite me pressing the button repeatedly, so I had to walk back about 150 meters to where I was staying. I certainly won´t be taking it again!

    As you will know if you´ve read my previous posts, I had terrible tendonitis due to walking on cobblestones in Antibes, so having to walk back that distance was slow and painful. Oh wait actually, that reminds me of what happened earlier and how I came to get on the tourist train in the first place. I had walked a long way along the hilly road from the apartment to the only pharmacy in the area which is down a residential side street.

    A tall, thin, sneaky, young woman working in the pharmacy was frankly one of the most awful people I came across on my trip around Spain. I was asking whether they had any of the gel pads that you can put into your shoe to cushion it or any compression bandages. However, she was only intent on telling me that nothing other than physiotherapy would help me and that I must go next door to the physiotherapy place that they obviously had set up some business deal with. It was vile and luckily, when I went to pay, the older (and much more honest) lady told me that the bandage the younger girl had given me was not for my type of tendonitis. I left purchasing just some paracetamol and feeling glad that I had not wasted my money on the bandage and felt relieved to get away.

    Just as I left the pharmacy, the white tourist train was coming up the road and given my foot pain, I decided to hail it and got on. It took us on a long and winding route around the area and then down the hill to Gran Alacant Centro Commercial, where, as it was around 2pm, many of the shops were closing. However, I did manage to get a pair of comfy matte gold sandals that were on sale. I put them on immediately, putting my flip flops into the bag, and headed to Cafe Navia, a cafe that I had been to the year before. I can highly recommend this cafe as they not only have good food and coffee at decent prices, but their staff are always friendly and polite, even to foreigners! Unfortunately, that´s not always the case in Spain, but we´ll talk about that more another time.

    So, after five days in this strange backwater/wildnerness, I decided I needed to get back to the city. I booked a studio on the 21st floor in Alicante city center that had great views of the city and the port. While there, I finally managed to get my iphone battery and screen replaced and got to know the various streets leading into Luceros, which is the main station for taking trams around Alicante and up the coast. The studio was clean and modern, but was unfortunately in an old building called Estudiotel which is one of the tallest, if not tallest buildings in Alicante city center.

    Sadly, while it has great views from the higher floors, it also has cockroaches in its pipes! After being completely disgusted seeing several baby cockroaches in the bathroom, I immediately packed and checked out early, heading to different aparthotel. As I was too early to check in, I stopped at a cafe called where I had a croissant filled with pistachio cream and a coffee. The new aparthotel was next to a smallish square and playground/park (Placa Seneca) where many children came to play in the evenings. Strangely, people were also walking their dogs and letting their dogs poop in the very same park where the children were playing! The next evening, as I was coming back to the aparthotel and it was starting to get dark, I realized that quite a few drunk and homeless men roam the streets in the area and unfortunately, many of the side streets in this area of the city center were quite dirty.

    After four days in the city center, I thought it was time to head to the beach and back to Playa San Juan, where I had stayed the year before. Playa San Juan is mainly a residential area with nice clean streets, clean and convenient trams, a nice clean and long stretch of beach with view of the mountains in the distance, some cafes and restaurants, and just lots and lots of apartment blocks (old and new). There, I stayed at two different hotels and had absolutely awful experiences at both due to the unprofessional conduct of extremely disrespectful and dishonest reception staff. Unfortunately, customer service is abysmal (or non-existent) and the concept professionalism is often entirely absent at many Spanish hotels (and many other service-oriented businesses). But let´s not spoil the mood. I´ll tell you a lot more about all of that some other time.

    In any case, I felt I had had quite enough and needed to see a bigger city, and so I found myself booking a one way train ticket to…..Valencia. I´ll tell you all about my trip to Valencia in my next post!

  • Antibes(18th to 22nd September, 2024)

    Seafront promenade near the Old Town of Antibes

    After having lunch at an Italian place a few streets away from the Croisette in a quiet, residential area, I tried to get a bus to Antibes from Cannes, but the bus driver didn´t stop at the bus stop when he saw my big suitcase and just waved his finger rudely at me as if to say ´not allowed´. I found out later that this was not true and that the driver should have stopped for me. Feeling annoyed, I decided to just keep walking and perhaps try again at another bus stop, or walk part of the way to Antibes.

    Suddenly, I found myself on a wide concrete pedestrian path along the motorway! I was one of very few pedestrians, but felt safe as there was a concrete barrier between the path and the motorway and it was broad daylight. However, I don´t recommend this course of action to you because as you will see if you read on, you can easily get stranded on stretches of the Cote d´Azur due to lack of transport.

    There were two or three joggers that passed me and my big suitcase, but other than that, it was just cars passing by and the sea on the other side, which I could see occasionally through the trees. I finally got to a roundabout where I spotted the Relais Batterie Total Energies petrol station across the road and decided to go there to get some water and try to call a taxi as clearly, there were not going to be any bus stops on this busy motorway.

    Unfortunately, my phone had died again and I could not access the internet. I was very fortunate however, as the man running the petrol station was very kind and allowed me to charge my phone and laptop at his shop. He tried to call some taxi companies, but none of them had any taxis available, so he even asked his son if he might be able to help. His son was busy, so he tried another taxi number and this time, managed to book one for me. I thanked him and said, ´You know it´s extremely difficult to get a taxi around here´. He agreed that it was. I said, ´Le Sud de France est… jolie, cher, et pas de transport´(pretty, expensive, lacking transport). He looked rather worried for a second, then said with a big smile, ´Don´t worry! I am Didier, and I am here to help you!´

    The taxi company had said the taxi would arrive in about 20 minutes. However, an hour later, there was still no sign of it! We called back and it turned out that the taxi I booked had been cancelled! By this time it was dark outside and there was no way I could carry on along the motorway on my own with the big suitcase and I was still quite a few miles away from Antibes. Not only that, Didier informed me, that he would be closing the petrol station´s shop in 30 minutes! Basically, I was completely stranded and it was pitch black outside. I told the lady controller at the taxi company this and luckily, she realized that it was not safe for me to be left isolated on the motorway at that time and managed to get a taxi driver who had just dropped off someone in Antibes to turn around and come back to pick me up.

    Once again, I was very fortunate as the taxi driver was very kind and even helped me to the locate the keys to the apartment when we arrived in Antibes. They had been hidden in a key box with a code and the key box was attached to a pole hidden inside a bush! Talk about ridiculous. Not only that, there was no light near the bush, so he had to use his phone´s torch. Ofcourse, my own phone was of no use as the battery had drained within minutes of it being charged.

    View from the apartment in Antibes, overlooking the Archeological Museum close to the ramparts and the Old Town of Antibes

    The apartment was basically a spacious studio with a separate kitchen and bathroom, decorated in a kitch style with walls and cupboards painted in pink and mint green and with an odd assortment of cheap furniture and bric-a-brac, that I did not like, but was able to endure only because it overlooked the Archeological museum, had a nice seaview and was close to walk to the Old Town. I slept on the single bed, not wanting to pull out the wall bed installed in a cupboard. The next day however, I had a reddish and very itchy rash on my back from bed bug bites! And this, at a place with a high score on booking.com. You know what, you have to be so careful about those scores if they are from external reviews and/or if the property is an ´external partner´of booking.com (I strongly recommend to avoid booking any of these ever). I´ve had some pretty bad experiences with them lately, but I´ll tell you more about that another time.

    ´Nomade´(2019) sculpture by Jaume Piensa, a Spanish artist and sculptor

    image credit: artnet.com

    The next day, I had a walk around the delightful Old Town of Antibes, with its small and winding cobblestone streets, cute shops, many cafes and restaurants, and lovely squares. I bought a few postcards and magnets as souvenirs and gifts and walked all along the beautiful seafront promenade which is lined with spectacular modern art sculptures. What I liked most were the striking views of mountains in the distance against the sea and the buildings of the Old Town. Unfortunately, walking on the cobblestones while in Antibes resulted in quite a bad tendonitis that was painful and made it difficult to walk for the next two to three weeks. My ballerina flats provided little or no cushioning and flip flops are definitely not suitable. Therefore, I strongly recommend wearing trainers/sneakers or other supportive footware if you´re visiting the old town or any other towns with cobblestone streets!

    Along the seafront in Antibes on my way to Juan-les-Pins

    The following day, I took a walk around the vicinity of my apartment, walked a little into the Old Town and wandered into a small street where I spotted a nice co-working/internet cafe called La Fourmiliere and decided to return there the next day.

    At La Fourmiliere, a co-working cafe in Old Town Antibes with great food

    After two nights at the apartment, I checked out and I headed to the co-working cafe I had seen the day before to have lunch. I had a truly delicious potato and butternut squash gratin and apple tart and then began searching for a place to stay. I decided to move to a two star hotel just yards from the cafe I was at, due to its ideal location right in the center of the Old Town. It was the first ever two star hotel I had stayed in so I was slightly apprehensive, but although it was basic, it was spacious and very clean. I had gotten the last room available, a triple room on the top floor. Unfortunately, there was no elevator in the building, but the man at the reception kindly offered to carry my suitcase up to my room (and also brought it down when I checked out) without any complaint.

    The only annoying thing about the hotel was the jangling of keys everytime a guest in a neighboring room was trying to get into their room. Funnily enough, the hotel is called Modern Hotel. It´s a good hotel, but I have to be honest and say that it can only be considered modern if you are wanting to relive the past. It is actually very 1980s in its layout and decor and reminded me of the boarding school that I attended long, long ago in England. The door locks and keys are old fashioned and made of heavy metal. You had to turn the key twice to get in, which many guests seemed to forget. With each turn, the metal plate with the room number engraved on it that was attached to the key, made a loud clanging noise as it banged against the wooden door.

    That being said, I would still recommend this hotel for its cleanliness, convenient location, and polite staff. From the balcony of my room on the top floor, I was able to watch people walking and chatting with each other in the street below and adjoining square, and listen to the accordion player who sang a series of classic French songs including Tino Rossi´s ´Mediterranee, while wearing a beret and Breton top. It was pleasant to listen to as he did actually have quite a good voice.

    Location of Juan-les-Pins

    image credit: Google Maps

    On my last day in Antibes, I did the 25 minute walk from Antibes to Juan-les-Pins which does involve climbing a slight hill. It was a pleasant walk as the weather was perfect. I had been to Juan-les-Pins once previously for a few hours by taking the train from Nice, many, many years ago. It was okay, but quite honestly, this time I was not too impressed. It was sunny and warm and the seaviews were great, but there was nothing much else to interest me. I came across a small fashion boutique fronted by an African woman who was dressed in the most vulgar way imaginable, several mobile phone accessory shops, a group of Arab guys whistling and calling out to me as I walked through the park near the beach, and restaurants that weren´t serving any food until 7pm (it was only about 5pm ). And so, after about an hour and a half in Juan-les-Pins, with my foot hurting quite a bit, I had had enough and headed to the bus stop to get back to Antibes.

    On the way to the bus stop, I witnessed what I can only describe as child endangerment. It was actually quite shocking to witness. An Arab couple who looked to be in their mid to late thirties, who were walking with their son who looked to be about six or seven and daughter who looked to be about four or five, stopped in the square that I was walking through, as the father had seen some sort of unusual fruit with flowers attached to it, growing at the top of some quite tall trees. He wanted his son to stand on his shoulders and then reach up to grab the fruit. The son was understandably scared as he would have to stand upright with nothing to hold onto except the fruit itself and it was very high up. He started saying, ´J´arrive pas! J´ arrive pas!´(I can´t! I can´t!) The father laughed embarrassedly at what he seemed to perceive as his son´s cowardice. He wouldn´t leave it and kept encouraging his son to keep trying. By this point, the boy was crying, so the father finally let him get back down onto the ground.

    However, that was not the end of it. He then picked up his little daughter and put her on his shoulders. She, perhaps due to the fact that she was no more than five years old, did not seem to appreciate the danger and simply did as her father asked. The father looked proud. However, despite the girl pulling as hard as she could, she was unable to release the fruit from the tree. By this time, a number of tourists had gathered and were watching this crazy scene. It is just a miracle that the children did not fall from this man´s shoulders, as he was only holding onto their feet while they were stood up straight with no support! Eventually, the man gave up and he and his family wandered off without the fruit. I shook my head in disbelief, wondering if I should have called the police (I really should have, but yes, you guessed it, my phone had died). I continued on, limping my way to the bus stop. Luckily, there was already a group of friendly retired English couples at the bus stop who knew which bus to take and where to get off in Antibes. The bus arrived in just a few minutes and I must say I felt relieved to get back to the Old Town.

    I think the Old Town of Antibes is probably the place I liked most out of all the places I visited on the Cote d´Azur, though I really liked Mandelieu-la-Napoule too. However, Mandelieu is a quieter town and has less in the way of shops, cafes, and things to see and do. I think if I was to do it all again, I would skip Cannes and Juan-les-Pins entirely.

    On my last day in Antibes, due to my foot pain which was getting progressively worse, I thought of getting a taxi to my next destination, Cagnes-sur-Mer. I asked the hotel owners if they could call the taxi company and ask them how much it would cost. They did and the answer was, ´we don´t know´. Yes, literally. So, I decided to scrap that idea and walk to the train station instead and take the train there. The owners of the hotel agreed that this was probably a better solution. Luckily, there is a big cafe directly opposite Antibes train station, where I was able to have lunch and check the train times. Unfortunately, it later turned out that the hotel I had booked is actually much closer to Cros de Cagnes train station than Cagnes-sur-Mer! There were no taxis at all at Cagnes-sur-Mer, apparently because it was a sunday, so I had to get back onto another train and go one station to Cros de Cagnes, where I was presented with lots of stairs and no elevator. I´ll tell you all about my short, but absolutely insane stay in Cros de Cagnes in my next post!

  • Cannes (16th to 18th September, 2024)

    Cannes (16th to 18th September, 2024)

    image credit: cia-france.com

    After my friend kindly dropped me off at the address of the apartment I had booked in Cannes, I went into the building that I had seen a photo of on the booking.com page. However, it turned out that it was not the apartment building, but a retirement home called Residence Villa Gallia. It looked more like a four star hotel than a retirement home and had a hotel-like reception. Luckily, one of the residents, a nice French lady who spoke very good English, had just come in through the main doors with her little dog and helpfully explained to me that it was ´an old people´s home´ and explained to the lady at reception that I was lost and looking for an apartment that I had booked. The lady at the reception generously allowed me to use a small sitting room attached to the lobby, where I was able to charge my phone and find the codes. Ofcourse, once again, my iphone battery had drained and I could not access whatsapp, which is where the door codes for the apartment had been sent to me. It turned out that the apartment I had booked was in the building directly opposite the retirement home.

    Once finally inside the apartment building, I was immediately met by the smell of garbage! It seemed that two big grey garbage bins had been left right at the entrance and clearly had not been emptied for several days. Next, I discovered that the building had no elevator! The staircase was narrow and curved with small, steep steps and was quite dangerous. I really don´t know how I managed to get my big suitcase up those stairs. When I got to my floor, which was the second floor (nightmare), the lighting in the staircase was nearly non-existent and I could not see the numbers and symbols on the keypad properly. I also could not find my reading glasses! But just as I was about to despair, I heard someone coming up the steps! It was a man who was staying on the floor above and he managed to enter the code for me and retrieve the key. What a stroke of luck! I went inside the apartment and on first impression, it looked clean and modern and a bit like a hotel room. Well read on…. as you probably know, first impressions can be deceiving!

    image credit: seecannes.com

    I went out for a walk and found my way to the Croisette, which took about 15-20 minutes to get to from the apartment, which was not too far from the train station. The sun was setting and the view was quite pretty, though it was already a bit dark. I was getting hungry and it was approaching dinner time, so I looked for a place to eat and eventually decided to go into a lively looking bistro called 72 Croisette. The waiters were friendly and gave me a table inside as I wanted to charge my phone.

    image credit: Tripadvisor

    Sitting at a table across from me, was an American couple. The man, who looked to be in his mid to late forties, was wearing a red baseball cap and a white polo shirt. There was something about him that said, dressed casually, but billionaire (or at least multi-millionaire). The woman had shoulder length blondish hair and was wearing a leopard print tank top, beige khaki shorts, and a large gold coloured bangle. The man was sitting facing in my direction and the woman was facing him, so I could not see her face. Later, when she stood up and turned around, I realized that she was at least in her late 50s. She was about to leave the table, when almost like an afterthought, she turned back towards the man and quickly gave him a perfunctory kiss before heading to the bathroom. For a moment, the man looked mildly pleased or possibly even amused, though he showed very little outward emotion, quickly going back to an entirely expressionless state, in that way that corporate businessmen do… I thought, hmm, why does she just not seem like either a girlfriend or a wife. Look, it´s none of my business, but something told me that their alliance was likely an arrangement of the temporary sort.

    I decided I needed to stop people-watching and focus on ordering some food as it was already dark and I was going to have to walk back to the apartment on my own. The waitress, a young, middle eastern lady with her long, dark hair in a ponytail, was very nice and told me that Cannes was quite safe and not like Paris! However, I was a little disturbed by the sight of her lips, which I tried not to look at while she was speaking. They seemed to have been recently injected with a rather large amount filler and looked inflated and highly unnatural in their shape. Poor girl, I thought, (mainly thinking of the pain of the injections) maybe she feels she has to look like that to work here?

    After much deliberation, I ordered a prawn and asparagus risotto and a coke, which came to a rather expensive 45 euros! (Later, when paying the bill, the waitress told me,´service is not included´). As I mentioned before, eating at restaurants anywhere on the Cote d´Azur is extortionate. For example, this bistro is nice and the food tasted good, but it´s casual and is not a fancy restaurant, yet expensive. But then, it is on the Croisette. I told myself, okay, but you´re on the Croisette, at least you´ve experienced it. Hmm… As it became night, I started to see (and hear) some very expensive-looking sports cars being driven around at high speed. One suddenly screeched to a halt right in front of the bistro. The driver looked around smiling and waiting for everyone to notice him, then took off again to repeat the circuit round the Croisette. It was clearly the hour for showing off.

    image credit: carltoncannes.com

    I strolled back along the Croisette, passing by a few small groups of people making their way into the beautifully lit Ritz Carlton hotel, dressed to the nines. They did all look very smart. It was the first time in many years that I had seen young girls wearing stilletos. In London, I hardly see anyone wearing heels, let alone stilletos these days. Comfort seems to have won over fashion. For my own part, I have boxes and boxes of high heels bought over the years that I never wear. Some of them have indeed never been worn! They have become vintage, I suppose soon to become antiques..(not very difficult these days…Apple Support keeps referring to my ten year old iphone as ´vintage´). Here, on the Croisette, however, the girls looked great in their stilletos, complementing their chic black dresses or tops with miniskirts with mini designer handbags. I couldn´t help but wonder though, just how on earth they were managing to walk in them. Mind you, they were walking quite slowly….

    The next day, the weather was not great, with lots of rain forecast for the afternoon. I went out in the morning and went to a boulangerie that I had spotted the previous evening and got myself some coffee and a pastry. I asked a girl outside the cafe if she knew of any supermarkets in the area. It turned out that she and her friend were from Ukraine and had stayed in the same area the year before and so were familiar with it. As her friend spoke better English, she explained where the supermarket was and it turned out to be quite close by. After buying a few groceries, I headed back to the apartment and stayed in, working from my laptop. It was a pretty uneventful day.

    However, that night, at about 4 am, a sudden, very loud buzzing sound woke me up! It scared me as it sounded as if someone was pressing a buzzer at my door, but I knew that there was no buzzer outside the door, so that was very confusing especially in my only partially-awake state. Unfortunately, there was no peephole in the door, so I could not check whether there was anyone there, and I certainly did not want to open the door at that time of night. I thought, is there some sort of emergency? I rushed to the window which was facing the retirement home, half-expecting to see lots of elderly folk in their dressing gowns standing outside due to some sort of incident, but all was quiet and there was no one in the street below. It turned out that the sound was coming from the electrical box in the wall near the bed. After a few minutes, it stopped. However, it then carried on sounding again every twenty minutes or so, right up until about 9 or 10 am!

    It was truly awful and ofcourse I did not get much sleep. But not only that, when I went to take a shower, I was horrified to find that there was this horrible black mold in the bottom corners of the shower that I had not noticed before! Not only that, but when I moved one of the pillows off the bed, I saw a small blood stain on the sheet. Talk about gross. After many calls to the property and booking.com, I eventually managed to get a refund for the remaining nights of my stay. Getting my suitcase back down those steps was very scary and I was relieved to get downstairs in one piece and to leave that horrible place.

    The lobby of the JW Marriott Cannes

    image credit: marriott.com

    I had no real plan since originally, I was supposed to stay in Cannes for another three days, so I headed back to the Croisette, this time with my big suitcase in tow, and went into the five star JW Marriott and up to their lobby, thinking I could at least stop there to think about what to do next. The reception staff were very polite and kind and patiently listened to my predicament. Unfortunately, their rooms were well out of my budget, but they offered for me to take a seat and relax while I figured out what to do and even gave suggestions of where I might stay. After about an hour, during which I managed to get my phone partially charged, I headed down the Croisette along the beach. It had rained quite a bit and so all the benches along the beach were wet. Therefore, I wasn´t able to sit down and had to keep moving.

    The restaurants on the beach itself were open, but each of them had a set of rickety wooden steps you had to go down to get to it, which was clearly going to be impossible with my suitcase. Furthermore, I could see that the outdoor seating was wet, so it would only be possible to sit indoors. It was cloudy and everything looked a bit grey and dreary. So this is Cannes, I thought.

    At this point, I started to feel more and more, that I had already spent far too much time in Cannes. To be honest, the place disappointed me tremendously and I found it frightfully dull and superficial. It seemed to be a place created specifically for the purpose of shopping and showing off, which ofcourse it is. Yes, yes, I know…it´s famous for the film festival and you´re going to say, oh you should go there in the summer or when it´s buzzing because of the festival. Well, perhaps….but quite honestly, I felt the place was lacking a soul. However, if I do go back, I think I would go and see the old town, Le Suquet, which is supposed to be a nice contrast with its medieval buildings, winding streets, and views of the port.

    So… if you want to go shopping and show off your wealth OR want to watch people shopping and showing off their wealth, then Cannes and the Croisette could well be for you! Clearly, it wasn´t for me, so within a couple of hours after leaving the apartment, I started heading to….Antibes! I´ll tell you all about my four days in Antibes in my next post!

  • Mandelieu-la-Napoule (9th to 16th September, 2024)

    I hadn´t been to France for many, many years. I had been to Nice once for a few days, during which I did a day trip to Monaco by TGV. However, on that trip, I did not get a chance to see other smaller places along the coast. Therefore, I was very curious to see what Mandelieu was like. Leaving the train station, I found myself with two options, one to go up some stairs that led to some shops and cafes or two, to go up a small street right next to the stairs that led to…well, I had no idea where. I took the street ofcourse, given the big suitcase. I walked down past a few quaint houses. The road veered to the left and I found myself in an idyllic little square with a fountain. Indeed, it turned out that the name of the square was Place de la Fontaine, and it had a lovely sculpture of two boys sailing toy sailboats in the fountain.

    image credit: https://www.atelierjoelvergne.fr/

    The owner of the apartment I had booked had kindly offered to drive me to the apartment. This turned out to be a very good thing because as I discovered later, it´s not very easy getting taxis in the south of France AND they are very expensive! Taxis are basically considered to be a luxury round these parts. I´ll tell you more about the whole taxi situation later…Anyway, the thing is that the owner was in Cannes and needed a bit of time to get to Mandelieu, so as it was around 2pm and I hadn´t eaten, I thought I would have lunch at one of the pizza restaurants in the square. The waitress ignored me while serving already seated customers and then finally told me that they were closing. It transpired that in fact all of the restaurants were closing and would not be opening again until 7pm! I decided to investigate the street leading out of the square and towards the port and after a few minutes, found myself at a little boulangerie called Au Pain Gourmand, which thankfully, was open! I had a tasty, pre-prepared, mild chicken korma with rice from the fridge, which the friendly lady working there heated up for me, along with a Pago pineapple juice. I took a seat at a table outside, but an elderly, deeply tanned, blonde lady sitting at the table next to me was chain-smoking and unfortunately, all the smoke was drifting towards me. Luckily, I was able to find another table that had plugpoint near it, so I was able to charge my phone. Oh why do iphone batteries drain so quickly!

    View from the apartment in Mandelieu

    The owner of the apartment was a young man who drove a minivan. That was convenient as there was plenty of space for my suitcase. As he drove along further and further away from the port, I started to get a bit concerned about just how far away the apartment might be from the train station, as I had originally planned to go to different places along the coast by train from Mandelieu (an idea that I soon scrapped).

    When we arrived at the apartment complex, I got a bit stressed, realizing that it was a bit far from well….everything! At least by walking that is. After checking in, the owner kindly dropped me off at the shopping center, Centre Commercial Minelle, so that I could go to the Auchan supermarket there to stock up. I later discovered that it was about a 20-25 min walk back from the supermarket to the apartment and about 25-30 minutes to walk to Chateau Napoule and the port, which are both close to the train station. Surprisingly, what I liked most about the shopping center, was that a short walk across the carpark from it, there is a spacious and very clean and new-looking McDonald´s, where they have a children´s play area outside and even offer table service!

    The next few days, I was absolutely exhausted and did not go out at all. After about four days in the apartment, which had a lovely view of mountains and little houses (see above) and of jets taking off from the private airport in Cannes, I ventured out into the warm sunshine. After getting directions from some friendly residents outside the apartment complex, I walked down some backstreets lined with cute houses and then continued along the picturesque river Siagne. There is a very pretty path you can take to walk along the river or you can carry on along the road. You will even find places along the river from which you can hire an electric boat without a license!

    Cute house in a street behind the apartment complex in Mandelieu

    Along the river Siagne

    Boating on the serene river Siagne

    I kept walking and found myself at a very green and clean park called Parc Familial de Robinson where there was a family event going on with lots of food and music. There, a teenage girl having a picnic with her family, kindly gave me directions to Plage Robinson, where I had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. Plage Robinson is a bit windy, but then that is ideal for the paragliders who were making the most of the perfect weather conditions.

    Parc Familiale de Robinson

    Elegant peacock sculptures on the way to Plage Robinson

    At Plage Robinson

    My linguine vongole at Cala Mia, Plage Robinson

    The slightly windy, but very pretty and peaceful Plage Robinson

    The beautiful Chateau de la Napoule

    On my last day in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, my friend from Grasse came to pick me up and we went for lunch at the port and then a walk along the path that winds around the beautiful Chateau de la Napoule and small, but smooth and sandy beach in front of it called, Plage du Chateau. It really was perfect weather. Unfortunately, my iphone would not let me take a single photo due to its constant ´storage is full´issue, but my friend took some really great photos on her phone, which she shared with me, so I will share some of them with you here:) You can actually go inside the Chateau, which is a museum, by buying a ticket, though I did not as we didn´t have much time and also preferred to be outside.

    Path going round Chateau de la Napoule looking out onto the sea

    Plage du Chateau

    I´m sure that you will agree that Mandelieu is absolutely beautiful. It´s also very clean and peaceful, so I highly recommend going there if you are looking for a calm place to chill, though you might want to rent an apartment and cook at home or try some boulangeries and smaller cafes. The cost of dining at a restaurant anywhere along the Cote d´Azur is simply extortionate.

    We next drove to Cannes, where my friend dropped me off at an apartment I had booked there. I´ll tell you all about my 48 hours in Cannes in my next post!