Day 15

Peter:
Today we left St TRopez and drove to Nice. We dropped off the hire car. Then we caught a train to San Remo, then we picked up a car in San Remo, then we went and found a wonderful hotel to stay at. Then we went out to dinner at a posh restaurant (McDonalds).

Rhys:
Cleaned the cabin this morning so that we wouldn't lose 160 euro. Travelled to San Remo by car and train. I was a little hypo today getting on dad's nerves. Checked into an OK italian hotel which has free wireless internet, hip hip hooray - all in all it was a good day.

Emily:
Glad to leave camping village, although it had great amenities. Glenn drove to railway station and had to park the car on the 6th floor of a multi-storey building (like the ones in the movies where you go round and round) Rhys freaked out a couple of times, thinking we would hit the sides!! I held my seatbelt nice and tight ha ha. We caught a train from Nice to some little Italian village where we had to get off and change trains for San Remo. Our Italian isn't as good as our french! When we arrived at San Remo, we bumped into missionaries from our church - it was good to speak to someone in English, even though they were American! Caught a taxi to the car hire company, picked up a new BMW wagon. Drove to hotel, where we luckily got a car park on the road right outside the door. The hotel is fantastic, large rooms, shutters open up out to the street, so you can watch the hustle and bustle of the Italian city streets (very interesting). Asked for an icecream each in Italian (with the help of Glenn's translator ipod). Weather hot and 26oC. We've booked a hotel for Pisa tomorrow night - we're not going to Venice... kids want to go to Rome for the rest of the week. Missing my grandchildren xoxoxo

Glenn:
Was glad to further our holiday today as we decided to head to San Remo instead of a lengthy day's travel. Starting to get used to driving on the left hand side of the road, just get really stressed out, because we had no idea where we are going - north south east or west!!
Enjoyed the drive through Nice and the train ride from Nice to San Remo - the coastline is absolutely magnificent, the villages the coastal and ocean views are rivalled by none in the world. Did notice as soon as we hit our first Italian contact that they were much more relaxed and easy going than the French. Nigel you were right - the French are mad on the road, and you said the Italians were insane - I totally agree! Loving the warm weather and Emily has been fantastic, she should get a job for the UN as a multi-linguist, as she has got us out of many a sticky moment wherever we've been.