One week at the French riviera.
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We went from my home three and a quarter hours before departure and fetched Reeta on the way to Gothenburg City airport. It was good to have the extra 15 minutes otherwise I usually travel from home three hours before departure.
The woman at the check-in desk told me that my passport wasn't good. The page with my photo was on the way to get off. She told me that you are not allowed to fix it with tape. The passport is not valid any longer if the page with the photo isn't attached correctly to the passport.
Reeta bought some expensive candy at the airport and a tiny bag of peanuts on the airplane for 2 euros.
When we landed you heard a salute from the loudspeakers and RyanAir announced that yet one more flight was made in time. We were informed that they were number one at arriving in time.
You had to walk some bit, among other things up several stairs before you reached the baggage claim area. There were no customs or passport checks after you had fetched your suitcase.
We looked after a taxi or the shuttle bus outside the terminal building but couldn't find any. There was a bigger terminal building a bit away to the right so we walked towards it.
The first shuttle bus we saw was not going into Marseille. A bit further away we found another shuttle bus at a sign with Marseille. I tried to ask the driver if it was going to the train station but the only answer I got was quick, quick. I guessed that it meant yes and we had to quickly throw our suitcases into the baggage compartment and jump on the bus. The driver seemed to be more or less mad. He hadn't time to give me back money on the 10 euro bill I gave him. He held the bill in his hand and it was difficult to stand up since he drove very fast. Later, when the bus made a short stop, I got 3 euros back. The journey into the city should only take 25 minutes without any stops. It was crazy the driver hadn't time to give me back money directly or to be kind and answer my simple question if the bus was going to the train station in Marseille.
We arrived at a train station but some persons remained on the bus so it wasn't the final destination. Was it the right train station? We took a chance and jumped of the train which luckily was a correct decision.
I had booked train tickets on Internet but unfortunately I had forgotten my code for my Visa card so I couldn't get the tickets from one of the ticket automatic machines. We tried to find a ticket office but could only find an information desk in the middle of the night. We were told that the ticket office opened 5 a.m. on Monday the next day.
We went down to the taxi cars. We used a mowing staircase and Reeta got a lot of problems with her suitcase. She was not used to using a moving staircase with luggage. She put down her big suitcase without holding it. I shouted to her from downstairs that she had to hold it but it was too late. The suitcase started to roll downwards. Luckily there weren't any other people in the staircase and the suitcase didn't break. We found a taxi car parked at the taxi station. We showed him on a map where we were going and asked how much it would cost. 15-18 euro he told us. He used the meter or at least it looked as if he were using it. It was showing 15 euro all the time during the trip to our hotel. When we were just outside our hotel it all of a sudden changed to 18 euro. The driver obviously cheated. He hadn't started the meter. He had just put it on 15 euro. Just before we reached the hotel he increased it with 3 more euros when we didn't see it. I asked if 15 euro was some kind of start cost and he said yes. I gave him 20 euros and wanted 2 euros back. He told me that he only had one euro. I was too tired to argue so we just walked towards the hotel.
It was a two star hotel, not luxury but okay. We paid 66 or 67 euros but on internet they said that it would cost 70 euros for a night. It was a nice guy from Russia who worked at the reception during the night.
We got a very small room which we luckily should leave early in the morning. We opened the window since it was a little hot. We went to bed at around 1 o'clock in the night.
We woke up around 4 a.m. when a car came and fetched garbage. A little later another car drove by and made a terrible sound when it cleaned the streets. The stupid car drove by 4 times! No chance that we could get any more rest.
We ordered a taxi and it cost only 7 euros to the train station this time and the taximeter was working correct. We had to pay extra for the suitcases we had put back in the baggage store. Was it more expensive yesterday since it was in the night? Were the three extra euros for our suitcases? It is difficult to know. One thing I know is that I will check it up if I ever visit France again. It is not much money but I hate when somebody cheat. An advice is that don't take a taxi in France if you can avoid it.
We went to the ticket desk which had opened. A woman told me that I still couldn't receive my tickets if I didn't have the code for my Visa card. Really stupid! I had to buy new tickets which were much more expensive compared to the tickets I had bought a long time ago on Internet. The woman told us that I could cancel the tickets I had bought on Internet at one of the ticket machines. She told us that you didn't need a code to do that. We went to the machine just to find out that you of course couldn't cancel the old tickets without a code. We went back to the office and the woman asked a man at desk number 5 for help. He asked for my e-mail address but still couldn't cancel my tickets. He gave me an address and told me that I should write to them and explain the situation and then I should get money back so I only should have to pay the price for the originally tickets I had bought on Internet. I asked for his name which is good to have so I can refer to him. He refused to give it to me and told me instead to refer to desk number 5 at 7 a.m. Luckily we had gone to the train station in good time otherwise we would have missed our train on top of everything.
The train was very nice and it was a nice journey along the coast from Marseille to Nice. It was easy to keep an eye on your luggage while you traveled. Nobody checked our tickets.
It was also easy to find our hotel, just a few minutes walk from the station. Our room was not ready until 2 p.m. so we had to leave our luggage and go for a walk.
At 4 p.m. we were back at the hotel. The hotel was very nice with a big room. They had English speaking channels on TV, CNN and one more. There was also a safe in the room.
We rested until 20:00 and then we went up and ate chicken which we had taken with us from Sweden. At 23:00 we went out for a walk. Some shops were still open. We didn't find any dancing places but there should be places in the old town according to the information we got from the hotel reception. We were back at the hotel at around 1 in the night.
We ate bread with chicken for breakfast which we also had brought from Sweden.
We planned to visit Monte Carlo and got some information from the reception. The bus to Monte Carlo cost 1 euro and it took one to one and a half hour. It was better to take the train. The hotel was by the way fully booked since I think Madonna had a concert that week. Normally it should be okay to book 2 weeks in advance if you went there in August.
We had to queue 25 minutes before we got our tickets to Monte Carlo. The train should depart 13:39 according to the time table I got. It was a little difficult to find the right platform. I had to ask at the information and they told me that it was F. You then had to go under and up at a platform on the other side. The train had two floors and it was 10-15 minutes late. The ticket cost by the way 3.30 euros per person one way. In total it cost 13.20 euros. The train only took 20 minutes and it stopped 2-3 times on the way.
It was a very long platform at Monte Carlo inside a mountain. You had to walk quite a way before you came out and had a view of Monaco. We went down to the harbor and then upwards again to visit some nice places and take some photos.
We took the train back and found a china restaurant where we ate a menu for 10.90 euros per person. We ate a 3 menu dish which was quite stupid. The main dish cost 6.30 euros. The soup and a tiny bit ice-cream cost 4.60 euros. It would be better just to take the main dish and take an ice-cream later outside somewhere.
I went to an internet café just to check if I had stored my Visa card code in the USB memory which I had brought from home. Unfortunately I hadn't so I still couldn't cancel the rest of the train tickets.
At 23:30 we went down to the old city center. We didn't find any dancing places but there was a big place with a lot of open air restaurants. The walk along the sea was almost empty in contrary to most other cities at the Mediterranean Sea. There had been a market with a lot of nice things but unfortunately they were about to pack down all things when we arrived around midnight.
We ate breakfast quite late and went out around noon. We went out shopping and went first to a big warehouse. We continued after some time to the narrow roads in the old town where you could find a lot of nice, small shops. Reeta bought some Hindu statues which seemed to be quite popular in France. I bought a little dance statue.
After shopping we went up on the mountain on the left side of the beach. We bought a fruit drink which was really expensive, it cost 9 euro. We were quite tired when we went down to our hotel room when the sun set down. We bought kebab at a place close to our hotel and ate it while we looked at CNN in our hotel room.
We packed our things and I got a little chock when I looked at the train tickets. The woman in Marseille had on top of all other train ticket problems not given us correct tickets. We had tickets from Cannes to Marseille but also tickets from Nice to Marseille. We only needed tickets from Nice to Cannes.
We had breakfast in our hotel room and at 7:30 I went to the train station which I had read should open 8:00. The ticket office had already opened. It was a just if you wanted to book tickets some days in advance that you had to wait until 8 a.m. I tested first in an automat again but it didn't work. Luckily I could change the ticket I had bought in Marseille and got 46:80 euro back. I could however not change the tickets I had booked on internet. I got a phone number so I could phone somebody and discuss the internet tickets. It was however an automatic answering voice which told me a lot in French. I suppose it was some instructions to press different numbers depending on what I wanted to talk about. It didn't help me since I cannot speak French and didn't understand what the voice said. I had also been told that I should be able to cancel the tickets on Internet.
I went back to our hotel room and at 9 a.m. we went together to the train station. Reeta bought coffee in an automat for one euro. 20 minutes before departure they announced that the train departed from platform C. It was a very long train with a lot of wagons. We got seats in number 14 which was almost empty. The train departed 10.08 and arrived in Cannes 10.33. The journey cost 8.10 euro per person. It would have been cheaper to travel with one of the local trains but we hadn't checked up the local trains and it is normally nice to have everything arranged from home.
On Internet you could read that it was 200 meters from the train station to the hotel. In reality it was probably twice as much but you could easily walk the distance. The hotel was very nice.
We rested a little and then went out for a walk. We bought soft ice-creams with different tastes down at the sea for 2 euros each. We also bought Panini-bread with meat for 4 euros and Fanta for 2 euros. Down at the harbor there were a lot of luxurious boats. We went up a hill at the right side of the beach to get a good view of the city. On our way back to our hotel we walked on a street with many small, nice shops.
At around 10 p.m. we went out again towards the sea. We passed an area with a lot of outdoor restaurants where the streets were closed for cars. There was a performance on the street which was nice to look at. We hadn't eaten so we just bought sandwiches with double sausages for 3.5 euros each. We searched for places to dance but found only a small, unattractive disco at a backyard. The main attraction in the city seemed to be the big, luxurious nightclub down at the marina. It cost 30 euros per person to get in which we thought was a little too expensive. We went home again. There were a lot of very expensive shops down at the sea. At Dior's shop we took to left and walked away from the sea to our hotel. We were home around 1 o'clock in the night.
Air-condition worked really well in our hotel room so it became too cold in the night. We had to put on a blanket beside the sheet. After that we slept very well. It was very dark and not a sound you heard from outside. We thought the time was 6 or 7 when we woke up but it was already 9:30.
I hurried down to the sea since I wanted to snorkel close to the marina. The water temperature was very nice. There were some small islands made of stones where you could see quite a lot of fish. I looked for octopuses but couldn't see any. The sight in the water wasn't so good. It is probably much better if you snorkel at sunrise before people start to bath and before the wind start to blow.
I went back to the hotel which only took a few minutes and we ate breakfast.
After breakfast, at around noon, we took a train to the lovely village called Antibe. We went down to the harbor were you could see extremely big and luxurious boats. I have never seen so many at the same place before. The biggest boat was on its way out so we could only see it from a distance. It had a helicopter on a platform.
There were some nice beaches and also some cliffs where you could snorkel. We didn't bath, instead we had a look at some shops before we took the train back to Cannes. The train tickets, both ways for two persons cost totally 10 euros.
Back in Cannes we looked for a place to eat, preferable a China restaurant. We found one but it didn't open until 19:00. In the meantime I tried to cancel the train tickets on Internet but it was impossible. I sent at least a mail to the place where I had booked the tickets and explained the situation. Using Internet on the Internet café cost 3 euros for one hour. I only used 30 minutes and had to pay 1.5 euro.
We found a Vietnamese restaurant instead of the China restaurant. A three dish meal for 16 euros seemed to be okay even if you can get it cheaper in Sweden. Unfortunately they told us that 16 euro was for the lunch menu. We ordered instead duck which cost 16 euro. You had to pay an extra 2.5 euro for rice and you got a really tiny portion. We had to order more rice and I was really pissed off. To pay so much for rice. I at least took for granted that you should at least get a normal portion rice if you had to pay for it. The dinner for both of us cost 41 euros and then it was not even a very expensive restaurant compared to other restaurants in Cannes.
At 9 p.m. we were back at the hotel room and packed our things before we went out a couple of hours. When we reached the sea we saw a nice firework display.
We went up 7 a.m. and ate breakfast before we went to the station around an hour before the train departed at 9:26. It was time for the next train ticket chock. We had seats number 23 and 25 in wagon number 16. We couldn't sit together.
The train was 30 minutes late. Our train should arrive at platform 2. On a monitor you could see which train was coming in. On another display you could also se a picture of the train and all wagons. You could see where your wagon was located and then estimate where on the platform you should wait.
Reeta managed to pass the moving staircase down to the taxi cars in Marseille without dropping her suitcase.
A man met us who came from the taxi-station further away. He spoke English. He told us that no taxi took under 20 euros for the short, 800 m way to our hotel. There was a long queue of taxi cars and he explained that no taxi would make a short trip and then have to end up in the end of the queue instead. I wondered how that man could speak for all of them. It was like some mafia methods. We refused be part of that. It is better to go than take a taxi under those conditions. We tried to get a taxi on the street instead but couldn't find any. We started to walk towards our hotel and found that it was quite easy. It wasn't such a long way. When we had gone by taxi from the station to the hotel the first time, then the taxi had traveled a really long way. I suspect that he drove a longer way, probably 2-3 times longer than he needed just to be able to charge us 18 euros.
We took a short break before we went down to the harbor. We also visited a lot of shops at 'Rue de Rome'. We had planned to eat at a Tunisian restaurant which was close to our hotel and which looked nice. They had told us that they opened 5 p.m. We came a little after 5 but now they told us that they opened 6 p.m. They spoke English very bad so maybe it was a misunderstanding. We decided to walk for a while and then come back. We ended up on a street just behind our hotel which was called Capucins or something like that. There was a market where you also could buy a lot of good food. We bought 4 types of bread, some filled with meat. They cost 9 euros. We also bought food at the warehouse in front of our hotel called Monopria or something like that.
We ate the food in our hotel room. The room was by the way much better compared to the small room we had got at the same hotel on our first night in France. It was room number 35. The hotel had also free Internet which was good. They had a lot of good TV programs but all of them were in French.
In the evening we went out and tried to find some nightlife. There weren't much people out. Marseille is a big city but I don't think it has a centre where all the nightlife is concentrated. It is spread out over the whole city which isn't so nice.
We packed the rest of our things, booked a taxi and paid for the room before we went out for a walk after 9 a.m.
We went down to the harbor where they had a fish market. It was interesting to look at all the fishes such as small tunas, sharks and a swordfish.
We continued to the right along a path described by a map in a tourist brochure. We took some nice photos and some not so nice photos such as a photo of a car with a lot of bird shit.
We had to go back to our hotel before 11:30 to check out. We could leave our luggage safely in a room behind the reception.
We had some food left from yesterday which we ate at a fountain before we went down to the harbor again. Reeta wanted to buy some souvenirs.
After shopping we went back to the hotel again and waited for our taxi which should come 13:50, 3 hours before our plane departed.
The woman in the reception told us that it was a cheap taxi and should cost around 50 euro. Yesterday we were told that the taxi should cost 40-50 euro. In tourist brochures you could read that it should cost around 40 euros during daytime and 50 euros during the night.
A taxi driver came up to the reception and helped us down with our luggage. The taximeter was showing 10.20, 10.30 or something like that. Why did it not start at 0? What could we say, there was no time to start arguing now since we had a flight to catch and the driver know it. The taximeter stopped at 61.20 when we arrived at the airport, Mp2. The driver told us that 60 euros was okay. Should we be glad because he was kind to give us 1.20 euro?
Alcohol is expensive in Sweden so I always check the prices. 70 cl Absolute vodka cost around 14 euro in shops such as SPAR but at the airport it cost 23 euros for 100 cl. Normally it cost around 20 euros at smaller shops in Nice.
The check-in was different since you had to carry your luggage after you had received your boarding card to a place where you left your luggage.
We entered the plane without problem but then it all started. The pilot said in the speaker that there was a 30 minutes delay before we could start and by a coincidence there was also a minor technical problem which had to be solved before we could start. I wondered if there really was a delay or if that was just an excuse for the technical problem. It soon became quite hot in the plane so they opened both doors. All electricity was during a time switched off. It took a while before they could put on air-condition again. At least one person became scared with the result that three person took their hand-luggage and left the plain. I could see them on the ground outside searching in their luggage after boarding cards and luggage number which they had to show to the airport personnel. If you leave the plane your luggage has to be removed due to security risks since it can contain a bomb. Another woman also wanted to leave the plane and had grabbed her hand-luggage and was on her way out. Luckily a person talked to her and convinced her to go back to her seat.
The pilot said in the speaker that we should not worry. It was just a minor technical problem. It was a little complicated but we could come and have a look in the cockpit ourselves. Have a look in the cockpit, could we do that?! Probably not, at least nobody walked towards the cockpit. The pilot also told us that the plane was just three months old and cost 700 million. The weather was also lovely and he had been a pilot for 15 years so we should not worry. He would not take off if there was the slightest risk.
After more than an hour delay we arrived safely in Sweden where my father waited with his car.