Travel Log
Posts Tagged ‘food’
What a change a 30-minute train ride can make. After a short intercity journey I arrived in the film festival capital of the world, Cannes France. Unlike Nice, Cannes is an amazingly clean city with pristine beaches. A short walk from the train station I stopped in a boulongerie for a pastery and cafe au laut. Yummm, what a great way to start the day. The French really know how to do pasteries and they brew really rich, strong coffee.
Bastille Day
I missed the Fourth of July celebrations in the States this year but I made up for it by joining the French in celebrating Bastille Day. I was still in Nice for the festivities. Bastille Day is a big thing for the French and they celebrate it much like we celebrate July 4th back home.
The city of Nice pulls out all of the stops for the party. There were stages set up along the promenade and live bands played until late into the night. Food and beer vendors with pushcarts were strategically located near the music and the main entrances to the beach. Some friends and I got a few bottles of wine and some pizza and went and staked out our own spot on the beach below the main stage. At around 21:30 (9:30pm) the real show began. With the French national anthem blasting at ear splitting levels, the fireworks began. The show was amazing and lasted over an hour. They had two barges anchored a little way off shore and one or the other, and sometimes both together, lobbed fireworks into the perfectly clear night sky. What a great way to end a day.
So this year the cheer was “Vive la France” rather than “God Bless America” but the feeling was remarkably similar. This was one of my best days in France.
After a miserably hot train ride from Nice to Lyon, my friend Hayden from Montreal Canada, who I met in Nice, and I arrived at the HI Hostel in Lyon late in the afternoon. The hostel is a bit of a trek from the train station but it was well worth it. From the Metro we took the funicular (a type of cable car for going up very steep hills) up to a point a little bit above the hostel. We agreed that walking downhill is always preferable to climbing upward. The hostel had an absolutely awesome view out over old Lyon (View Lyon). There was a terraced area behind the bar with tables and chairs that had the best view of anyplace I have stayed so far.
Munich Germany
Munich was an amazing city that can pretty much be summed up in a single word “Bier” (or “beer” as we say back home). The Germans in Munich take their beer very seriously (and in large quantities). I always thought that those huge beer steins that you see were simply for decoration. Ha, nothing could be further from the truth; they drink their beer in one-liter mugs here. A small beer is a half-liter. And the beer is absolutely terrific. I did my best to sample as many different kinds as I could while I was in Munich and I don’t think that I even scratched the surface.
