Seaside Heights

Every time I remember the summer weekends when my children were little I have to smile.

Every Saturday and Sunday where the same, I would open the front door to find 5 or 6 children sitting on my porch with their beach towel under their arms looking at me with puppy eyes and asking me if I was going to the beach.

Of course the answer was always yes and they knew it. My husband and I would pack the station wagon with our two children and all the kids in the block and we went for the 2 hr. ride to Seaside Heights.

My children were the youngest ones at 3 and 4 when we started; the neighborhood kids were between 6 and 10. They all behaved beautifully because they knew that if they did not behave we would not bring them any longer. One of my nieces use to came with us sometimes as did some of the kids friends.

Back then we did not have seat belts or booster seats so we were able to pack many children in the station wagon, which was nice, now a day we would be able to only bring my two and one more, that’s it. Anyway that has nothing to do with what I am writing, that it’s for another day.

It was so much fun to play in the white sands and bathe in the salty clear waters.

We would go to the boardwalk for a walk and eat a big delicious pizza for lunch, one of the best pizzas you will ever have are in New Jersey.
Sometimes they would go in some of the rides and my husband loved to play the boardwalk games and win stuffed animals for the kids.

We did that for many years and we loved every minute of it as did the kids.

You see, that it what most everybody did on the weekends, we went to the beach, well actually we were the only ones in my neighborhood that did that every weekend, we did it Saturday and Sunday, anyway, many people did go to the beach.

We got to meet some families that were there every weekend, families like us that enjoyed the beauty of the Jersey beaches.

It was devastating to see pictures of the Seaside’s roller coaster in the water, to see the boardwalk gone, to see the beach town in ruins. Such a beautiful place it was…

I don’t live in the states any longer but for the period that I lived in New Jersey, Seaside Heights was a big part of my life, one that I always will remember.
Let me clarify that this was before those guidos from New York ruin the reputation of Seaside and when it was called the beach instead of the shore.

Cannes

I was very disappointed. OK there is sand on the beaches but it is brown and the water was brown. I thought because there are many yachts and boats but Monaco was not dirty, so I don’t know why.

The place was not bad but it was nothing spectacular either. I guess after Monaco everything will be a letdown, but no, Nice is nice.

Anyway, the beaches are mostly private with lounges and umbrellas and restaurants and bars on it. There is a small space at the end of each beach for the general public. These restaurants look very nice but I am not paying 50€ for lunch, I went to the local supermarket and had a sandwich.

I walked the promenade along the beaches and I went up to the castle, then some walk through the centre and that was it.

I guess that one hears so much about Cannes that I expected to be something more.

Oh well....

Monte Carlo

What a beautiful place, very chick, and clean and a lot of money there. You should see the cars and the yachts, too much money. I would like to have a little more money but I don’t want that much.

I walked the country which is not big. I visited the Prince Rainier palace, well, Albert’s now; actually it is call “Palais Princier” and the old town surrounding it. At 11:55 everyday day they have the changing of the guards, they are so cute in their white uniforms.

 I walk the entire boardwalk around the Port de Fonteville, Port Hercule, Monte Carlo and the beaches of Larvotto. A very nice walk that only took about 2 slow hours.

I also visited the Jardin Exotique and I will recommend you take a bus going there, they are far and uphill and they are not easy to find, the signage are very confusing.

There are many museums and exhibitions many of them about Princes Grace, I did not go into any of them, and they also have a big aquarium where you can visit their nursery.

                I went to the casino which is beautiful, I took pictures of the outside only because you are not allowed cameras inside of it which is a shame because it’s beautiful, really nice and classy, the atrium has spectacular marble floors and onyx columns and the ceilings are decorated with frescos. They have an American lounge = slot machines, and then the regular roulette and black jack, however you can only go to this one lounge all the other ones are private. I did not gamble as I can’t afford to lose.

Everything is beautiful and very rich but of course it’s the playground of the rich and famous, however, Punta del Este has nothing to envy of Monte Carlo, the beaches are beautiful with white sand, the casino it’s great, well it’s the playground of the rich and famous.

 Actually all the beaches in Uruguay have white fine sand, in Montevideo the water it’s a little murky sometimes because it’s the river, but on the Atlantic Ocean beaches the water is green and clean and not stones, just miles and miles of sand and dunes.

I am not saying this because I am from Uruguay, I am saying it because I been to many beaches in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe, and we do have better or as good beaches than most place

Of course I walked the street with all the expensive shops and window shop and then I walk the street with the regular shops.

I had a great day, it was very hot but I did not care because the place was gorgeous.

Nice

I bought a train ticket to Nice and I will be playing tourist until I have to go to Italy.

 The HI hostel has a great location, its right in the centre, about 7 blocks from the train station, 7 blocks from the beach and 5 blocks from the old town, behind the mall and a supermarket 2 blocks away, just great.

The water was a beautiful color blue, well, they don’t call it the blue coast for nothing.  The only thing is that there is not sand, it’s all stones, and let me tell you it’s not comfortable at all trying to lay down on them. Still it was nice being in the sun looking at a blue sky with not a cloud on sight.

Nice is the oldest settlement in Europe and the second largest city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille.  Now a day it’s the second most visited place in France after Paris.

The town use to be surrounded by a protective wall, however when the English started to come to Nice to get away from their winter about 250 yrs. ago the wall was destroyed to make a promenade called the Promenade des Anglais =  Walkway of the English, this way it was more appealing to them. Actually it is a very nice promenade which I walked a few times in the evening when it is a little cooler.

The whole town is very nice and very easy to walk. The old part it’s great with all the restaurants and cafes and little stores, the centre is nice just like any other centre in Europe.

At the end of the center and the entrance to the  old part there is a promenade with the statues of 7 men which represent each continent and each statue it’s looking in the direction of the continent they represent and at night they light up in different colors, very nice.

 At the end of the promenade there is Massena Square which is the main square of the town and contains a fountain with the statue of Apollo. This square is at the end of many roads and what links the centre to the old city and the way into the promenade and the beach.

 

Another nice place is the Garibaldi Square at the end of the old town and near the market square.

Near the Garibaldi place I eat at a little pizzeria some Socca = Faina = Kalinte, really good. I grew up eating pizza with faina, so when I saw it here I of course I had to have it and it was nice because it was eaten the same way that we do in Uruguay with pepper on top.

Jean Medecin was the Mayor of Nice for 33 years and his son Jacques succeeded as mayor for 24 years. Under their leadership the city had an economic boom, however an investigation about Jacques leadership proved racketeering so he fled to Uruguay where he was later capture and extradited back to France where he was convicted of corruption and sentence to jail.

Rennes

I have been to Rennes about 2 yrs. ago, so I already had seen everything in town, it’s not that big nevertheless it is very nice and almost every day or night there is something in the square where they have lounge chairs, books and ice tea for people to take a break and relax.

Of course the days I was there I could not see any concert or anything because everything had been cancel due to the rains.

I walked the old part which is postcard pretty with its cafes and square and the church.

I also went to the centre, but to tell you the truth, I did not do much because of the rain.

Everybody keeps on telling me that this is not normal, that it never rains this much at this time of year and that it’s never this cold either. All I know it’s that I have been in France for the last two months and it has been cold and raining every day.

Enough is enough. I had it with this rain and cold weather, so I will leave the Normandy beaches for another time, I am going south, I want heat and want to see the sun, I want to go to the beach.

Saint Malo

           It was grey but it was not raining so I went to St. Malo anyway because if I wait for a day without rain I will never go. Anyway after living in England I should be used to going out in the rain.

            What a pretty coastal town. It still has the original wall surrounding the old part of the city, which of course I walked. The town is situated on the English Channel and it also has powerful tides.

        The beaches are very nice however I don’t know how some people could bath there, you could see  all the tourist with sweaters and coats and the locals were bathing on the sea, oh well, that shows you how one gets adapted to their place.

The town its very quant with the old streets with many cafes and restaurants, very picturesque, if it wasn’t for the rain I really would have enjoyed it.

FYI

Due to its location St. Malo was a very important port where people traded their goods.

Now, when we think pirates we think the Caribbean, however, St. Malo was the most famous pirate town of old times. These pirates worked for the King of France and their mission was to fight and ransack English ships. As long as they did that and gave all the loot to the King they had his protection, otherwise they could have been treated as any other pirate. If you saw as many pirates movies as I have you know what I am talking about.

When France signed the treated of Utrecht with England in 1713 the piracy stopped and so did the prosperity of the town.

All the restaurants were really nice and expensive, actually the whole town was expensive, so I went to the supermarket for a change and I had a sandwich.

Oh well, it really started to rain, so I stopped under a canopy of a store and waited for the rain to stop along a bunch of people from Mexico that were there on a tour. After waiting and waiting I decided to leave, it wasn’t stopping.

Mont Saint Michel.

You can see the place on top of the Mont as you are approaching, it’s very impressive.

The legend goes that in 709 the Archangel Michel appeared to the bishop of Avranches and asked him to build a church on the rock.

The Mont Saint-Michelis a tidal island located at the northern coast of France in Normandy. The tidal is the second fastest in the world; it comes at the speed of a galloping horse. I wanted to see the tidal wave come in but that day it went out at 9 am. and it was coming back after the last bus, so no luck.

You can cross the sand when the water is low, however, you need to do it with a guide because there are quick sands and because of the tidal waves many people had drowned. I guess they did not look the times. As for me, I would not do it even with a guide because how do they know exactly where all the quick sands are? I went by bus up to the entrance.

Mont Saint-Michel was one of the main pilgrimage sites in ancient times. So a village was built at the foot of the sanctuary to accommodate the pilgrims.

The Mont is very nice, however you cannot appreciate its full beauty because the village has been converted into restaurants and souvenir shops, one next to the other. The streets are very narrow about 4 to 6 ft. and there are thousands of people visiting the place every day.

Anyway, it started to rain for a change, so I went back to the hostel.