PTM // Contiki: Day 6 - Lucerne to Nice

This morning we had to be up early so that we could head back to France! Yep, back to france we go but this time our destination is Nice which is located in the south of France on the French Riviera.

We all met at 7:45AM for a terrible breakfast. Well at least in my opinion. The one major downfall of the Mount Pilatusblick Hotel here in Lucerne is that the breakfast that you get is simply crap. Bread, some cereal if there’s any left, and a bowl of watered down strawberry jelly for your toast. Mmm! I’m not saying that the breakfast at the Ibis Hotel in Paris was unbelievable, but it was much, much better than the breakfasts here in Lucerne.

Now don’t get turned off by the Mt. Pilatusblick Hotel just yet because theres a couple of really positive things about this place. One thing that I loved about the Pilatusblick Hotel was the beds! The beds were great, and the blankets and pillows were really plush and soft. Perfect for a good nights sleep and much better than the Imperial Hotel in London, and the Ibis Hotel in Paris. The other positive thing that I found about the Pilatusblick Hotel was that it was really peaceful and relaxing. Although it looks old from the outside and maybe even the inside, it’s situated up in the hills just under Mt. Pilatus and the scenery around the hotel is pretty amazing.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. After breakfast we all headed for the bus and loaded all of our bags on. As we were leaving Switzerland the views were incredible. Our tour manager Kennett told us that we’d travel through four countries today! Switzerland, Italy, France, and Monaco! I thought that was pretty cool, minus all of the time sitting on this bus of course.

We finally crossed the border of Switzerland into Italy and just after passing over the border we made our first stop at a truck stop in Italy. We had a nice 45 minute break from 11:30 to 12:15. As usual, most people headed for the bathroom since we try not to use the toilets on the bus. It’s not a law, it’s just a rule that the toilets should only be used if it’s an absolute emergency. I’m not sure if anybody has used the restroom on the bus as of yet, besides people that got sick from drinking the previous night, or car sick. Otherwise the bathrooms are rarely used.

At the rest stop in Italy, there was a great pizza chain called Spizzio’s? I ordered a slice of margarita pizza, and it came with a small order of fries, and a drink. I didn’t think the price of 6.00 Euro’s was too bad actually. The slice of cheese pizza was 1/4 of a full pizza so it was absolutely huge, and tasty too. After everyone was finished eating we headed back out to the bus so that we could take off to Nice.

A few hours, and a few windy roads later we finally arrived in Nice! We checked into our hotel and had about 30 minutes to get ready to head out to Monte Carlo in Monaco for the Contiki Optional Dinner. Everyone attended and it was the best meal I’ve had so far on the trip. I was debating on going to this dinner, but I’m glad I did. Each table was served 2 bottles of wine, one white, and one red. I had roasted chicken with garlic and rosemary. For dessert I had two scoops of ice cream, one strawberry, one vanilla. It was a perfect way to finish off the meal before heading over to the Grand Casino in Monaco.

We arrived at the Grand Casino and I couldn’t believe how rich it actually was. We didn’t have much time at the casino, only 25 minutes so I decided not to go in at all. I stood out front with some others and watched all of the expensive cars, glamour, and rich old men park their ferrari’s, bentley’s and porche’s. It was incredible!

After the casino we all came back to our hotel and spent about 15 minutes getting ready to go out to a bar down the street. Ryan and I went out for 1 drink and walked back home. Tomorrow we have a free day in Nice and Ryan & I are going to sleep in a bit before heading out to explore the city. There isn’t a ton to do here, but if it’s nice out we’ll probably hit the beach for a bit and do some sightseeing. Should be a good day, hopefully the weather clears up a bit.

Til’ next time…