Nice

Note: the following series of notes were written after my visit to France in the spring of 2008, during my daughter's semester abroad.

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Since Nice was our center of operations, I got to know it pretty well – at least the parts of it that were close to Sarah’s apartment. Sarah lives on Boulevard Gambetta, which is one of the larger streets running from the Promenade des Anglais, into town. The “Prom” is kind of like a boardwalk (but not made of boards), and it runs along the beach (or Baie des Anges – the Bay of Angels). People are not only promenading, but there are cyclists, joggers, and in-line skaters, who use a designated painted lane.

At intervals, there is a covered area with seats, where you can sit and look at the ocean, or the people on the beach. The beach is somewhat different from what we in the States expect, as it is covered with pebbles – not sand.

But back to the “Prom”… Jogging may be somewhat new in France. There are lots of people jogging, but not very many of them look like they know what they are doing. In terms of exercise, they are getting a lot of bang for the buck, but they are either running in a very awkward fashion, or are wearing clothing that no self-respecting jogger in the States would wear (such as cargo shorts). On the other hand, put a French person on a bicycle, and they look as if they were born there.

One of my favorite places to walk was the Rue de France. This is a street that runs parallel to the beach, but about a block in. If you follow it east, you will encounter many shops and cafes, and finally the “Zone Pietonne,” or Pedestrian Zone, which is a section of the street that has been blocked off from traffic. Eventually, Rue de France ends at Place Massena, which is a very large plaza. The new tram line runs through it, and on either side of the tram line is a row of about a dozen poles, each one topped with a statue of a man, which are lit at night. The color of the light shifts gradually through the spectrum.

Nice was founded in about 350 BC by the Greeks, who named the city after the goddess Nikaia, the goddess of victory (as in Nike sportswear).

Nice has gone back and forth between various political entities, and hasn’t always been a part of France. Italy is only about 30 minutes away by train, and there is a lot of Italian influence in the architecture of Nice.

Nice also has some of the best ice cream (gelato, actually) that I have ever tasted. If you ever go there, check out Fenocchio’s (not to be confused with Pinocchio’s, which is a chain).

At the east end of the Baie des Anges is a large hill or mountain (depending on your perspective), that is called the Colline du Chateau. I’m not sure of the history of it, so I won’t even attempt to relate it, but going to the top of the Colline du Chateau gives a wonderful view of the entire Baie des Anges. It is an ideal place to have one’s picture taken, to prove that one has indeed been to Nice, because there is a vantage point where the Baie des Anges is in the background. I went up to the Chateau by myself one day, while Sarah was in class. She and all her young friends had hiked up to the top on foot. I discovered some little tourist trains on the Eastern end of the Promenade des Anglais, and for 4 Euros, rode to the top. Call me a cheater. On the way to the Colline du Chateau, the train wound through Vieux Nice.

7/19/07 – Oot and Aboot

Thursday was a low-key day for everyone to do whatever they wanted to do locally. None of us was up to making another long expedition to west coast isles. I had had a few tartan scarves put aside for the girls at Campbell’s tartan shop in Beauly. This shop, which was an absolutely beautiful storefront, was run by two sisters, and their brother, all named Fraser. Although the two ladies were quite charming, our host laughingly described them as looking like “two storks in tartan.” Ms. Fraser the younger helped me find three scarves in MacDonald (McBride), in three different versions of the plaid – dress, everyday, and the ancient colors and after making a few other purchases, we left. I have to observe that not only is the shop beautiful, but the ladies working there made us feel very welcome, and were happy to answer all our questions about Scottish dress and custom.

After we left the shop, Eric asked me if I wouldn’t like a sweater. So we turned back around and Ms. Fraser again helped us. Although everyone who knows me, knows how I hate winter, this lovely sweater will certainly make it easier for me to bear the approach of cold weather this year.

Eric and I then went out to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle again. We saw a very good film at the Loch Ness Center about all the scientific research that has been done. In short, there are dozens of things that could happen on the Ness, which would look like body parts of a large creature surfacing. That being said, the presence of such a creature has not been totally ruled out, and therein lies the mystique.

After a final trip to the Castle, we headed back to Knockbain Schoolhouse. Fred and Page took the group out to a local inn for dinner, then we came back for our “wee dram” and turned in, knowing that we had to make an early start for Edinburgh the following morning.

7/18/07 – Skye, and Other High Places

Wednesday was the day that we went to Skye. When we got to Kyle of Localsh, where the bridge to Skye is located, we stopped for lunch, and I had my first encounter with haggis (plus black pudding). The shop actually gave us a small sample to taste, while we were trying to make up our minds, but I was the only one with the moxie to actually order it.

Skye was breathtaking, but that was only partially due to the scenery. The rest of it was due to one-lane roads on steep hillsides (munros), with oncoming traffic, while driving on the left-hand side of the road. At one point, we had to dodge a very aggressive bus, which was NOT going to yield right of way. We drove out to a beautiful point of land by a farmhouse, and stopped the car, to let our heads stop spinning, while we took in the scenery of the “Five Sisters” and Cuillin Hills. Spectacular scenery notwithstanding, we were relieved to eventually be back on two-way roads.

On the way back, we stopped to get pictures of Eilan Donan, a very romantic-looking castle with an ancient bridge; and also a lighthouse close to Skye. Not to mention a whiskey-tasting, which was “verra” educational.

That evening, it was the Long/Markgraf contingent’s turn to cook. In addition, Margaret’s cousin Dean and her friend Bill had arrived, so we found ourselves cooking chicken divan by memory, with somewhat weird ingredients, for perfect strangers. No pressure!

7/17/07 – Culloden and Standing Stones – Oh, Boy!

Tuesday was the day I had been waiting for. We had an optimistic forecast of “intermittently sunny” and our itinerary included two sites I had been looking forward to seeing – Culloden and standing stones. Our first stop was Culloden, which is the site of the battle which ended the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. We watched a short informational film, before venturing out onto the battlefield. The film gave a good summary of the conditions building up to the battle, and also the events immediately afterward. I had been unaware of the fact that Charles Stuart (otherwise known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) could probably have kept hold of Scotland, if he hadn’t gotten greedy and attempted to capture England as well. To the Scots, this war was much like our Civil War, and at the end of it, the old ways of the Scottish clans were destroyed.

We ventured out to the battlefield, first visiting a old croft that had been converted into a British command post. Then onto the battlefield itself, a bleak moor with a commemorative cairn in the middle, and two lines of stones, representing the fallen on both sides – brother against brother. I walked down the row of clan markers, and took pictures of those for Fraser and Cameron, not seeing any MacDonald or Farquharson (my own clan affiliations). Most other clans were represented by markers for “Mixed Clans.”

We then traveled to the Clava Cairns, which range in age from 6,000 – 1,000 BC. There are three large cairns (which are gravesites), each surrounded by a ring of 12 standing stones. There is one newer (1,000 BC) cairn that is not as big, and doesn’t have a full complement of standing stones. Although they have fenced the site in, one of the standing stones is still outside the fence, and I had to wonder why.

After that, we went to Cawdor Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s MacBeth. We had lunch sitting in the courtyard of the castle, and I had one of those moments of “Gee, here I am in Scotland, in a castle!” The castle is only open to the public during the tourist season, but during the winter, the mistress of the castle is in residence (from October through March).

It has some lovely gardens, including a nature walk in back of the castle, with a peat-water stream running through it, and a labyrinth maze. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get into the labyrinth, but I could imagine them losing a few tourists from time to time.

After that, we made a quick trip to Ft. George. Although it was recommended to take 1 ½ hours to see it, we dashed through in 1 hour. The fort is set down into the ground, and is almost invisible until you are right on top of it, and it bristles with cannons. The purpose of the fort was to keep down the savage natives, after “the ’45.” As soon as it was built, it was obvious that it was unneeded, as the heads of clans, and other notorious trouble-makers had been executed, imprisoned, or exiled.

7/15/07 – On to Scotland

We had an early wake-up call this morning, because we had a pickup from the air-bus, for our 7:30 flight to Scotland. Because of the larger number of people leaving the hotel early, they opened up the dining room for breakfast.

I know that two days is not really enough time to see a country, but I felt that we had gotten a good taste of this one, and was anxious to be getting to Scotland.

Flying in over Scotland was a thrill, seeing the highlands spread out. Unusual, also, because there was so little cloud cover that we could see the country as we prepared to land. Our route took us directly over the highlands, with a view of munros and firths.

The trip was fairly uncomplicated, although we had a little debacle at the Glasgow airport in regard to a car rental, so we had to re-rent another car, at about twice the cost.

Our trip north was uneventful, except for Eric having to quickly learn how to drive on the left – very confusing, when every instinct urges you to drive on the right! The hardest part was getting out of Glasgow, and onto the M3, which involved navigating at least three roundabouts.

Driving into the highlands was awe-inspiring, especially since the bare hills were almost completely vacant of human life. I had expected a drive through picturesque villages, but those were on side exits from the major north-south highway.

The drive through Inverness was hair-raising, as we went through five roundabouts, following Brown’s (our friend) instructions, making a couple of premature turns, but always finding our way again fairly easily. We had the further complication of additional traffic from an Elton John concert which was to take place that evening.

The atmosphere changed from urban and stressful to rural and bucolic as soon as we got out of the last roundabout, and we were soon at Knockbain Schoolhouse. Brown was waiting for us at the gate, and gave us a quick tour of the property.

This would probably be a good point for a footnote about the Reverend and Mrs. Brown Morton III, and Knockbain Schoolhouse. Brown is a professor of architectural conservation at Mary Washington, and during the course of his career has worked on projects worldwide. He is also an Episcopal minister. Margaret Brown is a native of the UK and a journalist, currently working for Leesburg Today, although she also does some freelance work. Margaret’s family used to own a large estate in the Inverness area, where she had spent her holidays since childhood. They acquired the Knockbain Schoolhouse when they were looking for a new place of residence in the Inverness area. Although they weren’t inclined to consider purchasing a redundant schoolhouse (Brown had seen too many of them in the past), this one captured them, and the rest is history. Their house overlooks the Beauly Firth, which is just around the corner from Loch Ness, and is connected to it at Inverness, which is its inlet. In short, their home is to the west of Loch Ness.

We made our way up the very steep hillside in the back of the house, to a vantage point from which we could see across the Beauly Firth to the Black Isle. The entire scene was lit golden by the late afternoon sun. I thought, “I’m home. I want to stay here forever.”

After a wonderful dinner of two different kinds of shepherd’s pie, we had a strategy session for the next day, and then went to bed. Brown said that the rule of the house in regard to expeditions is, “All may, some will, none must.”

7/13/07 – Rekjavik

At least I think that’s today’s date, as our flight was overnight. I’m writing this first diary entry while sitting in the lobby of the Hotel Cabin, which although it is very clean and utilitarian, is not a Marriott. The house sound system is tuned to a radio station playing something that sounds like Willie Nelson singing country music, but in Icelandic. Go figure. When Eric and Stephanie join me, we are going to try and figure out how to get to the Rekjavik harbor for a night out on the town.

As far as the trip, all I can say is that making a long flight in the eastern direction is the pits. After 6.5 hours in economy class, we had lost all sense of personal space, and were glad to get off the plane.

The expedition to the Blue Lagoon, was scheduled immediately after our arrival in Rekjavik, and before check-in at our hotel, and this was a surprise to me, but worked out for the best. At the time, I was feeling a bit put-out, because if I had known, I would have shaved my legs. I was consoled by the thought that I was in Europe. Besides, I didn’t expect anyone to be interested in my legs.

The Blue Lagoon, contrary to the expectations of anyone who has seen the movie of the same name, is at the site of a geothermal vent whose heat is harvested for energy, and then the leftover, still-very-hot water is dumped into the lagoon. Publicity photography notwithstanding, the water is more green than blue. There are a few inlets where the water is piped in, and where you can see steam rising. Although the water is at least tepid throughout the Lagoon, the temperature rises sharply when approaching one of the inlets.

There are a lot of minerals in the water, and it tastes slightly salty, although I wouldn’t recommend getting it in your mouth. Floating is very easy – all you have to do is take your feet off the bottom and you naturally start floating on your back. There are pots of the white silt, which you can put on your face. (They charge a lot of money for the stuff in gift shops.) Picture hoards of white-masked women, floating blissfully on their backs in greenish, tepid water, and there you have it.

The landscape around the Blue Lagoon is somewhat like the surface of the moon – piles of tumbled volcanic rock. The terrain would not be easy to walk across, if one were inclined to take a hike. In places where there are lava fields (like around the B.L.), rocks are piled up, and reminded me of Mordor (“The Lord of the Rings” movies). I wondered if Peter Jackson (or more to the point, J.R.R. Tolkein) had gotten those visual images from Iceland.

A short bus ride later, we were at the Hotel Cabin. Our room was very small, with twin beds, and a shower that was barely big enough to turn around in. Our main challenge was having any room for our luggage. They did serve a free breakfast buffet, and the hotel is only about a mile’s walk from the harbor and downtown.

We took a rather long, scenic walk to the harbor, in search of a restaurant Stephanie had read about in the Washington Post. Its name translates as “The Sea Baron.” Until its popularization by the Post (and The New York Times), it was just a local favorite. We had some wonderful lobster soup and seafood kabob. Eric and Stephanie had salmon and I had mink whale, which, if we had not known otherwise, I would have taken for beef.