I started my first proper day in London (May 3, 2024) by taking the train into the city with Andrew and getting on a Hop on Hop off bus. It was a rainy morning so I mainly stayed on the bus and learned about the cities history. Eventually I got hungry and hopped off to get some lunch.
After I got lunch I searched on google maps to see what was around. Turns out I was in the same road as Buckingham palace. So I walked over and took some photos. Uncle Andrew recommended the museums (and they are free), and by now the sun is out and it stopped raining so I decided I would walk to the museums.
I decided to explore the natural history museum. The line moved fast so I put my Harry Potter audio book in and walked all around the museum. I had a really good time!
Today was an early morning! We woke up and took the train from Brussels to Brugge. Rainy morning to start the day. Bruge is a small town but so far one of our favourites. We spent the day exploring the city, doing lots of walking. We took a boat tour of the city when the sun came out and it was definitely worth it! Our hostel is not as nice as the one in Brussels and tonight is our first night in a dorm (with someone else sharing the room).
Update:
The weather got really warm and the sun was out!! We all got a bit sun kissed today. We sat out in the sun in the Center of the town square for a while enjoying the atmosphere. Then we got dinner, through 40 min of walking trying to figure out what will suit all the picky eaters we ended up at the very first restaurant we looked at. I got muscles and it was a 10/10. I think it was like 2 pounds of muscles, I couldn’t even finish them! Shared with the ones who wanted some :)
Highlights:
- I loved the boat tour, it was €15 and worth it
- I wish I walked up the Belford tower, would definitely recommend the views
-I would highly recommend just walking around the town and enjoying the atmosphere as well as ordering the muscles!!
We were up early to catch a last minute train from Bruge to Paris. We were luck with our hostel that our room was ready and they upgraded us from a dorm to a private room!
Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower! We made sure to pickup some pastry’s on the way. We climb to the 2nd floor then took the elevator up to the top! Really glad we did this! It was a lot of fun and beautiful views!
From there it was around 5pm already so we went to go find an early dinner. I got a pizza :)
Next stop was the Notre Dame! Unfortunately it is under construction but it was beautiful. There was a bread festival happening in front of it, smelt so good!
Conner was determined we had to go look around the 2nd LEGO store of the trip so we walk another 30 min or so to it 🙄. But right around the Conner happened to be the Louvre! We didn’t have ticket but that’s okay we walked around it for a while, there was live music. It was way bigger than I expected! Glad we got a chance to see it!
We got an early (7am) flight from Paris to Nice. I think we were all keen from some warm weather and relaxing. We had planned our 2 days to stay here.
On our first day we walked around the mountain and explored the city waiting for our hotel room to be ready. For a “relaxing day” we still got 22,984 steps. After the room was ready around 1pm we put on costumes and spent the rest of the day at the beach. Beautiful sunny days here but very very cold water. I did go for 3 swims this trip though. As we were swimming there was this women who is local to nice who was telling me why it’s been so busy, and a bit about the area.
Apparently it’s so busy here for a couple reasons:
1. This is the first time in about 2 weeks it hasn’t rained
2. It was victory day kind weekend from winning WW2 so a lot of people weren’t working
3. Next weekend is the F1 race, but Monaco is too expensive to stay in, so everyone stays in Nice then will just take the 20min train to Monaco.
After some beach time we decided to get pre dinner drinks, got some Aperol Spritz. Conner, Heidi and Sandy decided to get an early dinner at the restaurant we were at, but Luke and I didn’t want Chinese food, so we went to the restaurant next door and got seafood pasta, perfect for the coast! After dinner we met up at the grocery store, got a baguette, chocolate, and some wine to split, and went to the beach to watch the sunset. We are so Canadian and were scared to have the bottle out in the open so we bought a bottle opener and went to a quiet spot to pour some wine into the bottles.
Our second day Luke and I woke up super early for some reason so we got a little breakie waiting for the others. When everyone was ready, we walked up the mountain to the lookout point over the old city. There was live music and good views. After that we decided to keep walking further to a grotto cave. Little did we know there was no water in the cave, there were proper 20min free tours happening, so we went but it was fully in French. Not what we were expecting but there was a cool light show. After that we walked along the water and saw a beach where there were lots of people jumping into the water. Luke and I decided to jump as well and it was so fun! After this we were all ready for some beach time and to relax a little so we went back to our main beach and had another little swim. It when got cold so we went back to get ready for dinner. Heidi and Conner went on a little date night so me, Sandy and Luke got dinner. I think this was my favourite dinner yet, we were on the patio, there was live music and amazing food. I got muscles, yes again. Can’t pass on muscles by the coast.
On this day we got the mount amount of steps I’ve gotten yet! 26,062 steps!
Overall Nice was an amazing experience, I would definitely go again!
May 11th was a travel day. We left Nice and planned on doing a day trip in Monaco. But when we arrived in Monaco we were fully blocked in because the F1 race, there wasn’t a way to get into town or to the beach. So we decided to catch an earlier train to Levanto (Italy) instead.
We arrived in Levanto and checked into our air bnb. We spend the rest of the day exploring Levanto.
May 12th we took a boat from Levanto to Monterosso. It was a beautiful boat ride. We spent the morning exploring all of the stores. It was a bit touristy but with people from other parts of Italy or France mainly. We then spent the afternoon on the beach. The girls made dinner at home, I made pasta. we had some drinks at our air bnb, unfortunately had a bit too much and was quite hungover the next day. We decided to change up the plans for the 13th.
May 13th we took a later train from Levanto to Vernazza. We had some brunch by the water, beautiful views. Me, Luke and Sandy walked through the town and looked at the store. Vernazza is a bit more expensive than Monterosso. Monterosso has great prices for everything. Heidi and Conner stayed on the little beach so Heidi could sleep some more.
May 14th Conner, Heidi and Sandy met us later the day in Monterosso for a beach day. Luke and I took the train to Cornelia. Today was our hiking day!! We hiked from Cornelia to Vernazza. The views were amazing! The beginning the hike has crazy elevation, but after that it was easier. Once Luke and I reached Vernazza there was a market going through the entire town (basically one road lol), and we got focaccia bread. By now it’s about 11:30am, the others are probably still asleep and we were still feeling strong. So we decided we would do another hike, from Vernazza to Monterosso. The start of the hike was challenging, lots of elevation. But the views were so beautiful when we got up there. There were a couple cafes at the top so you could stop for a little and grab a juice or some fruit or beer. Once we reached Monterosso Luke and I got some lunch while we waited for the others. I had a really yummy salad right by the water. When the others arrived we spend the rest of the day at the beach. At the end of the day I hiked about 10km with 500m elevation gain and it took us 3h and 20 min to do both trails.
Overall:
-Monterosso is the largest city out of Monterosso, vernazza and Cornelia
-Monterosso has nice food and stores to shop at
-Monterosso has the nicest beach
-vernazza has good calamari
-the hike from Monterosso to vernazza has 2 paths, one upper path and one lower path
-It’s nice to stay in Levanto and La Spezia because the 5 Terre cities are so small it’s hard to find accommodations and they are only a 5 min train apart (I like Levanto more than La Spezia, it’s a prettier city and smaller)
- The hike from Vernazza to Monterosso is easier than Monterosso to Vernazza because of the elevation
-If you don’t want to do the hike you can take a train between the cities. They are about 3-5 min apart from one another