Today is a threat of an all-Italy transportation strike. Will we make it to Nice, France? We are about to find out. We get up early to visit the Friday morning market before checking out at 10:00am, dragging our bags to the station, then seeing if the French train will be allowed to run in Italy. If not, we plan to find a taxi to Menton FR and then take the train from there. Wish us luck!
Chris got out at 8am to walk down to the Friday market. It was just opening and the stalls were being set up. Mostly clothing, shoes, lots of leather belts, kitchenware, etc. I bought a lanyard for Kathi's phone so she can take pictures from the back of the bike without worry of dropping the phone. Then I walked to the station and found that the ticket windows were not staffed, but it looke like the SNCF trains were running as scheduled. Bought tickets using the trenitalia machine. The first machine failed to accept payment 3 times, but another machine worked fine. So we have tickets for the 10:25am train to Nice Ville (final destination Grasse) and just have to go back to finish packing and check out by 10:00am.
Checkout went smoothly, walking to the station was uneventful, and we got on the empty train, stashed our bags and waited to depart on time. We watched the stations go by, Menton, Eze, etc., 59 minutes to Nice Ville. Got off the train, walked to So'Co Happy and dropped our bags, drank a coffee while waiting for Alec. Then we walked back to meet up with Alec and Linda.
Walked old town, got tram tickets, got Socca garbanzo bean pancakes (a specialty of Nice) for lunch and ravioli of the day, and french bread with onion and mushroom soup on the bread. Stopped at xxx for Mojitos and ice-cream. Then walked around some more, then visited Alec and Linda's flat --- very nice. Walked their 3 dogs. Then went out to dinner at xxx at 7:30pm. The food was super tastey, ut very rich French food with sauces that were not super heart healthy.
Walked around a bit more, then made our way back to our So'Co Happy, downloaded the SNCF app and bought tickets using Chris's phone, then went to bed at 11pm.