Monday after the race Jen, Rebecca, Matt and I set off on the train to Menton, France. Just a little town NE of Nice on the ocean. It was the town Jen and I’s TdF bike tour was supposed to go to, but has since been changed back into Nice.
Our plan was to stay here for two nights and then move onto Monterosso, Italy – the northern most town in Cinque Terre. Once checked into the next 3 Star hotel, which was better than the last 3 Star in Nice, we headed to another large smooth rock beach. We ran into our new friend
Matt (he also raced Nice and stayed with at the EST hotel) there only to get yelled at for talking on a public beach by some French asshole. We were a couple meters away from where they were sitting, but apparently too close to this guy… Matt G is also travelling to Italy and Monaco for the Tour. We wouldn’t run into him again, but it was funny to run into him in Menton – it’s not a tourist attraction.
After we changed we headed back into Nice for the awards dinner. Back on the train to Nice! As I mentioned the awards banquet wasn’t anything special, just free beer and crappy food. Back on the Tram to the Train and back to Menton.
The next day we did as any good Frog and walked down to the Patisserie and got some pain du chocolate and espresso. Then headed to the beach – correction, large smooth stony beach. We bought some bamboo-ish mats and relaxed. Did some swimming and lounging on the floating swim docks. Had some crepes and beer for lunch, laid around some more until the weather started to turn. At that point it was time for Mat and Rebecca to head back to Nice, Mat had a plane to catch as did Rebecca. Those two are getting married in Windsor Canada next month, which is why I will be travelling home for a days, since I already fly halfway around the world, might as well finish the trip to see family and friends.
That night Jen and I had mussels, frites and a craft of wine! It was a good meal along the waterfront, we have eaten a lot of meals along the water, it’s brilliant! The next day we were off on the train again to Monterosso, Itlay and Cinque Terre.
It was a rather long train ride, 3 or 4 hours I think. We had assigned seats for this ride. At one of the stops a couple Swedes, a father and two sons, joined us in our cabin. Kenneth is a good guy and it was fun talking with him about everything from his Charity Golf Tournaments in South Africa to Dubai. He will hook us up with a friend who knows all the tele ski routes in Sweden, hut to hut adventure! Jen is stoked! It was cool to see a father backpacking around Europe with his two boys under 13…the loved Amsterdam! The kids had pot leaf t-shirts and socks, pretty funny.
We got off the train in Monetrosso and walked to our B&B. It was a very nice little B&B. We had nice little small room with a bathroom down the hall. I told Jen in Nice that I can do small “Euro” hotels, etc that are nice, newly renovated and clean, but I cannot do dirty, old and smelly “Euro” little rooms – which our hotel in Nice was – Hotel Albert. This place was recently renovated with granite, marble and new furnishings. The outside wasn’t much, but come on, it was build in the 1700s. They do plan to paint and fix up the exterior, but frankly, it was fine. Our plan here was to relax tonight, hike south through to Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore to take the short 15min train back to Monetrosso, chill, but the feet up and then leave back to Nice the next day. Tonight we ate at “La Tortuga” on the cliffs of Monetrosso. Awesome. It was a little spendy, but we were below budget and it was worth it.
We started out from Monetrosso in the morning, expecting to visit and see the next 4 towns before coming home on the train. There are estimated hiking times that say between 4 and 5 hours to get to Riomaggoire. We found these to be very generous, like 3 hours tops of hiking. The trail out starts off going up endless stairs and is the hardest of the 4 trails and longest. I’m glad we started this way and not the other way. It was pretty humid and just coming off the race, the legs were a little fatigued, but they warmed up quickly. It would be a cool trail run – as we saw one couple running just as we were talking about running the route. It’s only 9ish kilometers, start to finish. Once passed all the climbing it was all downhill, which I didn’t like so much after awhile. The views at various points along the route are awesome, so worth it.
As we walked down the vary narrow path into town lined with buildings – very cool – we reached Vernazza. This is my favorite place of the trip and of Cinque Terre. The buildings seem very tall as you walk down the narrow streets to the water. It has a nice little beach, several cafes in the main square, very nice. We made it a point to eat and drink in each city, so here I got some pizza, a coke, a beer and some fruit. We sat in the square and chilled for a little bit. We made good time, so we took our time eating and people watching. It was early and we weren’t that hungry and we didn’t know this would be the coolest place we went to, so in hindsight I wish we would have spent more time there. Off to Corniglia…or Cornholio ala Beavis as I called it for the trip for no real reason.
Again this hike was 90-100mins reportedly, but we covered it in 60mins or so. It wasn’t hard, just a lot of steps up and then you go down. The routes get flatter and shorter as you go south. Cornholio is the one town that sits way up on the cliffs with no easy water access and maybe for that reason, it was the more boring, less interesting town. However, the vine covered café we ate at was super good. We had a cheese and honey plate with some different breads. Cheese, honey on bread was super good. A combination I have never had before, but will try to recreate soon. Don’t know the cheeses we had, should have written them down, but I have a picture! Jen sucked down a couple glasses of wine as I drank a beer under the shade of the grape vines, very nice.
Off to Manarola (or Motorola as I called it). The trail started by descending 100s of stairs to the train station. Motorola is the one town that if you take the train to, you have a nice steep stair climb to get to, the others are all downhill. The trail is a wider, more gravely trail now that goes pretty close to the cliff edge and water at times. The views are still incredible, not a bad view in the bunch. The hike was 30mins or less to here. Manarola has a smaller little cove similar to Vernazza. We stopped and got some ice cream here, it was kinda warm, so the ice cream was stop on.
Leaving here was a steep stair section that lead to the famous Via dell'Amore (Lover’s Lane). The trail was right on the shear rocky cliffs, well more like carved into the cliffs. Every once and awhile there would be a set of a dozen or so steps leading down only to stop – leaving you to find your way down the rock cliffs to the water. We ventured down to get in the water, but the good spots were taken. So, we just went to the town and hit that beach. This part was very short, like 15mins.
Riomaggoire is the jump off point for everyone going north as well as the cruise tours, so it was pretty busy and by that time the beach was very crowded as well. We headed to the beach (bought a few beers first) and walked past everyone to a giant somewhat flat rock were we could relax and get in the water. Not the best access to the water, but it will do. As I jumped in, my knee hit a jelly fish…that stung for awhile as we swam around. It was kinda cold, so we headed back to the rock to act like lizards. It wasn’t easy getting out on the big rocks. I had just got out as Jen gets stung by a jellyfish too! They got her hand and hip with some nice welts. I tried to help her get out, but I fell down a hole scraping my leg up. Her skin is really sensitive as here welts were far more worse looking than mine on my knee. They just seemed to get worse as the day went on and she wouldn’t let me pee on her… Oh well. We washed off the welts and my scrapes and took a short nap. Now it’s time to head back on the train.
Back in Monterosso we were hungry. However, everything seemed to have stopped serving food, it was like 3pm…WTF? We found an American bar which was right by the B&B to get something. We then wondered around Monetrosso, saw the giant (rock sculpture in the side of the cliffs – used to have a restaurant on top) and looked in the shops. Dinner was had at another café down the street, not bad seafood pasta, but sauce got all over my shirt, I was so careful though! After a cocktail at the American bar again, I needed some more food so we went to the pizza place next door. We got a pepperoni pizza in the shape of a heart – the pizza dude thought he was clear! It was very good though.
Back on the train to Nice! Going by train is great unless you the aircon stops working and you sit at planned and unplanned stops for far too long… As it so happened to us on the way to Nice. Alright, finally back in Nice after a pretty gross 3 hours in a sweat box train. We’re at the Holiday Inn, another 3 star hotel and still moving up as far as hotel quality is concerned and that is a good thing.
Tonight is the welcome dinner with the BikeStyle Tour group. We’ll be with these people for the next 6 days riding the courses and watching the Tour de France. Should be interesting.
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