Arrival In Nice
May 27
Our flight to Nice was fantastic. We were all able to get some form of sleep on the plane so upon our arrival the next day we were ready to go. We went through immigration, got the luggage, and took a taxi to our new home for the coming week. Our place was located less than a minute away from the Opera tram stop in Old Nice which is an excellent location. We took an initial stroll through town with Ben being the tour guide. We walked along the beach and some the tight roads to eventually find ourselves at lunch at an Italian restaurant. We met a couple who was retired that was traveling around. One of the couple was from Texas and spoke very good English while her husband really only spoke Italian. Both tables really enjoyed their meals. After an afternoon nap, we meandered on over to the park that separates Old Nice from the Port. On this park you can look down at the city on one side and at all the boats docked in the port on the other side. After some really nice views we pieced together some dinner pulling from the grocery store and hole in the wall smash-burger establishments just below our apartment, while discussing our plans for the week!.
A Three Stop Day
May 28
With initial intentions of first going to Eze by bus, we found out that the bus does not run that frequently in May. We had to divert to the back up plan and walked to Nice Riquier to head over to Villefranche-sur-mer (a suburb of Nice). Getting off the train, we had incredible views of the bay on the walk into the town. The town offers a beach, small streets, a port, and an old fort. We started with the port: we found a nice place to have some breakfast and admire our surroundings. After the breakfast we did some meandering around the small streets and passing by places to eat and shop until we found the fort. We entered the fort and found many gardens there. The place looked to be preparing to host an event and upon further research it seems there is a James Bond event happening in June. Perusing the gardens and view, we proceeded on our walk out of the front gate and back towards the village. It was very small so it didn’t take us much time to be finished with it. We decided to move on and Uber to Eze (our initially intended location).
Eze was fantastic. The main thing that was better than went Ben and Brenna went in 2023 was the exotic garden. Somehow we missed the gardens or it wasn’t open or something. Anyways, the gardens were great. Since Eze is a mountaintop village you can get fantastic views but the gardens are like being at the top of the top. We were able to see 360 degrees around with stunning views. Additionally, there were some very cute cacti on top of the hill as well. We further traversed the streets of Eze exploring the exact same amazing spots Ben visited the year prior. Of course there was one spot we had to specifically visit again: The Fragonard Perfumery! We took the same 20 minute tour (with some deviations from the year prior but pretty much the same thing) and then went to the store (of course). Laura got some perfume and we decided to head out to have some lunch.
Our last stop on the day was Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. We had all seen that before so we didn’t do much exploring, rather we just ate lunch in the main port area which was excellent. Ben got a traditional French meal: Bouillabaisse. This is a fish stew with a great salty taste and was fantastic.
Back in Monaco!
May 29
Ben once again back in Monaco. This day trip to Monaco started exactly like the trip from a year ago: chaos at the Nice station. With so many people trying to get the train to Monaco, there is always an insane line to get tickets on the machines so Ben thought ahead and got tickets on his phone while waiting in line for the machine but just like last year, the scanner was having a hard time recognizing it unfortunately (Brenna knows this pain). Anyways we eventually made it to the platform only for the train to be delayed by 30 minutes. After that happened we ended up just taking an Uber over. Anyways we arrived at the Monte Carlo casino which is super beautiful. We didn’t go in but we walked around it and got an above view of Monaco. This year we came right after the Monaco Grand Prix so the track was still up which is very exciting. We proceeded down the elevator into the tunnel and came out walking the track of the Grand Prix which was very cool. We meandered for quite a bit along the track seeing the garage areas and some major sites like the starting grid and the famous pool at Monaco’s Grand Prix. We stopped in for lunch and got something basic before moving on to seeing the F1 merch in two boutique stores and making some fun purchases. We then proceeded up the hill to get a great view of Monaco and do some photo recreation from Ben’s last trip before entering the Prince’s Palace and getting the audio tour. We finished our day in Monaco with some Wine, Sardines, a questionable sandwich, some hummus, and some cheese… We are convinced the establishment we got this wine from is a front for something as there was no one else there and the food was questionable (especially the presentation of the sardines). We took the train more successfully back from Monaco and called it a day! What a fantastic visit back in one of the coolest places in the world.
The Crew Becomes Mobile! Aix,Cassis, Antibes, Cannes!
May 30-31
Wow, our wild adventures continued on wheels! We picked up a rental car so we could drive to Aix en Provence to meet Laura’s friend and have lunch there. We ended up walking around the beautiful town but the only photo taken while we were there was a dog that went into the fountain. We were recommended to go to Cassis after while we were in the area so we did. Apparently there are these rock formations called Calanques which are natural formations of limestone. These natural inlets between Cassis and Marseille are very picturesque and beautiful.
We continued are adventures in Cannes and Antibes the next day. In Antibes, the big sight to see was the brief Picasso Exhibit in a museum. The paintings themselves were a little bit quirky and in our opinion not his best work however there were some interesting themes and favorites we found. The view of the sea from the museum was fantastic though, you could see so many nice boats and the coastline. After that we made a move to Cannes and got a great little snip-pit of the city enjoying some of the best avocado toast with fruit and salmon. We then took a look at the film festival building and departed back to Nice for our final night.
Goodbye Nice, Hello Greece!
June 1-2
We starting moving a little early so we could visit the Marc Chagall museum as our last thing to do in Nice. He has some really pretty religous art in the museum and the day we arrived the museum was unveiling a new exhibit, What a coincidence! We were able to enjoy some coffee and some art before having to say goodbye to Nice. We departed for the airport around midday to make our afternoon flight to Greece. We took one last look at the beach before leaving beautiful Nice. Truly a fantastic, bustling city with lots to do and see. When we arrived in Greece we took a taxi to the port discussing some different points of interest we were familiar with in Athens and eventually found ourselves in the port late that night after a TON of searching for the correct pier. There, we met our captain Kiriakos and our hostess Vivi who would be traveling with us for the next 6 days throughout our journey to the Greek islands. Our ship was a 38 ft catamaran with 4 cabins (2 for the crew and 2 for us). It was explained that the usual daily format would be to each breakfast and then depart the port shortly after. Sail for a few hours and then stop in a small bay and anchor. There we would swim and then have lunch made by Vivi. After lunch we would leave and travel the rest of our distance to our new port where we would be staying for the night. After docking, island exploration commenced and we had the ability to do tours and eat dinner on the islands. We decided to journey to the Cyclades islands as our main island grouping as this would allow us to get more sailing experience with more distance between the islands.
The first stop in our journey is Kea! This is a smaller island, and similar to other Cyclades islands the main city of the island is in the center on top of a hill. Unfortunately, there was not much wind and we needed to travel quite a ways to get to Kea, so instead of utilizing the sails we used the boat’s motor to get us to the island. Our stop midday was just off the coast of the mainland in a bay beneath a temple of Poseidon. It was absolutely fabulous to swim in this cool water with only a few other people around in clear blue water. Water so clear you could easily observe fish swimming by your feet standing in the water. After having our first lunch in the bay, we continued our journey. Just relaxing on the boat listening to the waves (and Ben getting his legs very sunburnt on accident) as we puttered over to the island. Upon arrival we took a taxi up to the main village in Kea (Ioulida). We meandered around, saw the main square and took a walk to visit the Ancient Lion of Kea. Ben of course needed to sit on it so he ran all the way to the lion as the parents decided to hang back and take pictures from a distance. We had dinner in the main square in the one restaurant next to the city hall and Ben discovered a new beverage he likes (Tsipouro). Highly recommend trying it, it’s grape based liquor and can be enjoyed just on the rocks as a sipping beverage. We got a few nice items to share for the table and it was fantastic. A throwback to last year was that once again we were surrounded by cats vying for food. Cats ALL over the place going crazy if someone threw some bread over their shoulder. We took a taxi back down to the boat and went to sleep for the night.
Serifos & Sifnos
June 3-4
The next stop is Serifos! Skipping past Kythnos as we make our way south was part of the strategy such that we could go to Kythnos on our return and not have a super long voyage back towards the mainland. We saw something very exciting on our way to Serifos: A SEA TURTLE. This was a huge turtle that was just swimming on the top of the water very handsomely. We decided that none of us had seen a sea turtle outside of some form of captivity before and it was very exciting. BitWe were able to stick with the turtle for about 20 minutes and then we decided to leave it and continue to our destination. We executed our normal strategy and stopped in a bay by Serifos with only a few other boats around to swim in the sea and have lunch. After lunch we continued boating and arrived at our port we would be staying in while there. We took a taxi up to the main town but it was very hot and there was not too much to see. After exploring a little bit and visiting the highest point in the town which was home to a church and some spectacular views, we decided to head back to the port to enjoy some food. Some food and drink was shared and we left for the boat excited for our next island adventure.
The next island in our Journey is Sifnos! Our plan was to leave a short distance to sail such that we could rent a car on Sifnos and drive around for a while exploring the full island. We had our normal routine with breakfast and lunch on the boat with some swimming and we arrived at the island a little earlier than our normal arrivals at 3:00pm or so. We rented the car and started to drive around. We first went to the main city of Appolonia which you would have to pass through if you wanted to go to any of the other towns based on how the roads are setup. At this point, it was the middle of the day and it was very hot with little shade. The main town was cute but very hot. We visited a small art cafe which all of the art is painted by the owner and that was very interesting but we didn’t end up sticking around. We milled around a few shops and departed to look at the other towns. The landscape was very interesting. Similar to other islands on this trip, very mountainous. As we looked at some of the smaller towns we got caught in some tight pickles driving-wise and had to reverse down some hills: A European classic. This island is home to A LOT of churches on this island, almost 400 in fact. This is due to the old zoning laws on the island which basically said that if you build a church, then someone has to live near the church and take care of it. People took advantage of this and claimed large pieces of land adjacent to these churches to build their own homes to “look after” their churches. We saw quite a few of these churches including one on the water which had a beautiful view of the coastline of the island and another all the way up the highest point on the island. We saw most of the small towns on the island and walked around a few. It was very nice to be able to explore and be very mobile, it provided a sense of adventure that we didn’t get on some of the other islands and was great. We went back to our dock and had dinner on the beach very close to our boat. The interesting thing at dinner is that we were able to see a cat fishing on the beach. He was very intently looking in the water with claws stuck out waiting to strike at something.
Kythnos & Poros
June 5-6
Next up, Kythnos! We departed the great island of Sifnos and started sailing back towards Kythnos, an island we had skipped in our journey in the Cyclades so we could leave something to do on our way back to the mainland. We arrived and immediately took a tour with a guide named George who was very knowledgeable about the history and island and another American couple who was doing a similar small boat sailing voyage though the islands. The main city on this island is located in the center similar to other islands but this city has the advantage of being in a total valley. This allows for the city to be totally hidden from the sea, something advantageous if you’re concerned about piracy. Walking around, this small city was mostly locals in the area which our guide introduced us to along our walk and we seemed like the only tourists in the city. We were told this was due to the ferry companies being very late to post their schedules for this summer. Since lots of people like to book their trips in advance and boat is the only way to get to this island, only people doing small boat sailing adventures had really stopped by so far this summer. George lead us around, talking about different plant life on the island and even hopping a fence to fetch us fresh apricots from a neighbor. He spoke about the Greek Orthodox church which is the main religion among the locals and even took us into a cave with very rich history. This cave was a very nice break from the heat and used to be a mining operation/refrigerator/meeting space for the locals. We finished up our tour and made our way back to our dock where right in front of our boat was the best seafood restaurat in the cyclades. This restaurant experience was a bit different than anything I had had before since once we sat down, the server brought over a box of fish caught from this morning and presented it to us as prospective dinner options. We got two fish and called it dinner! They were both fantastic with lots of flavor and Ben even tried the fish cheek! The restaurant had lots of cats nearby eagerly awaiting any scraps (per usual in Greece) and the restaurant was also home to a dog who was 16 years old. Wow! We had a quick conversation with the restaurant owner who spoke to us and showed us photos of when it had snowed on the island which was interesting before our departure back to the boat.
The next day we had a long voyage to our final island of the trip: Poros. Poros is part of the Saronic island grouping which is way west of where we were in the Cyclades. We decided to head over there due to strong winds and storms that would be opposing our return back to the mainland had we stayed in the Cyclades region. Our trip over was the farthest distance we had sailed yet. This time using actual sails considering we had strong winds, we were able to move faster than we were able to by just motor which was very exciting. We stopped at an uninhabited island on the way to break for lunch and a swim and ended up seeing a ton of goats hanging out on the mountainside just standing there. These goats were super afraid of us when we swam close to them but they were very cool how they scaled the rocks and the mountainside with ease. For lunch we had Moussaka from our great hostess aboard Vivi and it was fantastic. Judging from maybe 3 other Moussaka tastings in Greece, this was among the top. Herby also got in on the action as he baked some of his classic dutch apple pie on the boat innovatively using a wine bottle as a rolling pin! These activities and some light reading held us over for the rest of our long journey to Poros and we finally arrived. Taking a look around, the mainland was in sight very close to the island. The architecture and overall vibe was way different and a little bit more lively from what we had seen in the Cyclades. The sky was looking very nice that day and we even held a worst looking fisherman boat viewing competition just sitting beside the water while the sunset. We saw many other charter catamaran boats on similar voyages to us around as well. Our final dinner in the islands was fantastic per normal and we headed back to the boat to take one last rest in our cabins before heading out the next day.
