Ramblin' Through La Turbie, Eze, Roquebrune

A well-deserved and triumphant return to La Turbie, where we toured the Tropaeum Alpium--awesome--took pictures and went to a magnificent French bakery to buy stuff for lunch, which we consumed overlooking Villefranche-sur-Mer and Nice:

Then a visit to nearby Eze and its ruins, which now plays host a French cactus jardin and other things.

Then to a castle/chateau in Roquebrune that Jose knew about. For the third time today a hike up steep steps to another Mediterranean views:

Back to Seborga, captured from the car in Birdemic format (Seborga straight ahead on hilltop):

Ode to a Seborga Sunrise

Thy bright and dazzling views presenting

The ocean blues and unrelenting

Mountain beauty with fresh air venting

Across the skies

Seborga sunrise!

A new life stirs within my breast

It awakens my soul at thy behest

Oh, life so grand! To be so blessed!

Through my eyes!

Seborga sunrise!

Monaco

Summer weather continues, so we spent the day outdoors. Starting with a walking exploration of Monaco:

We foolishly let Jose lead us to the Casino. Then we found out it was closed, and they wouldn't let Jose talk them into letting us in anyway. But that wasn't a total loss because Jose said we could get our passports stamped with a Monaco stamp at the park across the street. Which wasn't true, either, so we ditched the Casino and headed toward the Palais.

Before the Palais, a visit to the old castle and the Institut Oceanographique National.

Jose found a yellow submarine.

We toured the Palais (no pictures) and headed to Eze and La Turbie.

And then came back to begin the movies!

Nice

We made our way to the coast and took the highway lazily through Ventimiglia, Menton, around Monaco into Nice. Parked in downtown Nice and joined the crowds in a relaxing amble through the town, to lunch, to the Promenade. Found our way to the mall with the Starbucks (we accidentally parked in the mall's car park--oh, darn) and learned they had no more old-style Starbucks mugs but "the other Starbucks near the airport" still had some. Aha!

Picking up Alcalde at the airport proved more difficult than expected because of navigational difficulties, Nice airport complexities, Alcalde saying he was in Terminal 2 when he was in Terminal 1, and other things. The connection was eventually made and we were expertly guided to "the other Starbucks" near the airport by some darn good luck and solid, expert dead reckoning. Mostly the first. And there we found...

There is an interesting dimension to this trip/mash unfolding. One member of the Mash Club, who we would not want to name and shame, is not here and is spamming us with petty criticisms and inventing juvenile dramas about his home appliances. It's clear he is overwhelmed with guilt over his failure to join us. Too bad. For him, that is. He could be on another continent, far away from his homicidal washer, if he had simply allowed himself the simple pleasure of being here.

His loss. So sad. Meanwhile, the sun is slowly setting over the Mediterranean and there is a soft breeze in the warm air on the balcony overlooking the coastline. So what, exactly, were we talking about?

Note Jose in Ron Jon shirt that I gave him over twenty years ago at another Mash.

Seborga Sunrise

Still mostly dark and it's 0645. The beautiful lights of Monaco are just starting to fade out.

I had forgotten about the roosters in Italy and the barking dogs and the echoes of the barking dogs from the steep hillsides. I wonder why crowing doesn't echo. Neither does the sound of frantic cat fights from the other side of the canyon. They make the dogs bark more, though, and then there are the echoes. Italia!

Update: 0800. Jose is still not up.

There is technically not a drip coffee maker. There are fancy Italian equivalents that can make one cup at a time very slowly. Clearly they are intended to make cappuccino and the awful muddy-frothy concoction that Europeans call coffee. The equipment works well enough, so we have sunrise coffee.

We barely have anything for breakfast after Jose raided my snacks last night. He claimed he wasn't hungry enough for dinner. Then he plowed through my remaining beef jerky, devoured the last almonds, reprimanded me for eating both pop-tarts (after refusing them), and tore into my Speculoos. 

Speculoos are the European equivalent of the cinnamon cookies given out on American air carriers. They're very good, so when I spotted them in the French supermarche I bought a couple small packages to carry with me for emergencies. After Jose demolished the first package I warned him to save the last package for breakfast. I'm enjoying some of them now with my Italian-made coffee, overlooking this:

The sun rising over the horizon and striking the coast and city of Monaco is beautiful. I can't help but think that the mountain to my front strongly resembles La Cumbre Peak in Santa Barbara. 

There are more sounds reverberating from the surrounding hills. Sputtering tractors (on Sunday?) compete with church bells. There are loud conversations in Italian that, at first, seem like arguments but they're not. Italians speak with energy. Dog barking and yapping continues. What a relief that is. Once in a while a donkey brays and there's something, somewhere that sounds like a cross between a peacock and a Yeti...

As for the apartment, I love the balcony but am having serious issues with the spiral staircase. It seems to have been designed for a playhouse.

Getting my large suitcase up that thing was a challenge. But I did it.

Today we pick up Alcalde from the Airport. Our plan is to bum around Nice all day beforehand. Things in the villa-apartment are almost ready:

Final First Day in Seborga Update

While Jose and I were sitting around mocking Al for contriving a lame, email-based exploding washing machine drama to try to compete with the unfolding real-life Seborga Mash drama, aka R4TS4&T2 Mash TWH, I was reminded that we took this very important--and stupid--selfie in the Nice "car park" when we picked up the rental car. I am holding my famous GPS from 2010 that still works. Pretty good. Most of the time. Usually.

Arrival in Seborga!

We begin our day at the Gare Cornavin, the main train station in Geneva, after dropping off the dear Baroness at the airport.

We end our day overlooking a beautiful Mediterranean sunset (and Monaco) from our spacious terraced apartment in Seborga.