French, German, French... Italian

Oui, ja, si... Yes, it's been a little while between posts, but internet access has been a bit patchy. We are in the glorious French Riviera, the C'ote D'azur, a little town called Mougins, very close to Cannes and Nice. Phil and I are very much indebted to Jo and Nick and especially Jo's mum, who booked this two bedroom apartment at Le Club Mougins - it's lovely. Here's the view from our balcony. There are also snow capped Alps in the background!!

I don't think I've seen a single cloud since we arrived on Christmas Eve and the days are a respectable 16 degrees. Heaven! Christmas Eve was lovely - celebrated in style with some homemade decorations and champers:

Yes, that is a Christmas tree cut out of wrapping paper stuck to the fridge. Joelle made awesome festive paper chains which are hanging in our lounge room.

Berlin has been and gone already - four fun-filled and somewhat freezing days in a great apartment in Prenzlauer berg, a suburb in the old East Berlin. It's such a massive city that four days is barely enough to scratch the surface.  So we divided up the time between a little sightseeing, shopping, cocktailing, Christmas markets and outdoor toboggan slopes!

Our first day was a cold, windy one and we headed to the Mauerpark - which translates to Wall Park. We walked around a fairly bleak park around where the wall once stood, in one of the most affected areas. Apparently, the former death strip - the area between the two walls which separated the east from the west and which we're patrolled by soldiers with guns and dogs - has been turned into the Mauerpark. There was some street art nearby commemorating the wall and the death strip.

 

  

We went to Alexanderplatz, a huge square in the east, on our second evening because we'd spotted a ferris wheel which looked enticing. It turned out to be a whole carnival plus a Christmas market - double score! Phil and I tried a half metre of bratwurst and we all got stuck into the mulled wine. I wondered if Jo would feel left out of the sausage-y fun, but Berlin actually offered veggie hot dogs, veggie burgers at McDonalds and promised (but never delivered) veggie bratwurst. 

Nick and Jo were a lot braver than me, and went on a huge chairoplane which was massively high and went really, really fast!! This is a photo of the ride they were on - I think they're on one of the red chairs. 

I did brave the ferris wheel which was massively high, and fun:

What else?? Well, we went to the Veuve Cliquot champagne bar at Ka De We, Berlin's fanciest department store, to the Reichstag and Brandenberg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz; the latter of which had an awesome icy tobogganing slope which Jo and I tried out on giant rubber tyres. It was fast and fun and I screamed my head off! I think Nick took video on his phone! In addition to the toboggan slope, there was also.... another Christmas market - these things are EVERYWHERE in Germany. 

On our last day in Berlin, we decided to take it easy and go for a gentle shop followed by cocktails at a couple of bars. It was the perfect way to end the trip.

One short but very turbulent (one woman screamed in the plane) flight later, we were in Nice. We've hired a car here, so we drove up the coast to Mougins on Christmas eve. Christmas Day was very genteel affair. We had a late start, a delicious lunch at the restaurant here (duck breast, chocolate cake, smoked salmon - mmmm!) followed by a relaxed walk through Mougins. On Boxing Day, we walked (hiked??) up to the ancient city of Mougins which was gorgeous. Lots of 17th century buildings, church, watchtowers, etc.

It was gorgeous, plus there were some spectacular views from the village over the whole region, all the way to the Alps. 

Yesterday, we ventured even further... All the way to Italy!! Nick drove us form Mougins across the French/ Italian border to the Italian Riviera town of San Remo. I'd been really sorry that we hadn't squeezed Italy into the itinerary, so it was fab to head over, even if it's just for a day.  We had a wander around the town, by the beach, had a huge plate of pasta for lunch (yumm) and the best coffee since we hit Europe!! And despite the four of us speaking about six words of Italian, we got along just fine. Between the German and the French and the residual Indonesian, I'm so confused at the moment anyway, I have to say a word in three different languages before I hit on the right one!

Here are some pics - hard to believe its the middle of winter:

After all the excitement, today was a pj day! Is it a waste of the gloriously weathered French Riviera to spend the whole day indoors? Well, maybe, but I really both needed and enjoyed having a day of absolutely nothing. 

Tomorrow, we're planning to go to Cannes!!! Fingers crossed for a Clooney sighting!!