On the way to Nice

  London, England, United Kingdom
Saturday, May 17, 2008

Hi all!
 
Finally getting some free wi-fi here in Nice - it has been a long and tiring journey getting to this hotel.
 
When Lisa and I landed in London, I said, I wish we were staying here for one night. Be careful what you wish for because on our long trek to the next terminal to catch our connecting flight to Paris, we found out that flight had been cancelled. There was no way for us to get over to Paris, and we were stuck in a crappy Heathrow hotel for the night.

LHR Airport

 

Meanwhile, back in Paris, Sup arrived at 8 am all by her lonesome. Lisa and I called her from our hotel to let her know that we wouldn't be joining her, and found out that Sup's airline had LOST HER LUGGAGE. :( She would like me to share that they gave her a complimentary travel kit. We found out when she was on the phone with her dad that the airline gave her paper chundies, which later turns out, is Indian for underwear.
 
Next morning at the crack of down, we checked out, paid for our 20GBP phone call to Sup (outrageous.) and headed back to the airport. We had already had our boarding passes from the night before, and went through security to the gates. Looked at the screens to find out what gate we were at, and the screen said our 6:15 am flight had been delayed to 4:48 PM. What a nightmare. Finally someone came around to the British Airways customer service desk, aka Lisa's new boyfriend. He gave us great news and told us the screen was wrong, and our flight at 6:15 am was still on schedule. Thank goodness - the first thing to go right on our trip.
 
We finally arrived at Gare du Lyon, to pick up our car rental. We got there in record time, another sign that things were looking up for us. Sup was supposed to meet us there, but no sign of her. I walk around the train station to see if I can find her. Look down some stairs, and then I see her. I was so happy that we were finally all together now. We get our car, and our reserved 4 car VW golf turns out to be a killer Kia Sportage (SUV).

Our fancy car

 

Driving to Nice

Driving around France has not been that bad so far. The negatives I would say is that to take the autoroutes (like a US highway), you have to pay mad tolls. From Paris to Nice, I'd say we've spent about 60 euros on tolls and 68 euros refilling our diesel gas SUV. o.O Otherwise, French countrysides are quite beautiful, and we're looking forward to exploring it when we go on our vineyard visits. 

Each town has a cool sign

We arrived at our hotel at about 8:30 pm. After freshening up, we walked down the main road to get some proper dinner, with a bottle of wine of course. :)  Several hours ago Sup's luggage arrived at our hotel as well - Air France found her luggage after all.

Our first dinner together

 
Anyway just wanted to let you all know that we're all safe, and apart from the first night's debacle, trip is a lot of fun.