Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Trip to Nice!

 Hello World!

Well, maybe not the whole world, but since we traveled through five different countries, it sure seems like we saw a lot of it! We started our two day trip in Denmark where the temperature was around 50F (10C) the morning we left. After 13.5 hours in the car driving through Germany (yes, Germany is a very large country with lots of construction) we arrived in Niederbronn-les-Bains and visited Q's family for the night.

The next day we went through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France. Sascha was not so happy about the trip at times and is shown here during an emergency "walk" in Switzerland. The weather in Switzerland was a bit warmer, but as you can see from the pics, very cloudy and gray, but still beautiful scenery. 

The photos of Switzerland feature lots of mountains, tunnels, and cute Swiss towns with lots of chalets. Normally the cows are out, but I think that since the weather was bad they were either inside or hiding.


 When we got to Italy, the sun came out. We saw some nice villas and churches in the middle of farms from the side of the road. Also, the driving became a lot more interesting as things like speed limits and lane markings were really just suggestions to many drivers. We also had our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea here with a backdrop of orange, pink and yellow houses and blue skies!

The weather in Nice is decidedly nice, with most days now around 26-28C (75-80'sF), not too hot, but not too cold. Our first night in Nice we went to a traditional Nicois restaurant that was featured in the NYTimes, L'Escalinda, in Vieux Nice. Our food was excellent as was the vibrant atmosphere among the wait staff. We took a little walk around some of the old winding streets afterwards and took a few pictures of some nice buildings. There is definitely more exploring that needs to be done here!

Finally, I included some pictures from along the promenade des anglais (walk of the english) where the very fancy hotels are. In the last picture, you can see two palm trees, which grow like weeds here. That's right, we live with palm trees, orange and lemon trees and tons of other very fragrant plants. Each time we walk down boulevard de Cimiez the air is heavily perfumed from all of the Tilleul trees (Linden trees).

That's it for now, these are just the pics we took with the iPhone, more pics from our real camera and other excursions to follow. It's nice here in Nice!











Saturday, May 14, 2011

Cherry (and plum?) blossom in Denmark














Spring has been unusually sunny here in Aarhus, with about 4 weeks of uninterrupted sunshine! That was a lot of sun, since it's up around 5am and sets around 9:30pm... We marveled at how everything could be so green, even though no raindrop had fallen for all that time. But make no mistake: it was not necessarily warm and not windy all that time! It was truly pleasant however to be spoilt with sun after the long and cold Winter.

Some rain today and a bit chillier, but it was nice to get shelter from the rain under all these pink flowers... Enjoy!