Venice - Nice

Tuesday 19 / Wednesday 20 July 2005

After trying to get in contact with the Sella's family in Lucca for nearly 2 weeks we decided that we would just head straight to France to start our next ride - 'The Grand Canyons of Verdon' in Provence.

On the way to catch the water bus we ran into Roel and Caroline, we had met them in Verona. We exchanged contact details - we were also invited to come and visit them in Holland. After chatting for a bit we parted ways and continued to fight the crowds to the train station. Once we arrived (at around 11.30am) we went to book our tickets to Nice. We were told that the only train to Nice was an overnighter and that it would be 100 Euro for us to travel 1st class - what a rip off - we already had our 1st class ticket but you had to pay extra for the night train. So we decided to go couchette in 2nd class - 6 people to a room - how nice..... Our train didn't leave until 10.56pm so we dumped our bags at left luggage and headed back into Venice to kill a few hours.

The train trip was interesting - after being told that our bikes (in their bags) were a problem we tried to figure out what to do - gotta love the train guards!! This bikes is a problem - no room on this train for bikes ....." then he walked away. Well what are we supposed to do with them? We decided that as we were on the top bunks that we would bring the bikes up and sleep with a bike each - ahhhh the comfort!

THe guard came back a little while later and must have been impressed with us as he instantly changed his manner towards us. The trip was pretty smooth from then on - we both managed to get some sleep and arrived in Nice somewhat refreshed.

From Nice we changed trains and caught a regionale to Les Arcs, the start of our next ride. In Les Arcs we found the campground and set up camp. We did a little shopping, ate dinner and went to bed.