The Quick Country
After the beautiful train ride back to Zurich, Switzerland I changed trains at the central station to go to Zurich Airport. It was a quick ride and I arrived in plenty of time to make my flight to Nice, France. The airport was fine but I found the smoking lounges inside to be so strange. That is one thing that I will never understand about Europe no matter how many times that I visit is their obsession with smoking. There were a few designated lounges clouded with smoke throughout the airport and it was just disgusting to see.
After the relatively quick flight, I arrived in Nice! Nice is an amazing place that I would highly recommend and I was sad not to be able to stop into the city. The water on the south coast of France is as blue as can be and the views out from Nice are incredible. For the rest of the day, I’m on a very tight time schedule like I was this morning! From the airport, I walked to the airport train station which is a bit hard to find, especially with construction going on, but thankfully there were signs showing the way. I took the train from there to Monaco, and once arriving in Monaco it was a sprint to quickly see the country.
This was definitely my fastest stay in a country so far at only thirty-five minutes, and by the time I arrived back at the train station I was dripping sweat. Monaco is a very downhill sloping country, so the walk down to the visitors center was a breeze. When I got there the staff were so helpful in providing my passport stamp and in being my witnesses. From there I walked down the street to the main casino and heart of Monte-Carlo. I was able to take a few more pictures and have mine made before speed-walking uphill for fifteen minutes in the hundred degrees heat back to the train station. It was such a hike, suitcase in tow, but I made it in time to catch the train back to Nice.
Luckily I have spent a day in Monaco before which was enough to actually see the entire tiny country, so I will post a few pictures from that trip as well to give you a better idea of Monte-Carlo. It is a really cool country to spend a day in and is not difficult to get to from France or Italy, and is easy to fly to if you fly into Nice. I definitely recommend you see the fancy cars, casino, yachts, and beautiful coastline views if you ever have the chance. I was sad not to be able to stay, but similar to Nice very thankful that I had had the opportunity to visit before.
Once I took the train and arrived back in Nice I just had a few minutes to transfer onto my train to Paris where I will be spending the next day and a half. The train ride was beautiful for the first hour or so riding along the coast. Afterwards, it was dark and I attempted to sleep and watched Netflix. I arrived in Paris really late and the protest occurring on our train tracks and delaying our train by over thirty minutes didn’t help. I never actually saw this but supposedly it was a thing. I took the metro from Paris Gare de Lyon to the Opera Station where my hotel, Hotel Malte, was just a short walk away.
I was greeted warmly and given a beautiful room with a kind welcome note, yummy French treats, and some amazing chocolate. It was such a nice welcome after an incredibly long four country day, and I cannot thank Hotel Malte and the Astotel group enough for sponsoring this night of my trip! I fell asleep very easily and am looking forward to exploring Paris tomorrow!
40 countries down, 156 to go.
To learn more about Hotel Malte click here.
