Notice how the pictures posted have been dark and sucked out of all the colour? Well welcome to a new feature of Picassa!
I'm a heavy user of Picassa, but only the web album hosting capabilities. For this trip I decided to use it for importing and posting pics as well. I usually use Adode Lightroom on a different computer and post to Picassa directly. Well I don't have a license for our netbook and it didn't make sense to buy an extra $300 license for my $400 netbook.
Well, to my surprise in London, I found out that Picassa renders and interprets the RAW files funny. It desaturates the color wheel to a point and underexposes them by at least -2.0. They look fine in a different viewer, but when they get synched to Picassa they are lifeless.
So stay tuned for some real photos once I get home and pump them through LR!
2011-07-18
Nice: A perfect ending to the perfect vacation
And so here I am. In 12 hours we board a flight back to Calgary via Frankfurt. After 64 days on the road, I've been dreading this moment of doing my last city review on Nice. Ah yes... Nice: where everyone is fit - even the pigeons. The good news is that I couldn't imagine a more perfect way to end our travels. Here are some rambling thoughts:
Orientation
Our rental was right on Rue des Ponchette with a view of Promenade D'Anglais and the Mediterranean Sea. A great location right at the edge of the Old Town on the steps of Castle Hill. Everything is within walking distance or a short tram/bus ride away. If you visit this city, I'd recommend NOT renting a car as parking is sparse (and expensive), the traffic is bad, and there is no possible way of getting through your rental period dent free since the parallel parking here is insane. It seems to be customary to use your bumper and fender to push your way in and out of spots. All public transit is only 1 Euro each way - one of the cheapest systems in all of Europe.
Food
Everyday we would walk 2 minutes to the market on Cours Selaya and grab our food for the day that echoes the Provoncale life that we often envisioned. It's funny that from the buildings, to the cuisine, to the weather, Nice felt more like what we expected from Provence than Avignon - even though Nice is technically in the Cote d'Azur region. There were some highs, lows, and surprises. We expected the seafood would be fantastic (which it wasn't), the tomatoes to be outstanding (which they weren't), and some great fruit (but all we ended up eating most were peaches and nectarines). That aside, the courgettes (zuchinni's) and flowers were the phenomenal and the Italian food here is magnificent (no Chef Boyardee here).
Weather
Siew put it best when she said that there seems to be 2 temperatures that exist here: Hot and Very Hot. Although everyday varied between 27-32 (except that one day it hit 40), as they say it's not the heat that gets you, it's the humidity. The type of humidity that you walk out and your shirt just sticks to you. You feel like you are in a sauna and it can get difficult to even breath. If you melt like my family does, I'd recommend you splitting your day into 2 halves: Before Noon and after 6. In the between time, take a rest in your air-conditioned rental... another must especially with kids.
Overall
Nice was the least researched place for us so we didn't have too many expectation. We just wanted a place to relax. The vibe, type of people, and atmosphere of whole city reminds me a lot of Miami (South Beach), Florida. A city that is brimming culture, entertainment, history, and heavy influences from countries a stones throw away. With exception to a day trip to Monaco, we bummed around a lot, people watched, partied hard on Bastille Day, and enjoyed our time together - which was the perfect end to a perfect vacation.
Orientation
Our rental was right on Rue des Ponchette with a view of Promenade D'Anglais and the Mediterranean Sea. A great location right at the edge of the Old Town on the steps of Castle Hill. Everything is within walking distance or a short tram/bus ride away. If you visit this city, I'd recommend NOT renting a car as parking is sparse (and expensive), the traffic is bad, and there is no possible way of getting through your rental period dent free since the parallel parking here is insane. It seems to be customary to use your bumper and fender to push your way in and out of spots. All public transit is only 1 Euro each way - one of the cheapest systems in all of Europe.
Food
Everyday we would walk 2 minutes to the market on Cours Selaya and grab our food for the day that echoes the Provoncale life that we often envisioned. It's funny that from the buildings, to the cuisine, to the weather, Nice felt more like what we expected from Provence than Avignon - even though Nice is technically in the Cote d'Azur region. There were some highs, lows, and surprises. We expected the seafood would be fantastic (which it wasn't), the tomatoes to be outstanding (which they weren't), and some great fruit (but all we ended up eating most were peaches and nectarines). That aside, the courgettes (zuchinni's) and flowers were the phenomenal and the Italian food here is magnificent (no Chef Boyardee here).
Weather
Siew put it best when she said that there seems to be 2 temperatures that exist here: Hot and Very Hot. Although everyday varied between 27-32 (except that one day it hit 40), as they say it's not the heat that gets you, it's the humidity. The type of humidity that you walk out and your shirt just sticks to you. You feel like you are in a sauna and it can get difficult to even breath. If you melt like my family does, I'd recommend you splitting your day into 2 halves: Before Noon and after 6. In the between time, take a rest in your air-conditioned rental... another must especially with kids.
Overall
Nice was the least researched place for us so we didn't have too many expectation. We just wanted a place to relax. The vibe, type of people, and atmosphere of whole city reminds me a lot of Miami (South Beach), Florida. A city that is brimming culture, entertainment, history, and heavy influences from countries a stones throw away. With exception to a day trip to Monaco, we bummed around a lot, people watched, partied hard on Bastille Day, and enjoyed our time together - which was the perfect end to a perfect vacation.
Packing Light Part Deux
So my last article about this subject dealt with us trying to squeeze everything in a couple of small pieces of luggage. It compared what Rick Steve's recommends and pitting against our own ambitions. Now that we are leaving tomorrow back home I wanted to revisit the list to see what we could've/should've packed. Bottom line is that even though some people thought we were crazy in packing so little was that we actually over-packed if you can believe it. So much so that we ended up sending a box of things back to Canada during our stay in Cardiff to make room for gifts and souvenirs along the way. It was not too much hassle and inexpensive (30 GBP).
The big reason for not using everything is that we ended up doing laundry more frequently and the weather held up for almost our entire trip. Here is the list again, this time with columns indicating what we could've gotten away with in the "After" columns.
But this discussion is not limited to clothes as this is the easy part. A lot of room is taken up bt all the knick-knacks and miscellaneous things that you end up bringing. The biggest offenders for us were books (activity, music, homework) as they heavy and bulky while taking up valuable space. We found these the least used items and (for Chloe) the least interesting items. She much preferred stories about when we were small and what we used to do when we were kids and no homework :)
The big reason for not using everything is that we ended up doing laundry more frequently and the weather held up for almost our entire trip. Here is the list again, this time with columns indicating what we could've gotten away with in the "After" columns.
| Item | Rick | Victor (Before) | Victor (After) | Siew (Before) | Siew (After) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shirts | 5 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 |
| Sweaters | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Pants | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Shorts | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Swimsuit | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Underwear | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Socks | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| PJs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Shoes | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Jacket | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Tie/Scarf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
But this discussion is not limited to clothes as this is the easy part. A lot of room is taken up bt all the knick-knacks and miscellaneous things that you end up bringing. The biggest offenders for us were books (activity, music, homework) as they heavy and bulky while taking up valuable space. We found these the least used items and (for Chloe) the least interesting items. She much preferred stories about when we were small and what we used to do when we were kids and no homework :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)