While we did take some time to stop and eat, meet with friends, read, and relax while in Seattle, this post will focus on the activities we managed to pack in.
The initial weather forecast for Seattle wasn’t that great, but after we got there (in the rain), made it to our hotel, had a snack, and were ready to head to explore, it had become very nice and sunny. Our hotel was right by the famous Space Needle, so we decided to take the opportunity to go up that right away, while the weather was cooperative.
While at, we also bought a City Pass, which gave us access to four other sights along with Needle, saving you about half the cost in entry fees, if you visit them all.
We’re just back from a trip to the Seattle area. In retrospect, we ended up giving ourselves too many travel days: the Saturday to fly there and drive to our Inn near Mount Rainier; the Monday to get from Rainier to our Lodge in Olympic Park; the Wednesday to get back to Seattle and check into our hotel there. (Then of course, Sunday we just flew home. Today is the “day off work to catch up on laundry and get used to Eastern time zone” day.)
Then again—and this was our thinking while booking—we’d never been to the Seattle area before, and who knows when we’ll get back? So might as well pack in the sights while there.
The nature of our week-long Ontario getaway—combined with some unseasonable August weather—meant that the number of photos Jean took was much lower than usual. Good thing we went to Science North in Sudbury, or it would otherwise have been close to a count of zero.
The Science North building is itself very interesting, built right onto the rock of SudburyIt was a gray day in Sudbury, so a good one to be inside a museum
We weren’t the only ones with that thought, though; Science North was crazy full of parents and their kids!
The butterfly room was a nice, calm oasis away from the crowds
We probably spent the most time on the floor focusing on wildlife. We were there late afternoon, which happened to be feeding time for a lot of the critters.
If you’ve ever wanted to pet a porcupine, Science North is the place for youThe skunk was too shy for petting, especially with all the kids there that day, but couldn’t resist coming out for meal wormsThe beaver was nonplussed by his audience, and a big fan of green beans
And to conclude, the now almost obligatory photo of me in front of food, at Churchill’s restaurant in North Bay (another day, on the way back).
Last week’s vacation was mostly about visiting family and friends up north. But instead of just barreling our way straight through, we stopped in various Ontario towns on the way and back. Like in Orillia.
“Why Orillia?” That has been a common question.
First visited on a rock concert pilgrimage (Roger Daltrey performed at the Casino there in 2009), we just found we liked the town. Nice beaches, decent restaurants, good shopping.
“Shopping?”
OK, maybe we are the only people in the world who go to downtown Orillia for shopping. But let me tell you, we did a fine job boosting that town’s economy on our two days there.
First stop was this discount clothing store which sometimes has interesting items, for men and women. Jean didn’t have much luck for himself, this time. fortunately, he’s able—in limited doses!—to amuse himself finding things for me to try on.
I tried on more than I bought. But one Jean find that I came home with was this brown crochet sweater, as I’m forever looking for something to wear over sleeveless dresses and such that don’t ruin the whole line of the outfit.
This should do the trick
We had gorgeous, hot weather in Orillia, but the rest of the vacation became rather cool, especially for August, so this sweater got some use on this trip. And some compliments.
Also acquired was this blue top, which looked a little odd on the hanger (my pick; Jean was dubious), but quite nice on a person.
Nice blurry photo by me. 🙂
Jean did better at the Walking on a Cloud shoe store (he likes shoes almost as much as socks. No, seriously.). And although I didn’t feel I really needed more shoes, apparently I can’t resist a Rieker. I had just bought these really cute navy blue Rieker sandals before vacation (with heels!); they are now joined by these little sparkly runners:
These are photographed with a red purse I also got at the first clothing store. I haven’t used it yet, though, because I’m still sporting this one (a local purchase) for the time being:
Cute, huh?
Another stop was our favorite kitchen store. Yes, we have a favorite Orillia kitchen store, as we told the confused clerk: “We come here every two years to replenish our pots!”
No photos, because, well, pots and pans, but we literally did buy a pot and a pan (both high-end; not your Canadian Tire job-y), plus sundry kitchen gadgets.
We then popped into a big warehouse-style discount store—of the sort we never go to in our own home town—because we were looking for cables that would help our tablets talk to the hotel TV. We bought that, but while there, we thought, hey, why not get that rug we’ve been meaning to get for ages, for the front of the fireplace?
So right, not an expensive rug. But it’s frankly mostly for the cats to sleep on (and potentially sharpen their nails on), and definitely better-looking than the towels we previously put there for them, so that’s OK. Zoë gave the new addition her stamp of approval almost as soon as we put it down at home:
And by the way, we finally got our fireplace brick and frame finished.
And we also acquired various prosaic mats that we hope will help keep the litter residue in better check.
Worst thing? After dropping all this cash downtown, Orillia had the nerve to give us a parking ticket! Even after getting it, I was like, “Parking meter? Where is there is a parking meter?” But there was one… It was just well back from the sidewalk, very easy to miss.
But Orillia, we still like you. We were able to get to the beach and swim both days, for the first time this summer. We also found some nice walking trails. The restaurants were somewhat disappointing this time, though not to the extent that any of the meals were actually bad. Just unimaginative.
Just make your parking meters more visible, already. 🙂
Actually, in the good/bad old days, there weren’t really “TV shows of summer”, were there? It was mostly rerun city. But more recently-ish (it is a trend over a decade long) networks have programs they play only in the summer season. And the specialty networks debut programs all year long.
These are three I’ve been particularly enjoying.
Amazing Race Canada
Modeled after the American one (which I also like), this is somewhat more “respectable” reality show—Emmy winning, and basically “just a race”, though with the producers definitely manipulating said race to produce drama, and obviously casting it with colourful people.
I appreciate the very multicultural nature of this year’s cast. And what a strong set of contenders! Except for the two sisters who were, indeed, eliminated the first show, everyone seems quite athletic and potentially capable of winning.
Rex Harrington also be kind of easy on the eyes…
But I did come in with a bias toward Rex Harrington and his fiance Bob, because…. He’s Rex Harrington! Amazing dancer and great judge on So You Can Think Dance Canada.
They did well the first episode (and were so funny!), but in the second became mired in controversy: They gave up and took penalties on not one but two of the episode’s challenges. They only made it through because another contestant got injured and had to withdraw.
But surviving that round made they got to experience the surprising development of this year’s season: It’s no longer restricted to Canada! The teams were off to Hong Kong, with China up next.
I do hope Rex and Bob stick around for a while longer, but they certainly aren’t the smart bet to take it all. That would have to be the team made up of two members of Canada’s women’s gold medal hockey team, who have so far won every leg!
Fortunately, I also like them, as I basically like all the teams, really. I found that about Season 1 as well. That doesn’t tend to happen on the American one. Is likeability a Canadian trait? Bit early to say: Some of teams may get awful once the “killer fatigue” really sets in. TBD.
So You Think You Can Dance
The international travel budget shows that Amazing Race: Canada is a summer show on the rise. Now in its eleventh season, though, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance is definitely on the decline, struggling for ratings.
They have fewer shows than ever this year, so the audition footage was seriously compressed, and we didn’t get to “know” too many contestants ahead of time. They get only the single 2-hour performance show per week, during which they try to squish in everything, including guest stars. It’s meant no video recaps, no Dance for Your Life for the dancers in the bottom three. And their pre-emption for some baseball game meant that this coming week, they have to eliminate four instead of two dancers. Brutal!
What remains, though, is the what I’ve always loved about this program: Seeing wonderful dance pieces in a great variety of styles, performed by very talented young people who only get better each week.
For example, this hip-hop number from the last week. Can you tell that Tanisha is actually a ballroom dancer? Didn’t think so!
This is a bit of a cheat to include here, as it is being rerun, currently. But it’s new to me, and its premiere was only in April, so…
This is a comedy about a group of five guys running a startup company in Silicon Valley, and it’s the funniest shows I’ve seen a long time. Jean, however, is not warming to it as much, so perhaps you need some understanding of / interest in tech culture to really appreciate the satire. (Wired explained how Mike Judge went about trying to make it as “based in reality” as possible, down to the math on the white board. )
Now, it is on HBO, but if you do have some understanding of / interest in tech culture, you’re going to have no trouble watching this show even if you don’t get that channel. But if you just want a preview, there a lot of clips on YouTube.
This scene, in which they implement the “scrum” method of organizing their development work, is an example of one in which I almost died laughing, while Jean was just confused. [Warning: Colorful language. It’s HBO!]
Queen + Adam Lambert capped off our Toronto weekend, but before that, we….
1. Learned about sake
The Distillery District was our first destination (after checking into the hotel), where I happily shopped while Jean felt uncomfortable due to the crowds. (For a people person, he can be surprisingly squeamish about people.)
But we both enjoyed the one-hour sake tasting and tour we signed up for, at Ontario Spring Water Sake.
We had much to learn. I wasn’t even sure I remembered that it was made from rice, let alone what the other three ingredients were—one of which is Ontario water, though not from Toronto! And bacteria also plays an important role in the production, and since bacterial mix is always changing, so no two sake batches are ever quite the same.
We learned about the types of sake, notably pasteurized and unpasteurized, and “first press”, and about sake etiquette and its place in Japanese life. We were even treated to a beat boxing session at the end, as our guide does that on the side. He was very good!
We got to taste five samples, all notably different from one another for all being sake by the same company. Jean and I agree on our two favorites and bought a bottle of each.
2. Walked. A lot!
We were car-less in Toronto. We took the bus in, which itself involved a walk from our chosen parking lot to the Kitchener bus station. But except for some rain Sunday morning, it was nice weekend, so we just walked wherever we wanted to go rather than take transit. Jean figures we got in about 30 K in two days.
Roy Thompson Hall (I think)Things will be great when you’re downtownThe malls are quiet at night
3. Visited the AGO
We spent a few hours there. We didn’t see the feature exhibit, on Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, but did see “Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography.” That was installed, I assume, in coordination with the recent World Pride. It was an interesting collection, with combinations of video, collage collections, commercial photography, and work by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe.
We also saw most of the “Art as Therapy”, where they gathered various pieces of the permanent collection under themes such as love, money, and politics. That made for some interesting juxtapositions as well.
4. Ate out
We had no bad meals in Toronto, but none were particularly spectacular, either. We decided to try Blowfish Sushi and Sake Bar based on a list that rated it the best sushi restaurant in downtown Toronto. While it was good, we didn’t agree that it was better than Ki, the supposed second-best one. But they did have some creativity in combinations and presentations.
The truffle oil on these was nice. The garlic chip looked cool, but didn’t cohere as a taste. Better on its own…Foamy!
Though we went here after the sake tasting, it was actually no help in picking one from the menu. (Not like they had any from Ontario Spring Water Sake company.) Fortunately the waitress was able to guide us toward one we enjoyed.
Breakfast, though very fine, is just breakfast, and was mainly notable for our managing to get a table just before the lineup for a table started, a feat we had also achieved on Saturday at Balzac’s coffee shop in The Distillery District.
Lunch was at Bangkok Garden, which was featuring a $15 three-course Summerlicious menu. It was very tasty, and a good deal, but mainly about the company, as we met up with my sister and brother-in-law there.
Dinner was another Summerlicious event, at Toula’s on Harbourfront, selected largely for being near the Air Canada Centre. It is a very cool room, though, on the 23rd floor, with windows all around.
It’s an Italian place, and we liked the food. Jean had lobster ravioli as his main; I had gnocchi in tomato sauce. The service was also quite friendly and professional. But the room itself was the highlight.
Most of my favorite musical acts are Serious Artists who come out with Concept Albums (Arcade Fire) or Rock Operas (The Who), who tackle serious issues (U2, Sting) and write deeply intelligent, complex lyrics (Elvis Costello), who explore deep emotion (Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos) or at least serious anger (Nirvana).
But my very favorite band, Queen, does none of that (or least, not very much). Though a bunch of seriously intelligent guys, they chose to write about love and lust and bicycle races and seasides and “having a good time, having a good time.”
So it’s fitting that their live show is basically an over-the-top, entertaining, fun fest.
Complete with lasers and disco balls.
“I didn’t know you were a fan of Adam Lambert” — someone at work, to me
So let me ask you. What do you think about the new guy? — Brian May, to Toronto crowd
I thought Adam Lambert was great. I’m not that surprised that I did, though. I first saw him perform with Queen on this iHeartRadio YouTube concert, and I was seriously impressed. Sunday night, he did not disappoint.
No, he doesn’t sound like Freddie. So he wisely doesn’t sing the songs as Freddie did. With May and Taylor (and Spike Edney, long-time tour keyboardist) providing the musical backbone, they’re recognizably the Queen songs we all know and love, but he gives them his own phrasing and pitch and emphasis. For example, even when he does a Freddie-like call and response, he doesn’t play on day-o sounds as Freddie did. Instead he gives an increasingly a funky play on the “need your loving” line from “Tie Your Mother Down”.
It was a variations on a theme like that, all night.
And doesn’t hurt that the boy’s voice is truly amazing in its own right. “Show Must Go On” is supposed to be his major showcase, and I have no complaints about his singing on that, but I was particularly blown away by his take on the gorgeous “Who Wants to Live Forever?” And unlike the old coots I usually go see, he’s only 31. He could and did confidently hit and hold every note he went for.
I also didn’t mind that he’s gorgeous, and that he changed his costume five times during the show. I think my favorite was this one, with the Daltry-esque fringes:
If one thing did surprise me, it was just how camp his performance was. Note the chaise lounge above, used during the performance of “Killer Queen”. He spent most of the song reclining on that, batting his eyes, and even fanning himself. It was hilarious and fantastic and so gay.
Image from Montreal concert, courtesy @Grrrr_girl
(I wondered briefly if this is more how Freddie would have performed had not felt inclined to be discrete about his personal life. Then I realized that was a stupid thing to think about man who wore ballet tights as a stage costume, and refused to shave his “gay” mustache no matter how many razors fans threw on-stage. Freddie clearly performed exactly how he wanted to perform.)
Edited to add this amazing video of “Somebody to Love” from this concert, by someone with way better seats than me.
Tell me you don’t love Adam Lambert after watching this…
On Roger Taylor
Isn’t that fantastic? He’s singing and playing the drums! — Adam Lambert, on Roger Taylor
The first part of the show definitely highlighted Lambert and Brian May, as they of course are down front and can play off each other and run down the ramps whose design confused us at first, but when lit revealed themselves to be a giant Q.
The top of the Q is cut off here, but hopefully you get the idea
But the other original member of Queen on hand was, of course, drummer Roger Taylor. Roger is not one of the rare, flashy drummers (like Tommy Lee or Keith Moon) who draw your attention away from the musicians in front of him.
However, he’s also more than just the drummer. He wrote many of Queen’s best songs and biggest hits. He sang all the highest notes in those layered harmonies, and often took lead vocal duties as well. His solo oeuvre is the best of any of the band members, and on those albums, he plays guitar. He also bore the burden of being the best-looking member of Queen.
So I was pleased that that Roger also got some time in the spotlight, heading down front to play tambourine when Brian sang “39”, then taking his own lead vocal on “Days of Our Lives”, sung over a backdrop of Queen photos and videos from the past. Then back on drum kit (miraculously moved out front) he took over the David Bowie part of “Under Pressure” while Adam Lambert did Freddie’s. (And Adam’s correct; I’ve always been impressed at Roger’s ability to drum and sing.)
The drum parts during Roger’s solo turns were covered by his son Rufus, who can now compete with Adam for “best-looking member of Queen”. Father and son also did a bit of drum-off, revealing that Roger had passed along musical skill along with the blonde hair.
Rufus (left) may need a haircut to *really* compete with Adam on looks… Photo by @Glam4Mama, from New York show
I don’t like to go on too long on drum solos. I don’t want the audience to get bored.
It never seems to bother Brian, though. —Roger Taylor, on Brian (Not to the Toronto crowd)
Dr. Brian May
Brian May definitely seemed to have the greatest affection from the crowd, though. He earned a standing ovation merely for walking to the front of the stage to introduce the more acoustic part of the evening, the “Love of My Life” singalong. I became rather choked up during that part, I must admit, which surprised me, especially as it occurred well before Freddie appeared on the big monitor to sing the final verse.
But Mr. Brian May also teared up during that last part of the song, so I was in good company.
Brian then went on to explain the astrophysics behind 39 (he does have a doctorate in physics, after all), commenting, “I used to think it would be a great idea to go and explore other planets. Now I’m not so sure, since we’ve fucked up this one so badly.” And that anger also surprised, though it probably shouldn’t either, given that I follow him on Twitter…
And a little later in the evening, he indeed did a long guitar solo.
Now, thank God the effects during that thing were really pretty incredible. The photo below is just a tiny taste; they used the screens and the lighting and the lasers and that was pretty riveting.
Unlike the solo, which was just too long, at least for me (and every Toronto critic I read, though they didn’t agree on much else). Of course, I still joined the standing ovation after, but that was just to maintain my sight lines. Really, I was thinking, “Don’t! You’ll just encourage him!”
The hits keep coming
I think this every time I see a Queen-related show: Man, they’ve had a lot of hits. But they fortunately do include some less well-known numbers also, like “Stone Cold Crazy” (made more famous by Metallica than Queen), “Lap of the Gods,” and “Love Kills”, which is actually a Freddie solo track that the band will be re-releasing with new instrumental backing.
The song I was happiest to hear was “I Want It All”, not only because I love it, but also because it was made for the stage, and is one they were unfortunately never able to perform with Freddie, as he was too ill at that point.
The song I was most surprised to enjoy was “Fat Bottomed Girls”, because I don’t love it, normally, but damn it was so much fun live!
This was the set list:
Now I’m Here ♦ Stone Cold Crazy ♦ Another One Bites the Dust ♦ Fat Bottomed Girls ♦ Lap of the Gods ♦ Seven Seas of Rhye ♦ Killer Queen ♦ Somebody to Love ♦ I Want It All ♦ Love of My Life ♦ 39 ♦ Days of Our Lives ♦ Under Pressure ♦ Love Kills ♦ Who Wants to Live Forever ♦ Guitar solo ♦ Tie Your Mother Down ♦ Radio Gaga ♦ Crazy Little Thing Called Love ♦ The Show Must Go On ♦ Bohemian Rhapsody ♦ We Will Rock You ♦ We Are the Champions
That’s amazing, right? And it still leaves out so many great songs (Keep Yourself Alive, You’re My Best Friend, I Want to Break Free, One Vision, A Kind of Magic, Dragon Attack…)
Someone still loves you
This press said this show was sold out, and certainly the Air Canada Centre looked very full. (Though the two people next to us didn’t show up, so we had extra elbow room!)
And it was lovely to be in a room full of Queen fans. This was a first for me.
I’ve been to a lot of Queen tribute-y things, but the people there never seem to know anything beyond the chorus of We Will Rock You.
This crowd knew the verses to We Will Rock You. And all the lyrics to “Love of My Life” and “39”, which were never singles. And they knew exactly how to clap during “Radio Gaga”. And when their matches (or cell phones) needed to “still light up the sky”.
Among the devoted
And unlike the Globe and Mail reporter who reviewed this show, I’m sure they knew that Queen always just leaves the stags plays the video during the operatic part of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That it wasn’t just getting excessive on the Freddie tribute.
Of course, that video Freddie and live Adam traded off the final lines of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a new addition, but who can complain of that? It was lovely. (And made for only the third Freddie appearance all evening. Hardly excessive.)
Other than its lack of in-house wifi (which we solved by bringing our own), we were pretty happy with our hotel room in Menton, which was Hôtel Club Le Balmoral. The hotel’s location, I think I noted, was fantastic: very central, facing the beach on one side. The room and bathroom was a good size (for Europe), and—a feature I find annoyingly rare in hotels—was furnished with well-placed desks and shelves and full-length mirrors, such that we could set up to work on our tablets, easily arrange the toiletry items, and confirm that in fact my outdoor clothing really didn’t match from head to toe. 🙂 The room temperature was a little bit of an issue until we remembered that with European hotels, you can actually open the window (no screens!), and the natural bit of air conditioning did the trick there.
So the only problem was the food.
It wasn’t all dire. They certainly used a good supplier of food ingredients such that breakfast buffet, which we had every day, was very good: delicious croissant, very fresh fruit salad, nice cheese and ham. Similarly, the cheese course that was always included with dinner featured some wonderful French cheeses. And whoever did the desserts had some talent; those were always nice—lemon meringue pie, ile flottante, crème caramel.
But the cooking was a problem. Overcooked, dry fish. Under-seasoned soup. Mushy, overbreaded shrimp. Spring rolls so tough you could barely cut through them. Oy. They were somewhat better with meat—the lamb tangine we had one night was probably the most successful of the week’s entrees—but it was definitely disappointing to be in France and not be able to count on getting great food.
And it wasn’t just us being over-fussy foodies. We had four hotel dinners included, and everyone in the group complained about them. (In fact, if we hadn’t enjoyed the company of our group so much, we would have skipped some of those dinners….)
Fortunately, the restaurant meals did make up for that, to some degree. Best of the lot was Table d’Oc, which I’d read about before leaving, and which ended up being very close to the hotel. It was a small, funky, fairly casual place with a nautical theme, despite not being particularly focused on seafood.
Table D’Oc
Prices were quite reasonable, offering three-course meals for 21 Euros (about 32 dollars).
I started with roast vegetables with a duck stuffing. Jean, unsurprisingly, started with a cold terrine of foie gras. What was surprising? How it was served:
That, my friends, is a bucket of foie gras
His expression was priceless when this was served. The waitress was very amused. “Nous recommendons de ne pas tout le manger.”
He found it some of the best cold foie gras he’d had, but nevertheless managed to leave some of the container for others.
As a main course, I had more duck, sliced and served in a pepper sauce. That came with carrots, long green beans, and scalloped potatoes. All very good. Jean had the pork and morels, which tasted amazing, and the same veg as I.
For dessert I had the lemon meringue pie that this area is known for (Menton is the lemon capital of France), and Jean had the crème brulée, with the brulée done right at the table:
Except for an unusually long wait for the bill, it was quite a lovely evening out.
Another pretty successful meal was at Le Cirke, which I read about in The Guardian. This was a somewhat more expensive seafood place. Jean started with a seafood soup, while I had an octopus and white bean salad. Then we shared the paella, which contained only seafood—no chicken, no sausage. All well-prepared and tasty.
Lunch most days was on the trail, so was basically unexciting sandwiches and granola bars. But in Nice on our free day, we did have lunch at a bistro, enjoying some pasta in a pot .
Squash ravioli
Later that day we joined much of the rest of the group to see what they were doing for dinner, which turned out not to be the greatest idea. I thought the group of 8 might split into 2 or 3 smaller groups headed for different locales, but instead everyone took off together, which of course made it more difficult to find a place that could accommodate us all. One place claimed to be able to, by putting tables together outside, but then he proceeded to basically ignore us for some time: no menus, no drink orders, while attended to other tables and other people arriving. Most of the group got kind of offended by this and decided to leave; Jean, I, and another lady decided to stay.
Our “congenial” host than got a bit irate about the departure and started barking at us to change tables, whereupon Jean pretty much wanted to leave, also. I was kind with him on that, but the lady we were with didn’t seem to catch it (admittedly, she didn’t have as many years experience as I at reading Jean body language), and persisted in ordering us some wine. So, we ended up staying.
The service did get civil, if never quite friendly (this would be a rare time you’d wish they tipped in France, so you could not leave one). But, upside: The food was really good. Jean had gnocchi with gorgonzola, followed by duck with morels. I had grilled calamari with arugula, followed by risotto with a half lobster. And it was a pleasant evening in terms of the company.
But we would never go back to that restaurant again.
We both acquired new tablets not long before this vacation. I had been managing with a 10″ Motorola Xoom. (A what? Exactly!) The Xoom wasn’t a success in the marketplace, but it still served my needs just fine for many years. It was starting to seem rather slow, however, and had recently become a bit flaky, randomly losing connection to the wireless and needing a reboot.
Compared with my first tablet purchase, I didn’t give the new one that much thought or research. I was basically figuring I would stick with Android. And I was thinking it might be nice to have a slightly bigger screen.
So when Jean pointed out that the Samsung tablet demo I was playing with at Staples actually was bigger than a 10″ tablet, I thought maybe the time had come!
I did do a little research at that point. Apart from some snarky commentary about who on earth would want a tablet that big (me!!!), and pointing out that it did cost more than most tablets (more than some laptops, in fact), it was well reviewed. A bonus payment at work made the price more palatable, so after a bit more experimenting with the demo model, I made the purchase.
And I’ve been happy with it so far. It is much faster, the screen quality is much higher, and it’s actually lighter than the old one. The bigger screen means I no longer have to zoom magazines to read them and it’s also great for the digital sheet music. (The tablet display is about the same size as office paper.) I had to get used some Samsung-isms that still trip me up on occasion, but mostly it’s still Android and familiar. And to my surprise I didn’t have to reinstall any apps; based on Google account, it just set all that up for me, and rather quickly as well. (I just had to sign into everything again.)
This was all making Jean, who’d been managing with a Blackberry playbook, a little bit jealous. But the same device wouldn’t do for him. He wanted something that would allow him to upload and process photos while on vacation, requiring a bit more juice than you get with an Android tablet.
So he bought what was essentially a Windows 8 laptop, but in tablet form. His screen is even bigger than mine. (And he paid more money for his device than I did.) But it’s still a lot lighter and has better battery life than a laptop would.
Setup wasn’t quite so easy for him as for me, either, but it wasn’t that bad. Once he got past the typical feeling of loss and alienation that all new Windows 8 users experience (Where are my programs? What are these useless tiles for? How do I shut this thing down?), he was pretty happy with his purchase as well.
So we were kind of disappointed to find out that the free wireless at our France hotel was available only in the lobby, not in our rooms. Not good enough! [Yes, it’s a bit sad.]
Fortunately, I had come across a solution for that: Portable, rentable, wifi hotspots, courtesy Tep Wireless. I had read some good reviews of this service, so decided to sign up for it.
For $7 a day (10-20% discounts coupons rather easy to come by), you get 150 MB of internet access. They ship the device to you a couple days before you leave (yes, there is an extra shipping charge). It’s a very small device with a charger, set to work with the network of the particular country you’re travelling to.
We set it up in our hotel room, and it was very easy. It has a password on the back that you sign into the wireless with, and supports up to five devices (we had three, with my cell phone).
It was an excellent connection. Fast, reliable, and presumably more secure than open wifi network. I would also take the Tep with me when I brought my cell phone, and that way we could, anywhere, check email or Google maps (or Twitter!) without using data (no roaming charges!). The Tep had about five hours of battery life, which proved enough for us.
And, the 150 MB per day (which carries forward if you don’t use it all), was sufficient until almost the last of vacation, when Jean’s photo uploading brought us to the limit. They told us that by email, we were able to add more data at a reasonable fee to get us through the last couple days, and all was good.
We were sad to see the Tep go by vacation end. They had included a return envelope with the device, and we bought sufficient French postage to mail it back to them.
Of course, we noted that we get highly offended when hotels ask us to pay for wifi access, yet here we were all delighted about a gizmo that cost us 50 some dollars plus shipping for one week of Internet.
But hey. If it appeals to you, and you can afford it, we would definitely recommend Tep portable wifi. Good device, good customer service. (And definitely cheaper than foreign roaming charges.)
I had never heard of Menton, France before this trip, but that’s where we stayed the whole time. It was a great home base. Quieter than Nice, but still offering plenty of interesting shops, good restaurants, and attractive architecture, especially in its Old Town. Our hotel fronted right on the beach, though our view was of the other side, the mountain. Still not too shabby.
The sand is imported; naturally, beaches here are rockyA look at the Old Town streets of Menton
I can’t say we did anything particularly notable in Menton, however. We kept intending to visit the nearby Jean Cocteau museum, but never made it past the gift shop. So I could see going back and giving the place a bit more focus sometime. I would recommend it as a place to stay when visiting that area.
Monaco
Monaco wasn’t far from Menton at all. It is theoretically its own country, though one very much dependent on France, that doesn’t require a passport to visit.
We had thought of spending part of our “free” day here, but ended up deciding against it. So we really spent only about a half hour, 45 minutes here, before one of the walks. It was enough time to climb up the central square and get a little bit of a sense of the place…
… which is that it is very crowded, very dense, and completely paved over. There is no room left here to build anything else. Many people who work here have to live elsewhere.
(And I guess some might be interested to know that when we took the bus to the airport, it did drive on the famous race car track.)
Nice
Nice is where we did spend our free day, and where we finally visited a museum, one devoted to artist Marc Chagall. I enjoyed that more than Jean did. I like Chagall’s whimsical style and use of primary colors. I had no idea he’d done so many works based on the Old Testament, and was amused how many of those had a touch of eroticism. “That’s Jacob fighting the angel,” I told Jean. “I don’t think fighting is what they’re doing.” Unsurprisingly, I guess, Chagall did a whole series based on the Song of Songs (i.e. the “dirty book” of the Bible).
Other than that, we just walked around in Nice, down to the beach, and through its old section. It was more crowded and not quite as charming as Menton, but somewhat more appealing than Monaco.
Nice opera house in Nice
Rothschild Gardens near Villefranche-sur-Mer
Villefranche-sur-Mer seemed a lovely little town:
But we spent our time after our Thursday walk at Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa and Gardens, one of those huge private homes that is now a heritage site that tourists can visit. Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild had ample time and money for decorating, and also pretty good taste:
But most special and impressive were the extensive outdoor gardens, featuring many imported plants. Much of the house was designed to provide excellent views of these gardens.
The gardens continue beyond what you can see here
Every 20 minutes, you had a chance to view the “musical fountain”, which means the water from various fountains gyrating in time to broadcast music. I’m not sure if that’s authentic to the time of the Rothschild’s, but it was interesting to watch.
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