Out and About

Naomi has been seeing and doing many things this past month or so. For example, I went to Nice in the south of France on the riviera. I don't much care for the south. I know, I know, how can you not? It just wasn't my thing. Beautiful coastline, but it seems to be mostly over-developped and over-crowded. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. The most interesting part of this little trip was skipping over to Monaco for a morning. Here I can be seen in front of the famous Monte Carlo casino. It's incredible how small and clean Monaco is. It's literally a strip of land along the coast. You could walk from one end of the city to the other in an hour or so.

This is the view you get as you exit the train station. Guessing by the reactions of other male tourists about me, Monaco is full of 'hot' cars. Ok, I'm not so clueless, I know I saw a Lamborghini in front of the casino! But the car that interested me most was this convertible Smart car that had no windshield or doors. Pretty much a golf cart!

The other fun thing was looking at all the luxery yachts down in the harbour. Monaco is definetly a playground for the rich and richer. Funny thing is, other than that, I can see absolutely no other use for it.

A place that I did love was Amsterdam. Can you find me in this picture?
Amsterdam has more bikes than cars. The bikes are virtually all this style and are literally everywhere. Every available pole, railing and bike rack is covered in bikes. Every road has a bike lane. It's very cool. Good thing I went with a friend though, because I had this really bad habit of stepping out in front of the bike traffic without looking. Shannon prevented me from causing great dammage to both myself and the cyclists of Amsterdam on many occasions.
We had a great time walking along the canals looking at all the houses and houseboats, and we also spent a lot of time hanging out in funky cafes. One thing I've missed in France is relaxed coffee houses. Tons of cafes here where you can have a wee cafe creme, but you always sit on a wicker chair at one of those typical little round cafe tables. France just doesn't do the relaxed coffee bit. We were able to find a few relaxed cafes where we could hang-out and watch the hipsters of Amsterdam. You have to be careful though, a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam mainly serves-up pot, with a few beverages on the side. You really have to look for the coffee house style cafe for the "other" type of coffee shop that I know and love. Actually, it's not that hard, the "coffee shops" are very clearly marked for the tourists.