Toulouse

We drove for a couple of hours south to Toulouse but unfortunately the GPS didn't know there were major roadworks around the railway station where we were to hand the car in. Eventually after several circuits of the district we managed to deliver the car without a scratch and with a full tank of petrol.
When we arrived at our hotel with good WiFi we discovered that our flight to Rome the next day was cancelled as there was a nationwide strike of baggage handlers in Italy that day.
Thanks to our wonderful "Travel 2 you" travel agent in Christchurch, Natalie, was able to redirect us to Nice airport a day later. It meant we were able to have a look around Toulouse.  Very near the hotel was an All Black shop which was pretty hopeless with only French merchandise. Across the road was an Otago shop where all the stuff had a very poor logo on them. The shop assistants didn't even know where Otago was and no one could speak English which was unusual in France.

Pam was the only one who wasn't embarrassed to be seen on a carousel 

We flew budget (Easyjet) to Nice in the south of France near the Italian border and caught a series of trains to Siena in Tuscany. 

It turned out to be quite an eventful day .

When our platform number came up on a big screen at the railway station in Nice a big group of us rushed to the appropriate platform. We all jumped on the next train and off we went. After about 20 minutes we had a feeling that we might be on the wrong train. Our suspicions were confirmed when we stopped at another station to let people off when we saw the one we should be  on, the #145, pull up a couple of platforms over. 

We realized that the train we got on belonged to another company. We had the time and platform numbers correct but we should have waited for 2 more minutes for the #145. Everyone was very confused. We were concerned that the 145 would overtake us and we wouldn't get to Siena that day. As we didn't have tickets for this train the nasty French attendant made us pay €50 each. 

After about an hour we decided to get off the train and to our surprise we could see the 145 a couple of platforms across but we didn't know how long it would stay there. We got off, down some steep stairs, along a passage, up more stairs ( no escalators in these parts) and with a sigh of relief we climbed aboard. It was an extremely nerve racking experience but we had made it.

Three train changes later we were in Siena but it was dark. Our 4 train journey turned into 5.

As you can see our train traveling hasn't improved from last time .........

About a third of our trip was in tunnels as the coast line was quite steep. We did catch the odd glimpse of super yachts in Monte Carlo.

After a long wait for a taxi at the Siena railway station we finally arrived at our Airbnb and were warmly greeted by Mark and Bev Walls. The apartment right in the heart of Siena  is perfect. Two large bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a reasonable sized living area with a rather uncomfortable pull out bed for Pam.