In transit and on the move

Originally published 27 December 2017

My vantage on Easybus

​They can't all be exciting. When you travel, some days are just for getting from point A to point B. While our point A to point B included London and such it was actually kind of cool. But when it's just a ride to the airport and flying a new place, not so much. But it's a part of travel and if you're gonna get to the cool stuff you have to do it.

​We rose this morning and I finally uploaded yesterday’s blog. There was an issue with the website but was resolved and everything worked. We made breakfast, packed our remaining few items, and started our walk to the Chamonix bus station. We had an Easybus trip to Geneva airport booked for 10:45.

Our free internet code slips in the Geneva airport

​Easybus is an incredibly good deal. For the Chamonix trip they’re 12 euros cheaper than everyone else. For airport transfers in London, especially Gatwick, they’re MUCH cheaper than other options. They do run a bit late from time to time but you learn to deal with it. The Gatwick Express in London, is around 18 pounds for a single one way ticket. Easy bus, if booked in advance, is 2 pounds. Even if you buy at departure I think it’s 8 or 9.

​While we sometimes wonder, Easybus seems to get us where we need to go, when we need to be there. So far. We hope this lucky streak continues. It has, however, already saved us a fair amount of money on this trip already (nearly 100 euros ($108) so far). We take them again when we go from Barcelona to London on the last leg of our trip. If all goes well, they’ll save us even more.

​On this particular bus trip, Laurie got a regular seat and I sat in the middle on the front seat next to the driver. I’m not a small guy so things were a tad cramped. I told Laurie that it was like being in the formula car again, but as a passenger. We got there when we were supposed to and things went fine.

Our tiny hotel in Nice, France

​We arrived with plenty of time at the airport, and had a snack. We then went through the Easyjet baggage check line and were informed when we reached the counter that we were in the wrong Easyjet line. Apparently, if you’re flying to France, you fly out of the “French” terminal at the Geneva airport. Okay…..let’s try this again.

​
We go the length of the airport to the French terminal. It turns out that it’s small, only 4 or 5 gates. Security and baggage check were easy. We clear security, sit a while, and when time for the boarding announcement…………nothing happens. I pull up the Easyjet app and it shows delayed one hour. Hopefully this is all we’re delayed.

​We find a spot to park ourselves in the airport where Laurie watches a movie on her tablet. The airport has free wifi. In order to use it, you scan your boarding pass at a kiosk and it gives you a slip of paper. The paper has a code so you can log into the free wifi. They do this as an anti-terror thing I assume. Every user has to be “known”, either by scanning a boarding pass or getting a text. The text didn’t work on my US phone so I did the scan thing.

After a bit, they call our plane for boarding and we head off towards Nice. Our transfer is uneventful and we wind up in an old school in town hotel similar to the one we stayed at in Paris. The room is pretty tiny but it’s clean, well taken care of, and very close to everything. It’ll do.

The plaza in Nice, France

​Laurie isn’t feeling too well, and it looks like she’s caught a cold. We went out in search of a 24 hour drug store to find her some medicine and grab a late dinner. We found a great Vietnamese restaurant down a side street then headed back to the room so she can get some rest. I hope she’s feeling better tomorrow as there are things she really wants to see here.

​Kind of a boring day today…but that happens.  Not a lot of photos so no slide show.  It was a transit day and they’re part of the game too. You have to move to get to new places. This was one of those.

Goodnight everyone.​

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