Robbed!

Day 37 -  Nice

Trains on the line towards Monaco stop for an hour in the middle of the day so trying to squeeze on the 11.20am train was a nightmare, luckily we were only going four stops where we would then take a bus up to the hillside village of Éze.  

We had to wait about 40 minutes for the bus and of course by then the waiting crowd and the temperature had increased, so we were squashed onto the bus for half an hour of rolling around tight corners. When we reached the village there already seemed to be thousands of people. We joined the throngs to walk up and down stone steps with small stone dwellings that now functioned as tourist trap shops. 

After a short while exploring we had had enough and joined the line for the bus that would take us back down the mountain. We didn't want to risk another crammed train so we stayed on the bus to the end of the route, arrived at the more sedate and peaceful town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer, which translates to "Beautiful Place on the Sea". Here they had an interesting street art exhibition of very expensive artwork, no prices listed of course.

We then caught the bus for what we thought would be short trip to the next bay and the town of  Villefranche-sur-Mer. Somehow though we ended up in a loop and were taken on a beautiful drive around Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the second most expensive residential place in the world, after Monaco. 

After passing the place where we'd boarded the bus, we finally arrived in Villefranche-sur-Mer to find a relaxed and charming vibe, more like what we'd expected to see on the French Riviera. We did a bit of exploring, finding one of the oldest covered streets in the world, then found a nice spot on the waterfront and stopped for a drink.

We'd had a nice day up until now, we just had to endure one more crowded train trip back to Nice. Up to now we'd been very mindful of our belongings as we knew that pickpocketing was rife, keeping our hands on our phone in our pockets while in crowded areas. However ... as the train doors opened a large man hurried off the train and barged into K, and during that split second he managed to take her phone which was under her t-shirt and in the front pocket of her shorts, though it was sticking out a little, so we suspect he saw this and took advantage. K realised immediately and yelled "he has my phone" but he had quickly disappeared in the mass of people boarding the train. Up until now in our travel to lots of countries we've been lucky and not been robbed in this way, but not today.

So of course the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent trying to locate and then wipe the phone remotely, securing accounts and contacting the banks and Telstra, and working out where we could get a cheap phone the next day.