The final countdown

And so to our last few days before we head home. The weather in the middle of the week was pretty uninspiring – grey, cold and rainy. Not the end of the world, but it makes it harder to get around and see things, particularly with the kids who end up colder and wetter more quickly for some reason. We visited the Medieval walled town of Vence, and also Cannes under those conditions, and so probably didn't get as much out of them as we'd hoped.

On Thursday Espen, Ragnhild and Marie arrived, and we have had a couple of very enjoyable nights and days with them. It's been 7 years since we last saw them, though with the miracle of the internet we have been able to see pics of the kids growing up and it really was like having not seen them for a few weeks rather than years. Nice.

There has been a train strike here since we arrived, and it shows no sign of ending evidently. Twice we tried to see if we could get a train to Monaco, but had no luck and so we drove in the end. Again, the GPS paid its way! This time we got lucky with the weather – and for the morning we had gorgeous blue skies and calm conditions – it almost seemed warm! Monaco was like Venice in that it seemed vaguely familiar, and the line up of cars out the front of the casino was spectacular – the Ferraris were actually the ordinary looking ones! It got a bit windy at the end, but it was a really enjoyable visit (and technically another country we visited!).

Today we are having a quietish day – late start, coffee and chocolate croissants for breakfast. In a few minutes we'll head into Grasse to find a playground for the kids and a cafe for the adults (and if you are reading this, then the internet cafe will have been open too!). in the afternoon we'll head down to Cannes, where hopefully the conditions will still allow the kids to go on the beach for a bit.

Tomorrow we all head off – some back to Oslo and the rest of us on to Dubai for a 1 day stopover on our way home. At this time of the holiday you inevitably start thinking about whether you are ready to get home, and I think this time we are. It's been a thoroughly enjoyable trip, but we are also looking forward to getting home, seeing friends, having a choice of more than the same three shirts to wear – that sort of thing!

Hopefully there will be one or two more opportunities to post updates before we get home, but we are getting very close to the part where we reveal the identify of the culprit!