Monaco and Monte Carlo

Today we sailed into Villefranche for our day in Monaco and Monte Carlo, with a side excursion to Eze.

Monaco

With our excursion meeting at 8AM in the Walt Disney Theater, we had an early morning wake-up and breakfast in Cabanas. We arrived at the theater right on time, but had to sit until about 8:40 before they called us down to tender. Jay from the cruise staff regaled us with stories of his misadventures while on cruise vacations and generally had us laughing right until it was time to leave. We had to walk across the ship to the other side to catch our tender boat and then walk to our waiting bus.

Arrival in Monaco

Our tour guide gave us an overview of the Cote d'Azur on our way to Monaco. She rushed us rather quickly through town towards the Grand Palace, stopping to point out a few major sights, such as the church we would be visiting later.

Palace of Monaco

We were glad our guide headed straight to the Palace as were able to miss most of the lines. (Later in the day, the lines to get in were twice the size). She also was very strict about the rules and forced another group to move out of our way in the line because we already had our tickets and they were waiting for their tour guide to get them theirs. Once inside the palace, we were given headsets so we could learn details about each of the rooms. We were not permitted to take photos inside the palace. We probably could have skipped this part of the tour as it was a bunch of rooms with paintings and artwork by people we had never heard of.

Overlook and Gardens

After the palace, we found an overlook where the ladies decided to sit and watch the sea.

Botanical Gardens

We had a lot of free time after the palace, so J. R. walked around the Botanical Gardens for a little while the ladies rested.

St Nicholas Cathedral

We skipped the 'changing of the guard' as we had seen several of these and they are all basically the same. Rebecca did find some gelato to continue her 'gelato in every nation' streak. We met back up with our tour guide for a visit to Saint Nicholas Cathedral, where many of the Grimaldi family who ruled Monaco are buried, including Princess Grace and her husband Prince Rainer III. As we exited the Cathedral, we found ourselves caught up in what we be a good punchline for a joke, as two Catholic priests arrived on the back of a vintage Harley, one talking on an iPhone.

Driving to Monte Carlo

As we left Monaco, our guide told us the story of the huge, ugly Russian yacht in the harbor. The $400 million dollar grey yacht is the largest in the world.

Monte Carlo

After Monaco, it was time to get back on the bus and drive to Monte Carlo. We drove along the famous waterfront with all of the sailing boats docked there.

Grand Prix

Our bus driver stopped on the starting line of the famous Grand Prix of Monaco and gunned his engine, but a little train in front of us prevented him from getting much speed through the famous tunnel along the waterside.

Hairpin Turn

Our driver struggled to get the bus into his pit stall at the bus parking garage, but soon we were walking up the famed hairpin turn towards the Grand Casino.

Grand Casino

We walked up the hill to the famed Grand Casino, inspiration for Ian Fleming's fictional "Casino Royale".

Super Cars

Rebecca and Janie went inside to take a look at the casino while J. R. stayed outside with our bag and admired all of the cars. Rebecca took a liking to the Lamborghini parked right outside the casino and J. R. said he should have named her "lamborghini" in honor of the car he could have had by now if we hadn't had a third child.

Gardens

We strolled through the gardens outside the casino and bought a shot glass from the casino in the gift shop before walking back to the bus.

Eze

Our final stop of the day was the medieval city of Eze. Rebecca had wanted to do the all-day excursion here which included a chance to make her own perfume at Gallimard Perfumary, but we also wanted to see Monte Carlo. So we agreed we would visit Gallimard when we arrived, so we broke off from the group tour and went over there first. Rebecca and Janie bought some perfume, and luckily, we didn't put it in the bag Aer Lingus lost.

Climbing the Hill

Next we began the long climb uphill through the streets of Eze. They had warned us it was a steep uphill climb and they were not kidding. We made it to the top and decided to visit the botanical garden, which took us even further up to the top of the mountain for some wonderful views of the Cote d'Azur.

Refreshments and Nice

Another gelato stop was required and all three of us took advantage of this shop to get some cool refreshment (and also some nourishment since we had not eaten since breakfast. On our way back to the ship, we drove past Nice and had a chance to take some photos of the Disney Magic floating in the harbor.

Back on the Magic

Our first priority upon boarding was food so we went up to Deck 9 for shwarma and chicken fingers. Rebecca and Janie attended "Tangled the Musical" while J. R. went to have a beer. Janie joined J. R. for 80's Music Trivia in the Promenade Lounge where Janie did a good job of getting us close to a victory, but there were a few songs that tripped us up. We enjoyed the brandy infusion drink they did where they infused brandy with a variety of fruits and served it topped with Rebecca's favorite cider. Our tablemates were once again absent for dinner and we worried we had done something to offend them, but Cat assured us they were hanging out in the pub drinking and watching the World Cup. We sat through the "Seriously?" game show in Fathoms, which was seriously stupid as it was just "never have I ever" but since you didn't know these people, you could win just by lying. For a club host who took trivia so seriously, Tisa didn't press the guys who won to give any details on when they had done the things they said they did. We stayed for John Kimmons' adult show, which was pretty funny, and then, with no tasting scheduled for tonight, we had a drink of our own in the bar and headed to bed.

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