Cruise Day 9: Villefranche/Monaco/Monte Carlo/Eze

The seventh day of our cruise brought us to the port of "Villefranche."  This was, sadly, not only our final port for the Mediterranean portion of our cruise, but it was also our final full day on land with our Adventures by Disney crew.  The day wasn't scheduled to be too grueling physically and promised to be a pretty leisurely day in Monaco, Monte Carlo & the village of Eze. Our agenda was, once again, not jam packed...just some light sight-seeing and a nice lunch.

(Just a note about today's magnet----we were struggling with ideas that could link Disney with Monaco or Monte Carlo and the closest that Jason could come up with was the movie poster for the film "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"....but we weren't loving it....and then we remembered that Monte Carlo is a city with a strong focus on gambling/gaming....and that means cards...and that Alice in Wonderland had a playing card theme (remember all the Queen of Hearts' guards were playing cards..."painting the roses red"?)....and so, VIOLA!!!  An Alice/Queen of Hearts magnet for Monte Carlo day!!!

Today was another port in which we had to "tender" to the port (we'd also done it in Spezia/Florence)-----basically this means that the ship was too large to actually go into the port itself (they either didn't have docks large enough to house us or the water is too shallow or both, I think), so the ship actually anchors a short ways off the coast and you have to board smaller ferry-style boats that take you from the ship (you actually get out of the doors on the side of the ship onto floating docks) to the shore.   Here is a pic of us riding the tender boat into the port terminal and a view of the town from the water...it was really lovely from the coast

Once we were off the tender boat, we all boarded our bus for the drive up to Monaco  & Monte Carlo.  We had a guide that day named Franc who made most the women on the tour swoon----but sadly they all learned that he'd just gotten married a few weeks prior. LOL   He was a very nice and knowledgeable and fun guide though.  On the way up to our destination he talked a bit about the fact that Monaco, while seemingly situated "inside" France, is its own independent nation and has its own monarchy (the much celebrated actress Grace Kelly had actually been married to their last ruling prince and was the mother of the current prince....and visiting their palace was on our agenda for the day).

The drive up to Monaco was, as with most of Europe, lovely.  And once we arrived we took a nice walk (although it was VERY warm) up to the palace.  Here are a few shots we took en route to the palace:

Then we were at the palace.  Once there, we were able to do two things.  The first was we took a walking/audio tour of the palace.  Unfortunately, no pictures of any kind were allowed inside the palace, but it was a cool place to visit with lots of regal furniture, portraits, furniture, jewelry and artifacts to look at that really gave kind of a history of the ruling family of Monaco.  (One thing I'll say we did notice is that the royal family of Monaco must have been historically a very short family---LOL----because their beds were TINY!! LOL).  Once we were done with the tour, we had just enough free time to go and buy ourselves a magnet and then get back to the palace to watch the changing of the guard ceremony.  I have never seen the changing of the guard in London...so I have nothing to compare it to...but others in our group who had seen both said this wasn't quite as impressive or fancy (and I can tell you that the guards at Monaco have much plainer uniforms than those in London based on photos I've seen).  However, there was a lot of pomp and circumstance around the whole thing and quite a crowd gathered to watch.  Here are some photos of both the exterior of the palace and the changing of the guard ceremony:

When the guard changing ceremony was over, we made our way back to our bus and drove up to Monte Carlo where we would eat lunch.  We were eating at a VERY fancy hotel restaurant, the Fairmont Monte Carlo, with a rooftop restaurant.  The place was gorgeous and our view was STUNNING.  Here are some pictures (some are of the view from our table...I can't remember exactly but I think it was more than 7 or 9 stories up...maybe more....and the final one is me, Jason, Trisha, Ben and their daughter Alexandra):

Now, just a word about lunch...because it is kind of a funny story. The lunch we were being served was a "fancy buffet"----which our guides, Robyn and Tina, knew meant there was probably little that I would eat because it was very seafood and gourmet meats (read: RAW) oriented.  Remember that I don't eat anything that lives in water and I won't eat meat on the bone and I won't eat any meat that is even REMOTELY undercooked....plus there are a host of veggies that I hate like mushrooms, olives, etc.-----so I try not to be a total pain about eating, and I did a pretty good job most of the week, but I admit I'm a bit finicky.  Well they warned me that I would have a hard time finding food on the buffet (and when I saw what Jason had to eat, I knew they were right) so they offered me the children's meal....cheeseburger and fries.  I agreed to that but insisted it needed to be VERY WELL DONE.  They said they would try.....and when it came to the table, my meat bled all over my bread when I cut into it check it...so, naturally, i sent it back.  This started a tornado of drama between Franc, our guide, and the restaurant staff were simply INCENSED that I wanted the meat "ruined" by cooking it further (and Robyn pointed out that the burger they'd given me had been the MOST cooked burger she'd seen in that restaurant all summer-----Alexandra's burger was barely cooked at all....I almost threw up LOL).  Well after much obvious drama across the dining room they agreed to recook my burger and Franc  brought it to me and explained that is NOT how people in Monaco and France eat meat...I told him I understood but that it WAS how I ate it.  I could tell they were all disgusted....but, in the end, the burger (once cooked through) was really fantastic.  Any of you who have the opportunity to see me in person soon will have to ask me to pantomime for you the conversation that I watched between Robyn and Franc and then Franc and the rest of the restaurant staff---because I couldn't HEAR anything they were saying but their faces and body language said it all...like a funny silent movie! LOL

Anyhow, after lunch we made a quick visit to the Monte Carlo casino----famous from various movies not the least of which are the James Bond films.  We got to see it from the outside and then to walk into the lobby (any further and you mush show a passport and pay an admission fee----BEFORE you get in and lose all your money gambling LOL).  This was fine with us because neither Jason nor I wanted to gamble (although some of our party did decide to go in for just a few minutes so they could say they had).  We just wanted to find a shop to buy a magnet.  Here are some pictures of the exterior of the casino and the little park/fountain across the street from it:

Our day didn't end after Monaco----we headed up to the medieval village of Eze.  This was purely a sight-seeing visit, really, but I have to say it's quite possible that Adventures by Disney saved (one of) the best for last!!  I know I've mentioned several times that many of the places in Europe/Mediterranean that we met were mountainous and that we were in many cities & towns that were kind of built into the sides of those mountains----but Eze? Eze is actually up ON the mountain.  Once we climbed to the top of this very old, beautiful, little village, it seemed like we were at one of the highest points in the surrounding area.  The view from up there, especially the cactus gardens at on the very rooftops of this mountain-top village, was incredible; but even beyond the view...the village itself was beautiful.  Visiting there really was like stepping back in time or onto a movie set.  Here are just a few of the amazing pictures we took while we were there:

Here is a picture of us at the top of Eze, too.....I like this picture because if you look in the upper right hand corner...WAAAAY back in the distance you can see the Magic (our ship) in the harbor!

After we were done in Eze it was back to the ship.  This is the towel animal we had waiting for us:

....and we wore our second set of Aladdin/genie ties this evening.  We took some fun photographs with the photographer on the ship.  Here is a pic of the ties and then some of the shots from the ship:

The next day was our last full day aboard the ship (*frown*) and a relaxing day at sea....."SEA" you then!!