Friday, May 13, 2011

Room Service for breakfast -- on time.

This morning we arrived in Monte Carlo, Monaco.  We stood on the balcony and watched as we arrived to port.  It was very beautiful.

We had a private guide to pick us up at the pier to take us on a private tour.  At first she drove us through Monaco on the way to Nice.  The roads were really narrow and I don't think I would want to drive there.  There is so much money in this area and the views are breathtaking.  She drove us on top of a mountain and showed us where Elton John's house was.  We couldn't see in because it had hedges all around it, but when we drove to the other side of the mountain we could see it from down below.

When we got to Nice, France we got out of the car and took a walk through the markets.  They had all sorts of flowers at pretty reasonable prices.  They also had a food market that we walked through.  We stopped at one stall that had dried fruit and we got to taste all different kinds.  It was very good.  We got there a little before 1:00 pm and the food market part closed at 1:00.  They moved everything out and set up tables in place of it for the restaurants.  We stopped and ate at a restaurant there.  I had a sandwich.  It was 2 slices of bread with ham in the middle and the top of the bread toasted with cheese on it.  It was good.  I took a picture of it and will post later.
She got dessert for us at a pastry shop.  One thing was bread with chocolate in it and the other thing was a square with powdered sugar on top and inside it had pine nuts, swiss chard, and raisins.  These were both tasty.

After lunch we strolled along the beach for a bit and then continued our drive around town.  We then went to Eze, France.  This was a medieval village on top of a mountain.  She was able to drive us to the top so we didn't have to walk as far but it was quite steep walking through the village.  She said only about 20 people still lived there.  Where people had moved out they had changed it to hotel rooms.  We climbed to the top and has some magnificent views.  We saw the people from our ship coming on tours and they had to walk up the mountain because the buses couldn't get up there where she took us.

We then went back to Monte Carlo where we went inside the Grand Casino and gambled there.  You would not believe all the expensive cars that were parked out front!  While we were inside gambling she bought us another treat.  It was some kind of pastry.  It was small like the mini desserts that Starbucks has now.  It was pink with a white filling (like a moon pie only smaller).  It was very good and refreshing.  I couldn't figure out the taste and she said it was rose and it did taste exactly like a rose smelled.  By that time it was time to go back to the ship and as we were leaving the Grand Casino area we saw Brad Pitt walking across the street.  We were not sure if he was in the area because the Grand Prix was going to be there soon or because he was in the area for the Cannes Film Festival.  We will be going to Cannes on Monday I believe.  Maybe we will see more stars then.

They had the Master Chef's Dinner at night in the Dining Room and they served Baked Alaska.  The show was a combination of 2 of the entertainers we had earlier in the week.   The final Noordam superstar was tonight and  we were not happy with the results, but oh well it was all in fun.

We have an early day tomorrow.  We will be in Rome.  Our driver will be picking us up at 7:30 am.  We will be having a tour of the Vatican and a quick drive around Rome before returning to the ship.  All aboard will be 4:00 pm.

I hope you all are enjoying reading this and looking at the pictures.  Unfortunately since we are spending so much time in port I have not had as much time as I would like to get the pictures ready to put on the blog.