Today we docked in Monaco — one of the wealthiest places in the world.
We had a private tour booked here with Ingrid. She came highly recommended on Trip Advisor. When we exited the ship at 8:30am she was there waiting for us. After spending the day with Ingrid we felt like we had known her a lifetime. She was absolutely wonderful!
We started out the tour by driving on the Grand Prix course. The Grand Prix will be taking place in Monaco the end of May so a lot of preparation work is currently being done. We got to see the Grand Casino by passing by.
Today we had decided to go to Antibes, Biot and Tourrettes. As we drove out of Monaco, there was so much traffic coming in to work for the day. Ingrid said that 40,000 people drive into the city each day to work. Monaco has a population of around 36,000. The traffic looked almost as bad as the traffic driving into Dallas each day. Of course, Dallas has bigger roads. These were only 2 lane roads.
We drove through Nice on the way to our first stop in Antibes. In Antibes, the first thing we did was stop at a little sidewalk cafe and have a cup of coffee. It was right beside the daily market. After our coffee, we walked through the streets of the village. It was really interesting looking at all the doors on the homes with the different types of door knockers. Before we left, Ingrid treated us to a local snack called Socca (I think). I don’t remember what she said was in it, but it was very good. It is cooked in a big skillet and is thin like thin pizza crust but doesn’t have the same consistency. If I can ever get all of my pictures posted, I have a picture of it.
The next stop in Biot we were starving so we went straight to a cafe to eat lunch. I had some of the best lasagna that I have ever had. I guess I should have gotten some french food but this really sounded good and it was the only thing on the menu that I could figure out what it was since the menu was in French. After we ate, we told Ingrid we were ready for our next stop.
We then drove to Tourrettes. This was my absolute favorite. I love going to these Villages. We walked through seeing where these people lived — up and down hills. There were lots of artists in there working. She showed us one place that had an amazing view. As we were leaving, she stopped and bought us an ice cream cone. The ice cream was violet ice cream. It had natural violet flavoring which was delicious. This area is famous for their violets and lavender. Unfortunately it was not the season to see them in full bloom but they did have some beautiful flowers.
As we drove back to Monaco, she drove by some other villages so that we could see them but we didn’t stop. We saw some amazing scenery. Right before getting back into Monaco, she took us to a lookout point above Monte Carlo. The view was magnificent! As we drove back into town she showed us the place on the road where Princess Grace lost her life. It was a really tight hairpin curve. They said that it is still not known what actually happened that day.
We had planned on making a short stop in the casino but the traffic was really heavy and we didn’t want to get caught up in a traffic jam and miss the boat so we opted to skip this part of the tour. We had told her that we wanted to be back to the ship by 4:30pm so we could get ready for our 5:30pm dinner reservation. When we parted, we felt like we were saying goodbye to an old friend.
We had gotten dinner in the Pinnacle Grill as part of the Explore 4 package and this was where we were going tonight. They have changed the menu since the last time I was there (several years ago). I really don’t think the menu was as good as before but we did enjoy ourselves. After dinner, the Rosga’s went to the show and Craig and I went to the casino. We didn’t stay long because we have another early tour in the morning.
Tomorrow we will be docking in Livorno where we will go to Florence and Pisa. Pat and Terry are climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa while Craig and I watch.
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