World Cruise Day 125/152 - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Eze, Nice, & Monte Carlo - two countries, zero customs

Cruise day: 125/152

Ports days: 61
Sea days: 64
Countries: 22
Continents: 5
Ports: 45

Astute readers will notice that the country count jumped two today from 20 to 22.  Today, we're anchored off the coast of Monte Carlo, Monaco.  That will be our port today.  But, our excursion will take us not only to Monte Carlo but also to Eze and Nice, cities in France.  So, two countries for the price of one.

Monaco is a principality that is bordered on the north, east, and west by France and on the south by the Mediterranean Sea. It is a principality, not a kingdom, as it is ruled by a prince, not a king.  This initially was an appointment of the Grimaldi family by the king of Spain when Spain controlled the area and remains in place today. Monaco has only about 40,000 residents, but they have a gross domestic product (GDP) on average of nearly $200,000 per person, or 3.5 times more than the US.  Wow.  That explains the cars.

Before we get into all that, let's recognize the culinary team for putting on a French breakfast with multiple varieties of croissant sandwiches, baguettes, and crepes.

 

We anchored this morning and will be heading into port via tender today.

The tender crew was at it early and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We arrived in port in Monte Carlo for our day touring Eze, France, Nice, France, and Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Our first spotting of a supercar came as soon as we arrived in port

Yeah, there are yachts here too

And a monstrous casino

The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix takes place here - in addition, this Saturday, they are hosting the Formula E Grand Prix for electric cars modeled after Formula 1

We hit the road for Eze (Pronounced Ehz), a beautiful medieval village in the Cote d'Azur region above  France's Riviera.

Before roads, this path was the route from the sea up to Eze - a 45-minute climb

A five-star hotel is at the top of the path - Chateau de la Chevre d'Or

Based on the cars valet-parked, the hotel isn't cheap

Nice view - all the rooms face the sea per our guide

Sculptures were all around

Some needed an explanation

Kids playing life-sized chess

See anyone hiding in the tunnel?

Surprise!

The climb up from the parking lot (a lot less than 45 minutes) was worth it for the view

The only church within Eze

For the record, this wasn't in or near the church

Beautiful flowers even found a way to grow in the walls

My muse being demure like the statue

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, just outside Eze

Even the trash cans were art

After our tour, we were off to Nice.

We got lucky and were able to stop at a scenic overlook before heading down into Nice.

Sailboats, swimmers, kayakers

Note the monument on the left

This monument honors French soldiers that perished in many battles

We drove into Nice, taking in the sights.

This is the library - yes, the library was built to look like a square head.

We didn't write down every single building we saw - we just took in the sights and tried to remember what some of them are.

These next two were a school.

In a park, they have a replica of David, but certainly not in marble

There was a variety of interesting kid's play structures.

Octopus shaped play areas

A whale climbing structure with a slide

Street signs were written in French and the Niçard dialect even though it isn't widely used anymore

A tram system runs through Nice, making transit easy

We crossed over into the old town area.

This waterfall is located on Castle Hill, where the historic castle used to stand

This was an interesting art installation.  Seven poles, seven men - three posed like this and four on their knees, all facing different directions.  Our guide said they light up at night.

The Fontaine du Soleil or Sun Fountain honors Apollo.

Thanks for the capture, Norm!

We wandered a bit and met up with our friends, John & Bina, and enjoyed some pizza and people watching.

The Opera House

The flower market

The mirror fountain

Has a reflection ever looked this good?

We completed our visit in Nice and headed back to Monte Carlo.

Would you get your hair done in a place named Skalp?

Interesting advertising - I guess it works as there was a guy in there getting his hair cut

We caught a view of where we were in Eze

We arrived in Monte Carlo and caught a view of the backside of the oceanographic museum.

We continued up and got a look at the front.

We took a stroll through the Jardins de Saint-Martin.

A sculpture honoring Princess Grace

Wow - I look good!

For some reason, this made me hungry for fish sticks

Nailed it - thanks for the capture, Pricilla!

A perfect rose

This was interesting, but the back was more interesting

Those arches mark the Monaco-France border - there is no border crossing - free travel is allowed between France and Monaco

St. Nicholas Cathedral

The palace

The coat of arms of the ruling Grimaldi family

The palace guard.

The Monaco flag

Hotel de Paris Monte-Carlo

The Grand Casino.

One of the fun things to do in Monte Carlo is watching the cars, and we did that.  Please enjoy the following selection from Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Audi, Lamborghini, Range Rover, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, McLaren,  Tesla, Vanderhall, Cooper, and more.

Our tour also included two stints on city buses and they were packed.  It was wall-to-wall people - mostly bus 12 (us) and bus 14, but a bunch of locals as well.  We did get to cruise down the Formula E circuit and that was cool, but otherwise, the city bus was miserable.  We caught a tender and headed back to the Viking Star.

Speaking of Formula E, thanks to Jim & Nancy for this capture of one of the Formula E cars for this Saturday's race.

We wrapped up our evening in the Star Theater with a new show, Blankity Blank - Viking's version of a British game show.  America's Match Game is modeled after it. 

Audience members were brought up on stage and had to provide the missing word in phrases like:

Assistant Cruise Director Sarah-Leanne is a trivia master who is always correct, but she is regularly incorrect in ________.

Emceed by Cruise Director, Kate, the eight crew members in the panel write down their answers and the guest gets a point for every crew member they match.  It was all good fun, but certainly lacked the edge, and therefore the laughs, that the Liar's Club delivered much earlier in the cruise.  It seems that Viking is gun-shy about potentially offending guests, but I think they missed an opportunity here. It was fun but could have been so much better.

With step counts of just shy of 12,000, 13,000, and 15,000 over the past three days, we are looking forward to a much-deserved sea day tomorrow before a two-day stay in Barcelona.