Wednesday, November 15, 2023
After last night’s tornado blew through the cabin, we didn’t open the balcony door for the cool breeze. Not when it was more like a hurricane! Still it was cool enough to sleep and I was awake at five, fifteen minutes before my alarm was set to go off. There’s time to finish yesterday’s blog and post it and check the mail and get ready. But not time to stretch. I’ll pay for that later, I’m sure! We were going to go to breakfast between 7:15 and 7:30 and Ginger and Nick were still asleep at seven, so I quietly wake Ginger and poof we’re all ready to go in no time flat!
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| Interesting people on a cruise! |
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| Cannes' harbor |
We all have to take tenders to get off the ship and onto the mainland in Cannes. We’re assigned to tender number 3 and the disembarkation was to begin at eight. We get breakfast at the buffet and go to our assigned location by just a bit after eight. Turns out that the winds and waves last night have delayed us by about an hour and we actually don’t go through the complicated boarding procedure until about nine thirty. We were supposed to meet our guide at nine. Oh well, nothing we can do about that! When we are on land again we spot his sign easily and find that only six of us, out of the eight scheduled, have made it. Philippe keeps checking on the tender's progress and decides that if they aren’t on the next boat, we’ll have to leave them. The last tender will be leaving at four and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
Whew! They make it and we’re off, although we won’t have as much time as we would have liked, it’s okay. Whatever we see is more than what we’ve seen before! The drive through Cannes but don’t stop. We are on our way to Nice, first, and the on to Monaco, the second smallest country in the world!
The drive is lovely, partly along the famous Cote d”Azure where the Mediterranean is displaying her beautiful blue color. We arrive in Nice and Philippe drops us off very close to the flower market. It is actually a flower and vegetable market, with a few other things thrown. At the far end is a stall selling the two food items Philippe has recommended as being iconic to the region. One is called pissaladiere, which is a ton of caramelized onions atop a kind of flatbread and topped with an olive. You can also get one with an anchovy! It’s really delicious! The other is called a soccer du Cours. It is made from chickpea flour. The dough is folded over a layer of black pepper and baked. Nick has ordered one of those, too, and I guess it has to be made when you order it. I decide I can’t wait because we’re on a tight schedule and I walk back down the flower market to see what else I can scarf up for people before returning to the rendezvous point. I get there before Nick or Ginger and I guess Ginger was looking for me?! Anyway, Nick saved me the last couple of bites and it’s really good, too!
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| Electric bus and it's one of those with two buses hooked together! |
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| Christmas decorations |
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| Ah! Here's the market! |
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| So many kinds of mushrooms! |
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| There's no glass or plastic or anything holding these together! |
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| So much better than this last bite looks! |
Back in the van and on to Monaco. We would have preferred to visit Arles, the medieval town, but it is closed for the season! Still it’s really interesting to see how the other half lives! So many Porches and Ferraris and other deluxe vehicles. So funny to see the odd SmartCar parked alongside. Philippe tells us that you can walk across the entire country (2 square kilometers) in about fifteen minutes and that there is no crime because it’s so darn small!
We’re very obedient and return to our meeting place a few minutes early, so we get a bonus viewpoint stop! Then it’s back to Cannes because no one wants to miss the last tender!! We thank Philippe and climb aboard, being among the last to do so for this trip. It’s about 3:30 so yay us! I still next to a cute young man who is traveling along and we chat about names (he was named for a grublet, but neither of us know what that is, except that it is some sort of creature to brings peace!) and the cruise and what we’ve seen. He tells me that we should be very careful about our belongings in Barcelona because the pickpockets are plentiful and if you trick them with a fake wallet, they come back and yell at you!
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| We didn't go into the famous casino! |
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| But if you choose to enter, you go through security and pay seventeen Euros! |
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| Here we are! |
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| You've never seen so many luxury cars in one place! And there's a Smart Car right beside them! |
Our little tour group, most of whom are Canadian, bonds quickly and we agree to meet for drinks at six, before dinner. Also, we will probably call Christine, who is traveling solo, and invite her to dinner several times. She is charming and may go on one of Ginger’s tours! Another lady takes Ginger’s information, too!
Back on board, Nick goes to the spa for his treatment, Ginger checks her mail, and I type this. I sure as heck wish I could put up pictures!! Ginger’s finished with that now and is going down to the Service Desk because she got a note about a concern she registered. Except she didn’t voice a concern to a staff member who might have known her name!!
Turns out someone complained about their toilet, but it wasn’t us. Guess they aren’t happy! Anyway, it’s about time to meet the tour group for drinks at Spice H2O. No wonder they like this little outdoor bar. Everyone has the drinks package and the bartender doesn’t even ask, he just keeps refilling everyone’s glass! The wind is quite noticeable and everyone has a jacket or a windbreaker and it’s a good thing. We finally get to meet one of the girl’s husband. He wasn’t feel well and didn’t go on the tour. Eventually the foursome’s beeper goes off and they leave for their dinner reservations. Ginger has invited Christine to eat with us and now is a good time for us to go indoors, too.
Our reservations aren’t for another forty minutes and we find stools overlooking the Fire and Ice show. It wraps up quickly and is replaced by a version of Wheel of Fortune. One contestant doesn’t even like puzzles and she doesn’t know who put in her name! Of all the rounds we are able to see, though, she is the best. Her version of the flirty chicken dance is hysterical! She’s a large woman and everything is in motion!
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| There's a treat waiting for us in our stateroom! |
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| Au revoir, Cannes |
Finally it’s time for dinner. I think it’s about 8:30 and with the small breakfast and one little square of the onion delight and two bushwhackers, it’s about two hours too late! But welcome at a time! I have the Shanghai Pork Pot Stickers and the Chicken Cordon Bleu. For dessert we order two cannolis and the Traditional English Cherry Truffle. Christine doesn’t want to participate in our Round Robin of desserts and I drop out after just a couple of rounds.
We are all so beat that there isn’t even a question of seeing any of tonight’s entertainment. We part after agreeing to meet at seven (shudder) at O’Sheehan’s for breakfast. Christine is hoping to join our tour of Barcelona. We’ll see how that works out! But now it well past time for bed! This vacation stuff is really hard work!
