Monte Carlo & Eze

Saturday: Monte Carlo and the Medieval Village of Eze, France

Setting Full Moon Over Monaco

The Ruby Princess anchored in the bay just outside of Monte Carlo in the Principality of Monaco on Saturday morning. There were numerous huge yachts anchored in the bay because of a yacht show that was going on for the high rollers. But of course our “yacht” was much bigger!

Monte Carlo from the Promanade Deck

The ship uses tenders (powered-lifeboats) to get passengers to and from shore when it cannot dock. We were up and at ‘em early as our tour left at 8:30 for the medieval French village of Eze. We jumped on a tender and headed to the dock in Monte Carlo. I can’t recall seeing so many huge multi-million $$$ yachts in one place in my life.

We made our way to a luxury motor coach and drove out of Monaco on the same streets that the Grand Prix racers use in May each year.



Eze church

 Eze has its origins in the Middle Ages and is perched on the top of a mountain 1500 feet above sea level not far from Monaco. The tour bus left the harbor of Monte Carlo and followed a winding, twisting road that carried us up to the village. We had an option of staying with the guide or meeting him at the top of village to get into the upper gardens. I chose to take off and look for photographic subjects. I’d rather seek out my own interesting and wonderful subjects so off I went to explore Eze. I met up with MA about an hour later and we found our group. We then entered an unusual cactus garden high on the top of the hill with a helicopter-type view of Monte Carlo.

After some photo ops up there we started back down and stopped in a small café at the bottom of the mountain. There were two French gendarmes having coffee inside, so I went in and introduced myself. They were happy to meet me and on the way out stopped at our table. MA practiced her French with them. They were very nice to us and I must say a true credit to cops everywhere.




Monte Carlo from Eze

We boarded the bus for the downhill ride back to the ship. As we arrived back at dock there were hundreds of people waiting to get back onboard. But the tenders moved fast and soon we were on board and motoring back to the Ruby Princess.

Last night was it for our time on this ship so we finished packing our bags, put on the color coded tags for our next-day Barcelona tour and placed them outside the door. At dinner we said good bye to our new friends from New York, Long Island, Nashville, Tennessee, and Manchester, England.

The plan for today (Sunday) was to do a five-hour city bus tour to help get us oriented and then taxi to the hotel. One of the things I’ll write about later is the awesome Sagrada Familia cathedral. You just can’t imagine this historic place designed by Gaudi. I wanted to get as much photography in as possible so after a while, MA went outside and started looking around to see if she could spot any pickpockets. She did and two unaware ladies were very grateful to her alerting them that they were being targeted. She showed me the guy later, I think she was on to something.

It’s been a wonderful cruise and I’ve taken some photos I’m really happy with and will send you the link to later. Adios, amigo. WW

I did not get this as a souvenir, but thought it was funny.