Precious Memories: Monte Carlo, Monaco

Nice, France-Monte Carlo, Monaco -- February 16, 2015

When we got up this morning, we found out the the ship had another change in port. Instead of anchoring in Villefranche as we were told the night before, we were now in Nice, France. I suppose because of the last minute change, they did not have time to prepare travel information or maps of this new port for the passengers. This really caught us off guard because we did not have any information about Nice. We would have docked in Monte Carlo if we went with the original plan but Villefranche and Nice are tendering ports. This will take away some of our precious travel time.

Our priority tender tickets were delivered to our room during the night so we were all set to go ashore. DC's group had to get in line for their tender tickets. MC was the brave one and volunteered to get in line really early that morning. She was successful and got tickets for tender #1, so we figured that we should be OK.

After breakfast, we went down to the gangway for the tender to go on shore but were separated into two groups as we walked down the stairway. We were instructed to go to the priority tendering on one side, and they went to the other side for tender #1 . Our tender left soon after but theirs had to wait until all the ship tour groups departed.

Steak and Eggs served in Cagney's

Jade sailing in to Nice as we were having breakfast in Cagney's.

We waited at the dock for the rest of our group to get ashore. It was very cold and windy. Fortunately, NCL set up a couple of tents by the dock with some chairs so we were able to have a place to sit and were shield from the wind. As I was waiting, I looked up a city map with information that was posted by the wall and also got a map from the security guard. After meeting up with everyone, we walked about 15 minutes to the other side of the promenade to a bus station on Place ile de Beaute, across from the church (Notre Dame de Port) for bus #100 to Monte Carlo. This bus cost 2 Euro pp each way and runs every 15 minutes. The ride from Nice to Monte Carlo was about 50 minutes along the coast. It was a very scenic ride but the bus was quite crowded. It made many stops along the way including Villefranche, the stop near Eze, and other seaside towns of the beautiful Cote D'Azure. An enjoyable ride if you have a seats, otherwise it would be very tiring.

Many passengers got off at the stop closest to the Palace, which was Place d' Armes, but we wanted to get to the Casino first. Our plan was to walk downhill from the casino instead of hiking up. This was where we got off.

A short walk from the bus stop downhill, this was what greeted us.

Monte Carlo Casino

We were here in 2008 when we docked in Monte Carlo and kind of knew our way around.

We were not dressed for the occasion and had no intention of going inside. There were a lot of construction work going on in this area and it kind of took away the nice ambiance of the place.

Hotel de Paris

The side of the Casino as we walked down on Avenue de Monte Carlo.

We could see the palace on the Rock and the luxury yachts in the bay.

It was a nice walk down. This was one of the better weather day we had.

Quai Albert-1

There are public restrooms here and it cost 1 euro to get in.

I was hoping that we could find the elevator that I read about so ET wouldn't have to make the hike, but failed. So we hiked our way up to the Palace which was not an easy task.

We were rewarded with an excellent view of the city though.

We arrived just in time to watch the changing of the guard at 12 noon. I noticed their uniforms were different from the last time we saw them. They were in white for the summer and blue for winter I suppose.

The Palace

After the ceremony, we walked around the gift shops near the palace, passed many souvenir shops, restaurants in the small alleys and then visited the Cathedral.

I believe this is the courthouse right next to the Cathedral.

The Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

where Princess Grace...

and Prince Rainier (sp?) were buried.

Walking back down to the main street to catch the #100 bus back to Nice. The bus was very crowded going back and we had to stand most of the way.

Back to Nice across from the church with Jade in the background.

A street near the port.

Walking to the port to take the tender back.

This was around 2:00PM. We were very tired and nobody seemed to want to explore Nice.

Better to enjoy a late lunch at the Garden Buffet.

A few shots of Nice as we were leaving.

A late dinner at Grand Pacific again.

I noticed a lady at a table very near us who looked like Mrs. Yik. It turned out that it was truly her. What a surprise! We invited her to join us on our tour when we docked in Naples.