THURSDAY – 7TH – MONACO

Another fabulous day. We had a first experience today in that the ship is at anchor, not alongside a dock, so we had to be ferried ashore. We were warned there might be a delay but we were in no hurry so we took our time and, by the time we were ready to go, there was no queue.

 

Once again we avoided the Holland America excursions and the hop on hop off bus and spoke to a pleasant lady in the tourism office. She told us about the five euro day pass we could buy for the local buses and they served us really well. They took us to places the hop on hop off bus didn't go in air conditioned uncrowded comfort. It was a great way to see the 1.95 by 1 kilometre very steep principality.

Unfortunately there was nothing particularly noteworthy parked at the casino, just Range Rovers and Mercedes. We were obviously there at the wrong time.

 

Being cheapskate tourists, we took some fruit from the ship for lunch and enjoyed it beachside. The water looked really inviting although the beach was a fine grain coarse gravel.

The highlight of the day was the last stop on the route 2 bus – Jardin Exoticque. We didn't go into the gardens but we did get a panoramic view from a balcony adjacent to the ticket office, the highest point we were able to get to.

 

Tomorrow, Livorno. Bernie and Colleen are off to Pisa and Luca for the day but we visited those when we travelled Italy in a motorhome so we will spend the day exploring Livorno.