Toulon and Palamos

I'm going to combine a few places, in truth it's all kind of melding together in my memory, which was where, etc.

Toulon is one of the many places in Europe I've not visited....I lived here for nearly a year, visited many other time for 2-4 weeks, but the south coast, the med coast of France and Spain were unknown to me. This visit to the Med coast were a treat for me, and broadened my view of Europe, previous mainly of North Europe and the UK.

As others have opined, cruises are not the way to first visit Europe. You see little of what is actually life out there on the shore, and mostly what life is like on the boat. I had a very good time, and it's an experience that I've never considered before. I'm happy about the whole experience. It's fun, but don't expect to experience the culture's you're visiting.

So, Toulon France, and Palamos Spain.

Palamos was noticeably different than France. The food was more seafood/fish based, the people less self-conscious, the cities both more relaxed and more shabby. 

The last pic is me back on board, out on our balcony/veranda with the spoils of the day, a baguette from the local bakery, various eats gathered on the days activity. 

Monte Carlo

I don't have a lot of interest in gambling, or casinos, so I'd not anticipated too much from Monte Carlo.

Coming into the harbor, early morning:

What I hadn't considered is the boats at anchor and docked in the harbor. 

Fairly sure these folks don't worry about the grand a day for docking. 

Walking around town I also noticed the cars. I'm usually indifferent to cars, except the odd '55 Chevy. But to see Maserati's, Lamborghini's, and Ferrari's parked all around....

There was also a open-air market, something I'd see in most of the cities we visited. 

Monte Carlo turned out to be a pleasant place to walk around, drink expresso and watch people. 

Mediterranean cruise: Livorno/Lucca

This was the first stop after leaving Civitavecchia, west of Rome. The trips available during the day there were Pisa (been there), Florene (ditto). Lucca, north and in the hills. Included was a visit to a winery.

The view from the balcony of our stateroom

The rest are all Lucca

The surrounding countryside

And the winery, where you could choose your vintage:

As you can see, the weather was beautiful. That would hold for much of the trip, despite the forecasts of rain. 

Back, slowly

I'm back, sort of. Not home in Montana yet, but on my way, with fortune I'll be home tomorrow.

Sunday at Heathrow it looked like this:

When my plane came in from Lisbon I couldn't see the tarmac until we'd actually hit it with the wheels. No idea how the pilot did it, magic I suppose. There was supposedly a 2 hour interval between my scheduled flights, it turned out to be a 24 hour interval. The hotel restaurant had a pleasantly good menu, and my qualms about Britain's food was this time incorrect. The steak and kidney pie was excellent, and the Guinness went down smoothly. 

Then yesterday, the 380 did lift off (damn thing actually flies), and we motored across the North Atlantic, Greenland, down through Northern Canada and finally slid in smoothly here. 

I'm home tomorrow, will organize the photo's I have and start to present them. Perhaps the one missing bag will indeed show up tonight as British Airlines has promised. 

Cheers

The Med

Just a note to let you know I've not decided to become a zen monk, but am still around.  Internet communication has not been as reliable as I'd thought, so may not post much until I'm back in a couple weeks. However, here I am in the Grimaldi's private territory....

To be continued.....

Roma

Arrived yesterday at 10am after a uneventful, turbulence-free flight in business class, without a wink of sleep.  Who knows why, I had intentions of getting at least 4 hours. So after getting to the hotel I took what was going to be a short nap at 2pm.....you can guess the rest: I woke at around 1am and lay there contemplating how quiet urban Roma is compared to LA.

I did manage to choke down some excellent calamari fritti and pizza before succumbing though. 

Today it's over to the coast to join the ship. 

Ciao 

Staging meal.....

Still in process, yesterday we went out to Catalina Island on a really nice boat, an hour and a half trip.
A fun trip across, esp. on the way back when the 10+ miles had some 6' swells.

Tonight L. cooked a casserole, cauliflower and various cheeses. Rather good, and a good beer to go along with it. 

Tomorrow is a packing drill, then deciding we don't have any of what we actually need, frantic shopping, etc. I intend to get a call at 6am from a former client that requires my immediate attention. 

Next pic should be of the business class section of a chicago to rome 767.