After a terrible nights sleep, plagued by indigestion which I blamed on a breakfast bagel, we were woken up by the screeching of the tenders being lowered ready for ferrying guests over to the port. We didn’t have any trips planned for today so it was a leisurely breakfast – no bagel for me today, We’d had a chat with the head waiter Vitali who suggested getting the train. So we discussed whether to go to Monaco as Jane hadn’t been there before so we got the tender over to Villefanche Gare where it was 12 Euros for a return ticket for the two of us to Monaco Monte Carlo.
The journey was fuss free, but everyone and his dog got off with us so it was slow going getting out of the station. It’s a bit of a strange do as there only seems to be lift access to and from the station concourse up to street level. Monte Carlo is built on hill so it wasn’t long before I was drenched in sweat walking up hill and down dale towards Casino square. The place is plagued by cars, crossing the road never felt at all safe even on the zebra crossings. The parts of Monte Carlo we were in wen’t very welcoming, shops beyond posh with bouncers on the doors and no nice little cafes for a coffee.
We got the train back to Villefranche, we didn’t have to wait long as they are every 30 mins, but we did have to run up the platform a bit as the train stopped at the far end. When I say run, it was more of a fast hobble, but we got on and found a seat without any problems. We stopped in one of the small Villefranche tavernas for lunch and a very welcome cold beer. Jane had spaghetti moules and I had a sardine salad with floating Islands for dessert. Jane had the sorbet, delicious at less than 50 Euros. Getting the tender back was a bit of a palaver as we arrived at the same time as a couple of tours, this was compounded by the tenders being out of position so it took a long time to get through security and even longer waiting to board the tender. Before long we were back on board with Jane grabbing a bed to sun herself on the lower Grills Terrace and
I snuck into the PG restaurant for a crafty Afternoon Tea. I was famished after all the queueing. We stayed in the Grills lounge for a drink before getting changed for dinner.
Dinner was excellent, I started with Macaroni cheese, flavoured with mushrooms and truffle oil and a main of Bang Bang Prawns, both dishes were very tasty. Jane also had the prawns and started with a chicken Waldorf salad. I had the frozen souffle for dessert, yum! We had an early start for our Rome Tour so decided on an early night.