We really enjoyed our dinner at The Odyssey, the ship's private dining room. The food and service were excellent. We celebrated with a bottle of excellent French champagne we won the previous night at the country line dancing jamboree in the Crow's Nest bar. We went back our last onboard for another fantastic meal.

Monte Carlo was a beautiful city. The difference in ambience during the day and at night is remarkable. Clean and sunny and friendly during the day. Elegant and expensive at night. We drove over on our first evening in Europe and then came back a week later on the cruise. We saw some incredible cars parked near this square.

This shows the Baptistry (left), the Cathedral (middle), and the Tower. The Tower started leaning shortly after construction due to the soil conditions. After the last three floors were added, the lean increased. The Tower is close to the theoretical point where it will fall over and efforts are underway to correct the lean (from 5.5% today to about 4%). That way the Tower will remain standing.

This could be any one of a hundred small towns along The Riviera. The terrain is very rocky and rises rapidly from the sea. Much of the town is located within several blocks of the sea, with greenhouses and agriculture further inland. We passed this old church and the "beach" on our walks from the hotel to town and back again. I can't imagine that laying on a rock is very comfortable, but sand beaches were scarse.

This shows much of the harbor and city of Monte Carlo. The city was extremely clean and we found the shopkeepers to be friendly and helpful. The sharp changes in elevation made it a strenuous walk up to the palace. Several places throughout the city have public lifts (elevators).

We had the stereotypical French weather for our short visit to Paris. Although it was gray and rainy, the Eiffel Tower was still an incredible sight. We took the lift up to the second deck and had a good view of the city. As darkness descended, the Tower was lit up brilliantly.

The apes were originally brought to Gibraltar from the mountainous north coast of Morocco. They are the only wild apes on the European continent. Now the apes freely roam the upper Rock. We were warned to stay away from them as they like to take hats, glasses and cameras from the tourists. This is one of our favorite photographs of the trip.

St. Peter's Square and the Basilica were beautiful. We toured most of the Basilica, even venturing below ground to see the final resting places of many of the Popes. The artwork was incredible. The floors, columns, ceilings, and walls were all decorated. This photo shows a very similar view to what the Pope sees from his balcony as he addresses the audience in the Square.

More Photos to Come

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