Author: admin

Left Nice early to drive to Arles where we will board the ship. First we toured Aix-en-Provence, an old city. It was raining when we got to Aix, so it was difficult to take pictures as the cobblestones were slippery. We toured through the Cathedral Saint Savior. The cathedral was built over many years so it is a composite of many different architectural styles.

Aix Cathedral

After touring the cathedral we went to the Town Hall Square where we had time on our own to have lunch and shop.

Town Hall Tower

We had lunch in an Irish Pub where we had wonderful salads and great local wine. After lunch we walked around and did a little shopping. We found a great chocolate shop and an organic tea shop.

Got back on the bus and finally got to Arles and boarded the ship. The ship is very nice and we had wine at the welcome reception and decided to have dinner with a couple we met on the pre-tour. At dinner we were joined by 2 ladies we also met on the pre-tour. This looks like it will be a wonderful week.

Had a long day of touring today. It was a bus tour to Monaco via the mountain village of Eze. The drive to Eze was along the Middle Cliff Road to Monaco and the views were wonderful. There were scattered showers in the morning and it made the climb to Eze a little more difficult as the cobblestones were a bit slippery in the rain. Our tour guide pushed on to a higher view in Eze but we went back to a coffee shop and had cappuccinos. This turned out to be a great choice as we heard from those who pressed on with the tour that the ground got even slipperier.

View at Villefranche-Sur-Mer

Coffee Shop in Eze

View from Eze

Got back on the bus and continued to Monaco. We toured the gardens where there is a statue of Princess Grace and went through the Old City to the Prince’s Palace. The view of the harbor from the Palace area was amazing and you could see much of the circuit of the Grand Prix

Princess Grace Statue

Monaco Harbor

We then drove to the district of Monte Carlo where the famous Casino is located. While a few people from our group went in and gambled, we just went into the lobby for a photo opp.

Linda in the Lobby of the Casino.

We went from the casino to the famous Cafe-de-Paris and had coffee drinks before going back to the bus. We had a relaxing ride back on the Lower Cliff Road with a different view of the Sea from a lower vantage point. Tomorrow we drive to Aix-En-Provence and then on to Arles to board the ship for our cruise.

Started the day with a breakfast in the rooftop restaurant at the hotel before a day touring Nice.

View of Nice from the hotel rooftop restaurant

Got on buses for a tour of Nice. One interesting fact is that Nice has been a place where royalty and upper classes from England and Russia came to spend the winter. This history is reflected in the attitude of the citizens. Overall, they are pleasant and willing to help tourists. Nice is very hilly as it is where the Alps begin.

Us at overlook of Nice and the Mediterranean

From the overlook we had a great view of the narrow entrance to the harbor where the Pacific Princess struct the breakwater in 2016 abruptly ending our cruise. Our first visit to Nice was during a strong thunderstorm so we didn’t see much as we were dodging the storm by ducking into buildings.

Scene of the crime in 2016

Had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant in the vegetable market. They had a Nice specialty, Sooca, a flat pancake made from chickpeas which was delicious. They also had Buckwheat galettes that were also very good. Walked around and saw a reconstructed bell tower from the original Franciscan Monastery and a fountain with Apollo.

Bell Tower in Old Town

Apollo Fountain

Rested a little and the took a walk for some cappuccino. Did a little Christmas shopping and checked out the restaurant for dinner. We had paella and it was delicious.

Dinner

Back in the room and getting ready for tomorrow’s all day trip to Monaco and Monti Carlo.

We started from Milwaukee yesterday and at this point the government shutdown seemed to have little effect. We were delayed for about an hour but the delay seemed to be United’s fault, a single ground crew in Milwaukee. We changed planes in Newark, and it had been some time since were at the Newark airport. We were pleasantly surprised by the United terminal. There was a longish walk from the gate where we arrived to the gate for our flight to Nice. We had time for a nice glass of wine and a quinoa salad.

Linda having lunch in Newark

Our flight to Nice was uneventful although we did not get much sleep. We were 30 minutes early getting to Nice and were met by AMAWaterways at baggage claim. Got to the hotel without incident, except that it was raining. Met with the Cruise Manager and checked into the hotel. Very nice room although it is small, guess we will not be holding to many dances in our room. The view from the room is very nice, we can see the Mediterranean.

View from our room

Headed to the rooftop restaurant at the hotel for a lunch. I had Niçoise Salad and Linda had an eggplant dish. The big surprise was when the brought out rolls before lunch. I got fresh baked GF rolls and they were hot from the oven and delicious.

Amazing GF rolls

Took a nap to work off the time change and jet lag and then took a walk as it had stopped raining, at least a lot, to get some Euros. We always get our money from a Bank ATM and avoid the Exchange Place ATMs. Then met with the Cruise Manager to go over the pre-cruise tours and met a few other people on the cruise. About half of the ship is on this pre-cruise tour so we should meet a few folks before we get onboard. Then we took a rideshare to a restaurant that has wonderful GF pizza for a light dinner. Tomorrow we do a tour of Nice.

The map above shows our itinerary. We are excited to be taking our first river cruise, after a very large number of days at sea on ocean cruises. We hope our return to Nice is less eventful than the last time we were there. This was the last trip we took before we started this blog. It was a Venice to Barcelona cruise that ended abruptly in Nice when our ship bounced off the breakwater entering the narrow Nice harbor. Everyone was safe, but it damaged the ship enough to cancel the last few days of the cruise. Also, it was a very stormy day so it was difficult to see much of Nice with the time we had ashore.

We are flying to Nice in Mid-October and are looking forward to the guided tours that are part of our cruise, pre-cruise and post-cruise adventures. We chose AMAWaterways, based on some recommendations from friends and our travel adviser from Elm Grove Travel, Betty, who is now also enjoying retirement.

Arrived home after driving from the suburbs of St. Louis. No pictures as I am sure you already have seen enough corn and soybeans. Very uneventful trip although the Google Maps lady needed a lot of convincing that we really wanted to go up I-39 instead of the Tri-State Tollway, less traffic and more relaxing.

All told, we put just under 4800 miles on the car, some local and Phoenix driving included. We are glad to be home and also very glad we made the trip. Until this fall when we are off to France!

Had a rainy drive to Tulsa to visit Linda’s Cousin Kent. We got there in plenty of time to relax before we drove to downtown Tulsa to Kent’s club for their picnic in the sky to watch the fireworks. The view from the 30th floor was wonderful.

Sunset over Downtown Tulsa

Fireworks over Tulsa

On Saturday, Kent drove us around Tulsa and then we went to the Philbrook Museum. The museum is in the home of one of the Phillips oil barons. There have been additions but the home and grounds have been left largely in tact.

Philbrook Museum gardens

Today we drove to East St. Louis. The first part of the drive was pretty and uneventful, but about an hour and a half out of St. Louis traffic got slow. Of course today is the coming home day for the Fourth of July Weekend.

Traffic on I-44

Tomorrow we drive to home. It has been a wonderful road trip. Tomorrow will be very exciting trying to guess if it will be corn or soybeans next on the left!

Had a rainy drive to Wichita Falls today. We drove through an oil field in New Mexico, and farm and cattle land in Texas. The rain was sporadic with heavy rain at times. For this reason, there are no pictures. We enjoyed a wonderful BBQ dinner last night and settled into out hotel.

Tomorrow, we drive to Tulsa to visit Linda’s cousin Kent. We will celebrate the fourth with them and enjoy the visit.

Today is our last full day of touring. We visited Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks. Our weather luck finally changed as we drove to Carlsbad Caverns. As we started to the visitor Center, the skies opened up and we got pretty wet. We had a 10:30 reservation for the self-guided tours. We opted for the shorter 1.25 mile Big Room tour that used the elevator to and from the caverns.

Linda and I have been to both Carlsbad Caverns (NM) and Mammoth Cave (KY). If you have never been to one of these National Park caves, they are well worth the time. At Carlsbad, the Big Room Tour is paved and had handrails along the entire route. While it does gain and lose elevation, it is still an accessible tour.

Linda in Carlsbad Caverns wearing her new hoodie for the 56 degree temperature

The Giant Dome and Twin Domes

The Big Room from the overlook

After we left the caverns and had lunch, we took a chance that the low ceiling would improve so we could see the peaks at the nearby Guadalupe Mountains NP. It was still somewhat socked in but the fog did lift a bit and we got a few pictures.

Guadalupe Mountains in the fog.

Tomorrow we are heading for Wichita Falls, TX. We are mostly done with sightseeing after seeing 4 National Parks (Giant Sand Dunes, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, and Guadalupe Mountains), 3 National Monuments (Canyon de Chelly, Rio Grande Del Norte, and Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks) and 1 National Historic Landmark (Cumbres & Toltec RR). We hope to get a picture or 2 of Texas as we drive through.

We started the day going to the new Organ Mountains -Desert Peaks National Monument. The Organ Mountains dominate the city of Las Cruces. After stopping at the Visitor Center, we took a short hike on one of the trails. The views from the trail were wonderful.

View of the Organ Mountains

View from the trail

Linda on the trail

After we left Organ Mountains, we went to White Sand National Park. The park is right in the middle of the US Army’s Missile Range. The range has a long history and was used during WWII to train pilots in dropping munitions. White Sand is a new National Park, but it was a National Monument formed in 1933. The sand is a white gypsum unlike any other sand. As we drove out to the dunes, it was just like driving in a snowstorm.

The Dunes

The Dunes with the mountains behind.

After we left the dunes we drove to Alamogordo, NM for lunch and then visited Pistachioland, a true tourist trap, home of the world’s largest pistachio, we did not take a picture. After the trap, we drove to Carlsbad, NM. The drive was through the mountains as was quite beautiful. Tomorrow, is Carlsbad Caverns.