*** Phil * Lesh * Koen *** ** Brigs * Pierce * Myla **: Med Cruise day 2 Monte Carlo, Monaco MONDAY

This day was definitely one of the more relaxing, and one of my favorites. We didn't have to set an alarm to get off the ship by a certain time for an excursion and so we just enjoyed waking up leisurely. We woke up to a morning like this....

Which I was all pressed about because the travel agent had told us this was one of the places we could go to the beach (my #1 goal) We headed out about 10ish to check out this little ritzy town, that was beautiful from the ship.

We got off and had to take a picture of all the yachts. We heard later that night that one of those yachts was the length of our ship, and that it had only been gone one time since our ship started porting their a couple months ago. It was by far the most breath taking port we docked at.

We immediately saw this

Everyone was hiking it so we assumed we'd do the same.

And boy was it worth it.

We walked around up there and found a cathedral that is where Grace Kelly is buried

We then toured part of the Grimaldi Castle. Phil was so good and listened to every part of the audio tour, while I hit and missed pieces that seemed interesting. However I did really like seeing the inside because contrary to a lot of the cathedrals we saw the inside of this castle was much prettier than the outside. Some of the cathedrals you can just tell they would be magnificent from the outside, but I wouldn't have thought that from seeing the outside of the castle.

Just outside of the castle

The castle

As we walked back down the mountain(on a different side) it was equally breath taking.

Then we walked the little streets and shopped. :) Ate the yummies raspberry and mango gelato.

I love all the tight streets

Can you believe how close together they park? No wonder they all drive smart cars.

We then hiked up the opposite side of the port (literally the whole city is on a mtn) toward the casino.

casino from the ship, with the green on top

It is a super ritzy casino you have to wear a tux to even go in. Lots of celebs go here. The shops all down from it are Gucci, Prada, Dolce and Gabana etc. All the cars outside are like 100's of 1000's of dollars. They only let the nicest ones park out front.

Hotel De Paris across the street

After ogoling over the cars and shops we headed back down(once again a different side) to the beach. With more great views on the way.

It had turned out to be such a nice day I wished I would have worn my bathing suit. I wanted to lay out there and enjoy it. It was interesting the beach was actually small gravel like rocks. And we did see a few topless tanners. ;) It took us about 40 minutes to walk from this side of the port back to the side our ship was on. Up one side and then down the other, even though we could see our ship across the water, we opted for the scenic walk over the ferry. We got back around 2 for a late lunch and then I spent the afternoon on top of the ship in my bathing suit taking a nap. :) pure joy.

Phil and I decided to do a couples massage that night which was fun. But we decided not worth the $300 when we cruise next. For dinner we tried out the steak house(Norwegian has freestyle dinning where you can eat wherever, whenever. A few of the restaurants have a cover charge) It was amazing. I ate a whole 10 oz fillet mignon and the BEST cheesecake. Phil did the fillet, along with these JUMBO shrimp and two desserts....getting our $$ worth!