August 23, 2013.
The ship usually leaves port in the late afternoon and travels during the night to the new port docking around 8 AM. Chuck typically gets up a bit earlier that Caroline and peaks out the window to see the new port. This morning it was as if we had gone from Kansas to Oz, or maybe from reality to fantasy land.
The harbor in Monte Carlo (Mount Charles in English).
Below is a picture of the same harbor from the palace. You can see our ship on the far right.
THere were yachts, big yachts, parked all over that harbor. It was an incredible display of wealth. In fact, the whole city was all about conspicuous wealth and consumption. We took the tour bus (hop-on/hop-off) and along one stretch of road I saw McClaren, Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Mercedes dealers side by side. We saw a couple of really expensive cars on the streets. Some of them thought they were Formula 1 drivers, which maybe they were. I imagine you must feel poor if you only drive a Porsche or a BMW. You can't get in the famous casino for a look. (You can pay a fee if you want to actually play) But Caroline stuck her head in and took a picture of the lobby.
An exterior view of the Casino and the lobby.
There is a beautiful park in front of the Casino that was a pleasant stroll and good for people watching. It was pretty easy to tell the tourists from the local workers from the rich (or the pretending to be rich) people. For Chuck, at least, it didn't seem real in some way. We continued on the bus to the palace where we got to see (amidst a crown of people) the changing of the guard. The small streets were lined with shops and restaurants. Shopping was done, and lunch was procured.
The evening was as usual show, dinner, and entertainment. We stayed in port until nearly 10 PM so we got to see the view at night. It was quite spectacular.
