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What I Learned About the French Riviera

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Most people come to the French Riviera for its sun, beaches, and views, but we discovered so much more.  The villages and countryside are awesome, too.

Today, we left Nice and headed back toward Monaco and visited Èze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, both Medieval hilltop villages with amazing views in the French Riviera.

What makes it very special here are the roads that are high on the mountains overlooking the sea. These roads cut into the mountains and into the sides of the cliffs. It makes for awesome views and nail biting rides. If you remember, Princess Grace lost her life on a road like one of these.

Èze

First, we stopped in Èze, a village high up a mountain on the sea.

It has narrow winding streets that we just loved.

Èze was a great place to stop for lunch and see great sweeping views of the French Riviera.

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The village sits on a high cliff over 1,400 ft above sea level and is very near the Italian border. Its oldest building dates back to 1306. We learned that Walt Disney spent a significant amount of his time here.

Èze, population about 3,500, is very popular with tourists and especially with honeymooners. It is what some call a village-musée, a “museum village” because few residents of local origin live here now.

Chuck and I wandered through it and spent a significant bit of our time having lunch in a little alley restaurant. We were entertained by a blind kitty.

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Saint-Paul-de-Vence

Afterwards, we went to Saint-Paul-de-Vence. This village sits high on a hilltop also in the French Riviera. It is one of the oldest medieval towns and is known for its art galleries.

Saint-Paul-de-Vence was a haven for the famous, mostly due to the La Colombe d’Or hotel. We were told that all kinds of celebrities stayed here including Satre, Picasso, Sinatra, and many more.  This was their base of operations here in the French Riviera.

Saint-Paul was an old border village from the 16th century separating France and the House of Savoy. The views are fantastic over the hills and down to the sea.

On the south side is a panoramic view of their beautiful countryside. Walking along the cobblestoned ‘Grande Rue’ its main street is most impressive. We ambled down its narrow cobbled side streets, too, taking some time to do a little shopping.

We loved the patterns in the cobblestones.

This is a great place to just ramble.

Chuck took one look at the Grand Rue and its shops and mumbled something about his wallet. Funny man. He acts like I don’t have any credit cards. ☺

This was the end of our trip to Southern Europe and we flew back home from the Nice airport. Both of us had been to France, the first time over twenty years ago; but this was our first trip to the French Riviera. We really enjoyed it.  We hope you did, too.

Everyone Loves Paris: Here’s Why I Love Nice

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Nice is also called Nice La Belle or Nice the Beautiful.  We visited it recently and agree with its nickname.  Here’s why!

We entered Nice from the east with sweeping views of the city below from a ridge high above. This is a large city with over 1 million in its metropolitan area, making it the fifth largest city in France.

Nice from high above on the east.

We stayed here two days touring Nice and then two more villages nearby. We lodged in the Hotel Splendid which was within walking distance of their promenade by the sea. Anyone visiting for just a couple of days will want to stay near this area. Everything is in walking distance. Near the Hotel Splendid is the Casa Corleone, a great Sicilian restaurant, and one of the best meals we had the entire trip. Love this place.

The Hotel Splendid in the background.

Old Town

The next morning we went first to the old town which is south-east of our hotel. We took a bus, though it may have been within walking distance.

Walking in the Old Town section of the city

They renovated and changed much of the old town down near the sea. Our tour guide showed us a hotel that faced the Boulevard, and she told us that most of the old grand hotels that were built up until the beginning of the 20th century faced the boulevard and not the sea. People were less interested in seeing the sea and more interested in being seen.

One of is grand old hotels.

A closer view

Then we took a walk through their marketplace which for vegetables is open until 2 pm and for other non-perishables is open until 5 pm. They gave us time on our own to shop, use the facilities, and snack. We met our guide at the other end of the market 30 minutes later.

Between the market and old town

Nice’s Churches

As a group, we walked north deeper into the old town where we stopped at a small magnificent cathedral that was built in the 1650s.

Eglise de Gesu

This is the Eglise de Gesu and it has beautiful Baroque interiors. It looks out at the intersection of the former Street of the Jews, where the city’s Jews used to be locked in at night. This street is now called the rue Benoit Bunico. The Eglise or church sits at the intersection of Benoit Bunico and Gesu Street thus the name of the church. Gesu is Jesus in the Nissart language.

Inside the Eglise de Gesu

But Nice grew rapidly in the 1600s and the church was already too small when completed so they built a larger cathedral to replace it within 20 or 30 years of the smaller one.

We also visited the newer church built in the late 1600s called Cathédrale Sainte-Reparate, which was built on the site of an earlier church from the 1200s.

Cathedrale de Sainte-Reparate

It too was beautiful inside.

Cathedrale de Sainte-Reparate

Note the umbrella.

It had a yellow and red umbrella showing that the Pope made this church a basilica.

There were several amazing paintings, too.

They named the basilica after a young Palestinian teenager called Reparate, who refused to renounce her Christian faith in 1060. Her torturers tested her but the angels foiled their attempts. It poured rain when they tried to burn her, and she didn’t die when they poisoned her. Finally, they decapitated her.

To deny her a Christian burial, her murderers left her body on a raft in the sea; but the angels intervened again and the raft came into the bay of Nice where her body arrived untouched and pristine. Today the bay in Nice is called the Bay of Angels, and the young martyr became Sainte Reparate, the patron saint of this Cathedral.

This old town part of Nice looks like an old medieval village.

Streets of Old Town

More of Old Town

More of Old Town

This is another city where they did something to the river. In this case, they covered the river and put a park on top of it so the river runs underground.

The river is under the grassy area which is a park.

 

The park built over the river.

By the Sea

Later, Chuck and I walked down to the promenade by the sea. It was a beautiful day, and there were sunbathers. There is a wide sidewalk that stretches between the boulevard and the beach. On the other side of the boulevard are the hotels, most of which now open on the sea side of their buildings.

The Promenade in Nice

Looking down on Nice from the east

The grand old hotels in Nice that now open toward the sea.

This is the promenade where the terrorist drove his truck on Bastille Day. We saw several armed men and women in full riot gear patrolling the streets and the Promenade de Anglais Boulevard which was closed the night of the attack and made into a pedestrian thoroughfare. Today, though, I never felt unsafe.

We also walked down toward the sea to a street which is full of restaurants and had a great plate of paella. This is a great city for walking.

More of the Old Town

We usually avoid cities but we loved Nice.

What is the Difference Between Monaco and Monte Carlo?

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Since the 12th Century, Monaco has been an independent country. Today it is a constitutional principality. It is a constitutional monarchy and a city-state with four quarters.

The oldest quarter is called Monaco-Ville and is the high area or as the locals call it, “the rock”. This is where the first Grimaldi built his fortress and palace, easy ground to protect.

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Photo from Wikipedia

Monte Carlo is another quarter and sits on a prominent escarpment at the base of the Maritime Alps and along the French Riviera. It is in the center of Monaco and is where the famous casino is located. The other two areas are Fontvielle, the newly constructed quarter with the only beach and La Condamine which is the port area.

One time a Grimaldi disguised himself as a monk but took up his sword. That is why their crest is a monk and a sword. And Monaco in French means monk.

Prince Albert II is the current prince of Monaco and is the son of Prince Rainer and Princess Grace. His full name is Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi.

Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly at Engagement Announcement

05 Jan 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA — 1/5/56-Philadelphia, PA: Prince Rainier III of Monaco and lovely Grace Kelly, reigning “Queen” of the American screen, pose for photographers at the home of Miss Kelly’s parents after the pair’s engagement was announced Jan 5, 1956. The wedding plans were disclosed to more than 40 American and European reporters and 25 photographers and cameramen at a news conference in the Kelly’s red brick home. The couple announced they would be married shortly after Easter. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

There’s also his sister Princess Caroline who lives in a villa near the Musee Oceanographique de Monaco. Another sister is Princess Stephanie.

Monaco has 0% unemployment. Its major problem is space and room to grow with 38,000 inhabitants. Only 19,000 are native. To be a resident you must live here six months plus one day of the year.

Every day more than 40,000 people come to Monaco to work. It is very expensive to live here at least $10,000 per square meter, which is ten square feet.

Monaco is a tax haven with no direct taxes. They get most of their tax dollars from vat tax, but the casino pays for everything else needed by its residents.

We sailed to Monaco our last port and are now on a post-cruise adventure. We will stay two nights in Nice, but today we tour Monte Carlo.

We headed first to the rock which is where the Royals built their fortress. The old town is immediately below the rock.  The photos appear smoky because it was.  They are experiencing a drought here, and there were forest fires in Italy, which is only five miles away.

Prince Charles, an earlier Grimaldi was the first to build the casino. The casino was built in 1863. The natives were forbidden to gamble. Before the casino, Monaco was a poor country, but after the casino, it became very rich. The area of the city-state called Monte Carlo is where the casino is now. Monte Carlo literally means Mount Charles.

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The Casino (Photo on Wikipedia.

His son Albert I built the Institute Oceanographique upon the rock. We started our walking tour there.

Then we walked through a beautiful garden/Park with wonderful views on one side and a cathedral on the other. One of the best was looking straight down on a marina.

We noticed that a lot of the plants are the same as in Florida. I even saw a camellia bush.  there was beautiful statuary throughout the garden.

Saint Nicholas Cathedral is where Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in 1956. Built in the late 1800s it is Romanesque in design. This has significance to me, as I’ll explain later.

Many of the Grimaldi’s are buried here including Princess Grace and Prince Rainier.

The inside was beautiful. This was extra special for me. In my Grandmother Roe’s house was a “Life” magazine that told the story about Grace Kelly marrying her prince. There were pictures of the church they married in and the gowns she wore.

I thought she was beautiful and loved to look at the photos. It was like a real live fairy tale. Both Mama and Ranny were fascinated by it all, too. So here I am standing in this same church more than 50 years later.

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Across the street from the cathedral is a 14th-century building that was also a church at one time.

We visited the palace where Albert II lives (just the outside). The old part was built in the 14th century. He was also married here.

In the view from the wall near the palace you can see France just past the city up above

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and to the right of the city, there’s a peninsula far in the distance.  That is Italy, about five miles away. Monaco is indeed a tiny country.

The Monte Carlo Grand Prix is their main event. Over 20 million people come here to see the race. The Formula One event began in 1929.

In the streets of Monte Carlo, the cars reach speeds of 200 mph. They follow the Circuit de Monaco and even use the city’s tunnels. You can read about it here.

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The streets here are used for the Grand Prix.

There are lots of tunnels in the city, 42 miles in all. Because of them, you can drive quickly through it. They disappear under buildings and under other roads above. In fact, we even changed countries in one of the tunnels going from Monaco to France.

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This tunnel has openings looking out on the Mediterranean.

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Entering this tunnel which runs under a hotel.

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Leaving this tunnel. See the city beyond.

This is a fascinating city. I’m glad I saw it. Here’s a few more scenes.

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Why The Famous Went to Aix-En-Provence

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A lot of famous people summered here in Aix En Provence. Louis XIV came. Paul Cezanne was born and lived here. Zola and Hemingway came here, too. It was a very cultured and upper-class place to visit in the 19th Century.

We sailed into Marseille last night and toured Aix En Provence today.  Our trip started in Italy and will end in France.

Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-En-Provence.

Aix

Driving into the city, we passed by Cezanne’s home but did not stop. There is a self-guided walking trail that follows his footsteps and helps you understand what influenced him to become what many say was “the father of modern painting.”. Overlooking Aix-en-Provence is the Montagne Saints-Victoire, a stone mountain which became a subject in many of his paintings.  We can see it in the distance.

In the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southern France, Aix (pronounced X) was founded in 123 BC by the Romans. It is about 30 miles north of Marseille.

Before its zenith Aix changed hands many times. After the Romans came the Teutones, the Visigoths, the Franks, and the Lombards. The Saracens were next and during the Middle Ages, it was the capital of Provence.

Its zenith came after the 12th century, when, under the houses of Aragon and Anjou, it became a seat of art and learning. Today, it is a university city.

Aix was very powerful until the revolution. Afterwards, Marseille became more powerful. Today, Aix is still considered a seat of culture. It has a large student population who study the liberal arts while Marseilles studies science, medicine, and other doctrines.

By 1487 Aix became a part of France when King Rene of Anjou ceded his kingdom of Provence to the king of France.

King Rene, a statue at the end of the Cours Mirabeau

We took a walk down the Cours Mirabeau, a wide thoroughfare with a double row of trees and a line of mansions on one side and cafes on the other.

There amongst the cafes is the famous brasserie Les Deux Garçons where Zola, Cézanne, and Hemingway hung out. It says that it has been in business since 1792.

The Couers Mirabeau was a thoroughfare of wealth on one side and the working class on the other. Today, the mansions which were more like palaces are banks and other businesses as the owners of the mansions eventually could not afford their upkeep.

This thoroughfare follows the line of the old city wall and divides the city into two parts. The old town runs to the southwest and this is where we walked next.

This is a very pedestrian friendly city. It is a city for walking with few cars in the old town section. Of course, with such narrow streets, it would be hard for traffic anyway.

We wandered through the older part of the city until we got to a lovely early 18th-century church on Rue Espariat called Eglise du Saint-Esprit which means Church of Saint-Esprit.

I want to say something, though, about our tour guide, and she wasn’t alone in this matter. Other tour guides made the same mistake. She was good, and she knew her material, except she made a serious error.

When we got off the bus which was a fairly long bus ride after breakfast, several of us said we needed a restroom. She didn’t accommodate because there were no public facilities nearby. This is something found all over France we’re told because of the economy. They closed a lot of their public restrooms. France still has not been able to pull itself out of the economic problems of the earlier recession.

Anyway, instead of letting us get a cup of coffee at one of the cafes so we could use the facilities there she trudged on. She lost several of us then. Chuck and I continued, along with most of the group.

From then on it was so bad for some that others dropped out, too. One man’s wife told me later that her husband wet his pants it got so bad. Finally, the remainder of us mutinied near the church and demanded she stop for a restroom.

We spent a good thirty minutes of the tour sitting in a little coffee shop chatting (which was actually nice) and waiting for their single restroom. Frankly, I heard very little of what she had to say between the Couers Mirabeau and the church. I had to go that bad.

We did the rest of the city on our own catching up on a little more shopping.  Then we left for Cassis for lunch.

Cassis

In the afternoon we got to Cassis, France, a fishing village east of Marseille which is known for its clay-colored architecture, rose’ wines, and not to be confused with creme de cassis which comes from elsewhere in France.

It sits around a boat basin with a cliff in the distance.

We stopped here for lunch as a group. Then we had some free time to ramble through the village.

A Wine Tasting

Later we bused out to the country and sampled some local rose’, which is not for sale outside of France, “yet”. They’re working on it.

We visited the Clos d’Albizzi Vineyard.

We also watched some men including the owner harvest olives. His daughter was our tour guide.

Notice that the men are standing on netting, and you can see piles of olives at their feet.

Why Palma de Majorca is Really Worth Seeing

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I was especially interested in visiting Majorca which is part of the Balearic Islands. Next to the Majorca is Minorca. Majorca is a larger island than Minorca.

Photo from Wikipedia

In Florida’s history was a settlement of Minorcans, who moved here when Florida was under British rule before the American Revolution. Not many people know it but there was a 14th and a 15th colony back then—East Florida and West Florida. No one cared about South Florida as they believed it to be uninhabitable.

Anyway, during the American Revolution, East and West Florida did not join the other 13 colonies but remained with Britain. They were loyalists.

When Britain lost the revolution, though, they gave the two colonies back to Spain; and the Minorcans had been in East Florida since moving there in 1760. They called their settlement New Smyrna.

Their descendants are 10 to 12th generation Floridians and predate my family’s settlement in Florida by over 60 years. I’ve always been interested in where they came from.

Because we try to have at least two days during the cruise for time on our own and to rest, as most excursions are off the ship by 8 am, we chose Palma de Majorca as a city to see on our own instead of going on an excursion. There was not enough time to do an excursion to Minorca.

Palma is a major city and port on the island of Majorca. Important to Spain, the Royals spent their summer holidays here. Piracy was its major economy during its early history, but today tourism is its economy.

So we slept late, had a late breakfast, and was on our way to the city by 10 AM. This is a short visit because we have to be back on the bus by 1 PM in order to disembark Palma by 1:30 PM

We caught a shuttle bus right outside our ship, and it drove us all the way to the city center which is a good 20-minute bus ride. They handed us a map, but this is a map that was put together by one of the Majorca pearl companies. This is where Majorca pearls are made. They are not sea pearls, by the way.

We have had bad luck with these types of maps. Again, we learned that you need a good map before going to the cities that you plan to do on your own—a map that is easier to get before leaving the US. You don’t really need one if you do an excursion.

The first streets we tried to find near where we got off the bus were not on the map. The shuttle dropped us off near the Plaza Espanya which is the transportation hub of Palma.

From the plaza, we walked down the de la Porta Pintada and turned left on Sant Miguel near an old church. Parroquia de Sant Miquel is the oldest church in Palma, dating to 1229 AD.

There was a marathon taking place in the city, and we had to be careful to stay out of the way of the runners. We planned to do a hop on hop off bus tour of the city, but they were not running because of the marathon. The streets were absolutely full of runners and people watching the runners. It would’ve been very hard for a tour bus to operate within the city today.

Sant Miguel was a great street to shop, and we bought a few more souvenirs for the grandchildren.

It was also a great street for photos.

Once we reached the Plaza Major we took Colom which is a continuation of Sant Miguel.

Then we made a left on Convent de Sant Francesc. We stopped at the Church of Eulalia.

Photo from Wikipedia

Inside we were able to take pictures, and it was absolutely stunning. This is the church were James the Second was crowned king of Majorca.

On the exterior are gargoyles representing the bestiary of the Middle Ages. The church has an elegant facade with a tall narrow spire. It is dedicated to Eulalia a thirteen-year-old girl tortured and decapitated by the Romans. It was built in the 13th century.

We did miss another important church in the city. It is a Gothic style cathedral which was begun by Jaime the First in the 13th century. Called Le Seu, It has high arches with elegant columns and three knaves. In the royal chapel, there are the graves of Jaime II and Jaime III of Majorca.

The cathedral was built on a previous mosque. Began in 1229 it was not finished until 1601. Also we found out that Gaudi redesigned parts of the interior in the early 20th century, and we would’ve liked to of seen that. Gaudí seems to always be out of our reach here.

We did see La Seu from across the water and took pictures. It is a beautiful structure. We would have been unable to see it today anyway because this is Sunday and it is closed to tourist.

Another thing we would have liked to have done was to walk along the promenade in front of the church. We had heard this was a very nice place to walk, but it was too far away from our bus pickup.

Behind the cathedral is the old city, a maze of streets clearly hinting towards an Arab past. The walkways of the city quarter are fairly narrow, quiet streets. Walking here was how we stumbled upon the Church of Eulalia.

Finally, we were almost out of time so we backtracked to the Plaza Espanya to catch our bus which was leaving at 1 PM. It took us much less time, though, so before we boarded the bus we stopped for some sangria and tapas.

We made our way back to the ship, boarded, and sailed out by 2 PM. We are on our way to Marseille, France; but since Palma is on the south end of the island, we got some fantastic views of the northern more mountainous parts of the island. On the north side are cliffs. Awesome!

Finally, just after turning more northeasterly I got to see Minorca in the distance.

Why We ❤️ Valencia!

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Today, we sailed to Valencia, Spain’s third-largest city. Here’s why we loved it!

The first thing we noticed about Valencia was all the contemporary buildings.

Valencia’s Dilemma Solved

Right away, though, the tour guide pointed out an anomaly that had nothing to do with the modern architecture. We crossed an area where there were bridges but no water body below of any type. It turns out that they moved the river that ran through this city, but this was after many of the bridges were already built.

Why? The river periodically flooded the city, so they moved it. The old river bed is now a park that runs through the city underneath the bridges.

The eighteen bridges, some very old and some fairly new, are used to move pedestrians and traffic overhead. The park down below is for walking and all kinds of recreation.

Chuck and I both laughed at the thought of moving a whole river in America, especially in Florida. What a permitting nightmare!

This is Valencia

The orange is a symbol of Valencia found throughout the city in mosaics, tiles, statues, architectural details, and even the orange trees lining the streets. No bride walks the aisle in Valencia without some form of orange blossoms in her bouquet. The orange blossom here is a symbol of eternal love and purity.

Being from Florida we could identify. Thin skinned, extra sweet, and juicy, our Valencia oranges have generated a lot of revenue for Florida. There is also a Valencia, Florida in Polk County in Florida’s citrus country. I guess this Valencia, Spain is where both the orange and the Florida town got their names.

Valencia, a population of about 800,000, is where paella comes from, too. And I learned that the pan from which it is cooked is called a paella pan. We could buy them from the street vendors here.

There are about 1.2 million total people in the entire area in and around the city.

As part of our tour, we walked inside the Central Mercat which is in a glorious building and full of every food product imaginable. Chuck loves these places, and I enjoy them as well.

Nearby, we visited a temple of commerce, otherwise known as La Lonja de la Seda, a silk exchange, and a UNESCO site. Built between 1482 and 1548, it is about 2000 sq. feet. It was built when Valencia was the center of commerce for the Mediterranean in trade. It was like a commodities market.

Lining the street in front of the Temple of Commerce were orange trees.

The room below is called the “Hall of Columns” and here the merchants operated the exchange.

The city of Valencia is in the region of Valencia, as Madrid is in the region of Castille. In Catalonia hanging from windows, we saw Catalonian flags for Catalan nationalism. Here we see Spanish flags, as these people are against Catalonia seceding.

In addition, we saw Valencia’s bullfighting ring. Called the Plaza de Toros de Valencia it was built between 1850 and 1859. Neoclassical in design, the Colosseum in Rome was its inspiration.  When it was first built it seated over 16,000 spectators.

Home of the Holy Grail

Built in 1472 during this city’s golden age, the Cathedral of Valencia has Renaissance and Baroque interiors.

It is also home to the Holy Grail.

The Holy Grail is kept in the Cathedral’s Chapel of the Holy Chalice.  It is kept behind glass in the wall back of the altar below.

This is believed to be the agate stone cup used by Jesus during The Last Supper.

Archeologists said it was agate that came from near Jerusalem and aged about 1 BC. Jesus performed the last supper in a hall of St. Mark’s the Evangelist’s family and it may have been theirs, a ceremonial cup.

The decorations of gold and pearls as well as the base were added later during the Middle Ages, partly to protect it. It was taken to Rome when St. Marks was an interpreter for St. Peter. It stayed in Rome until the 3rd Century when it was removed from there by a Spanish soldier in anticipation of a persecution. Later during a Muslim occupation in Spain, it was hidden in the Pyrenees along with many other relics.

During the 15th century, the Holy Chalice finally came to the Valencia Cathedral where it remains today. I think out of all the relics I’ve seen, this one means the most to me.

A Water Tribunal

Every Thursday a Water Tribunal meets in public at the Casa Vestidor in the Plaza de la Mare de Deu to discuss various issues regarding the distribution of water. There are eight judges that determine who gets water.

They meet at 8 AM. This process was chosen as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. The court is purely oral with nothing done in writing and no records kept.  the tribunal has been meeting for centuries.

From here we were on our own. Just inside the city gate, we stopped for lunch.

A shuttle bus runs between the pier and to an area across the river, that is the park that used to be a river. From there you can walk across the bridge through the city gate and be in the heart of the city in 2 to 3 minutes of walking. For us, the last shuttle left from here at 5 PM returning to the ship.

Valencia was such a pleasant surprise, and several of us thought that this may be our favorite city of the entire trip. What a great city for touring. ❤️ Valencia!  Here are some more scenes.

Stairs to a pedestrian bridge crossing the park.

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You see the most interesting things here.

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6 Terrific Reasons to See Montserrat

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Today, we toured Montserrat, a sanctuary of religious and historical importance.

Last night we sailed into Barcelona, still in Catalonia. Catalonia is one-seventh the geographical size of Spain.

We took a bus ride to Montserrat, and as we left Barcelona we noticed that there is a ring of industry around it. The ring is large and our guide says it accounts for 20% of Spain’s overall economy. Barcelona is nestled between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean.

Montserrat is a mountain outside of Barcelona. Mont is mountain and Serrat means serrated. It is a mountain range of jagged peaks. We can already see it at a distance from the city. It is about thirty miles away, but this morning it is covered in clouds so we could not see it from below very well.

We learned at least six reasons why this site is so special.

1. Religious

It was believed that a divine hand chiseled the peaks of the mountain—by angels themselves. It acquired religious importance by the 9th century. The mountains also had such religious significance to the Catalans that some called them the Mount Sinai of Catalonia.

The monastery, a Benedictine Abbey, is almost a thousand years old and is 2300 feet above sea level. The mountain was a destination for pilgrims who journeyed to its peak barefooted.

2.  The Views

On a clear day on Montserrat, one can see the isle of Majorca, which we will visit later this week.

3.  The Architecture

Some people come here for the Black Madonna, but we came for Montserrat’s impressive architecture.

The locals built the monastery in 1453 but Napoleon burned and sacked it twice during the Napoleonic War in 1811. The gothic walls in the photo below were all that was left. The current monastery was rebuilt around the gothic portion beginning in 1811.

The basilica was awesome, enclosed and accessed in a piazza, but because of a service in the Basilica we were unable to tour it.

Fortunately, though, I did sneak inside for a quick look. Wow!

4.  The Art

Inside are works of art by many prominent painters and sculptors including works by El Greco, Dalí, Picasso and of course the Black Madonna itself, which is a pilgrimage in and of itself.

There is also an extensive art museum that we visited. With many donations by Catalonians, it is extensive. From a 13th Century Egyptian sarcophagus to works by Caravaggio, Dali, and Picasso, there are many great works of art here. Few are aware of the treasures here.

5.  The Sounds

In addition, there is a famous music school here and a choir who sings in the basilica almost every day. Unluckily, they were not singing today, but I found this on You Tube on their channel. There are scenes of the abbey and the basilica throughout the video.

Called the Escolania, the Montserrat’s Boys’ Choir, is one of the oldest in Europe, and performs during religious ceremonies and communal prayers in the basilica.

We were fortunately though to experience the bells of Montserrat.

6.  The Hiking

Looking down into the distance you can see the pilgrimage trail weaving its way around the mountain, and there are other trails here for walks around Montserrat Mountain. We were lucky because the fog lifted from the mountain just as we got there.

In addition, it is a rite of passage for young people from Barcelona and all other Catalonia to make an overnight hike up here just to see the sunrise. One can see the Pyrenees from Montserrat. The Pyrenees are the northern buffer between Spain and France.

On Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World, he took 30 monks from Montserrat. There is an island in the Caribbean called Montserrat, and it is named after this monastery.

Barcelona

After we returned from Montserrat, we quickly boarded a hop on hop off tour bus for a quick two-hour tour of the city. This was our only way to see Barcelona because all the tours for touring Gaudi’s Barcelona were booked by the time we learned that our Gaudi’s Barcelona tour was canceled yesterday.

So we did the best we could. It really is a beautiful city.

Christopher Columbus Square — that is him on top pointing west toward the New World.

Gaudi’s Barcelona

Unfortunately, there was not enough time to tour the part of the city with the La Sagrada Familia. This is what we missed.

La SegradaFamilia, a Pixabay Photo

Gaudi was an amazing architect.

Gaudi’s unique almost whimsical architecture is one of the things we came to see.

We did get to see one.

I guess we’ll have to come back!

Museu Nacional d’art de Catalunya

Hola Catalonia! We’re in Spain

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Au Revoir Saint Tropez and Hola Catalonia!  We’re traveling in this part of Europe because neither of us has ever been to Spain.

We docked in Palamos, Spain in the Girona province of Catalonia. Today, we tour the Costa Brava. This is the Spanish version of the Riviera. I asked what Costa Brava meant, and our guide said, “brave or wild coast.”

The Catalonians have their own language which seems to be a mix of Spanish and French. For example, in Spanish, you say Buenos Dias. In French, you say bonjour. In Catalon good morning is bonodias.

Our first stop was Tossa de Mar or Tossa by the Sea. Located between the city of Barcelona and the French border, Tossa is an ancient fishermen’s village with an important historical background, that has become a well-known tourist destination on the Costa Brava. It is also known as the blue paradise.

While there, we stopped near Catalunya, a small chapel built in 1593 built by a sailor. Nearby was DiMare.

A Roman City

DiMare was a Roman city from about 1 BC until around 5 A.D. We stopped to see some Roman ruins that were being excavated. Here they also found a very large mansion with fresco floors. It had the name Teresa on it and they believe that’s where the name Tossa came from. So I guess Tossa de Mar means Teresa by the Sea.

This Roman villa ruins found in 1914 are called Els Ametlleres and dates back to the first century AD. It was one of the most important Villas in the Roman province of Tarraco.

Tossa De Mar

We stopped at another church in Tossa De Mar that was built between 1755 at 1785.

Love the streets and different architecture of this city.

The Old City

We walked all the way into the heart of the city to where the old medieval city still exists.

We loved how the streets were paved    

There was a square named after Ava Gardiner.

The movie she filmed here was “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman”.

 

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She is the reason I always loved the name, Ava. She was beautiful, and my oldest grandchild carries her name, though I’m not sure the name goes back to Ava Gardiner.

We spent a good bit of time in this medieval part of the city.

 

A Catalonian Garden

Next, we went by bus to the Jardins de Santa Clotilde. These are gardens built on a cliff near the sea.

Here, the whole garden is full of mythology, especially the statues.

This garden was one of my favorites.  All green and…

No flowers.

In addition, the former owners home overlooked the garden which is now public. The family sold it to the state.

Today, we were supposed to go to Barcelona for a tour called Gaudi’s Barcelona, but this is a national holiday. It is Columbus Day in Spain, so they worried about problems in Barcelona regarding Catalonian nationalism and terrorism. Sometimes rioting and terrorism happen around holidays.

In short, they canceled our trip to Barcelona and the trip to Costa Brava was what we did instead. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia.

By the way, they celebrate Columbus Day in Spain to commemorate the founding of the Americas. It is a big deal over here.

Also, Catalan nationalism is a big deal right now. The region of Catalonia, much like one of our states, has voted to secede from Spain. There seems to be a standoff between the president of Catalonia and the Prime Minister of Spain. Spain threatens to take over the Catalan government. There are Catalonian flags everywhere.

Interesting stuff!

2 Essential Tips for Touring Saint-Tropez

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We sailed in last night near Saint-Tropez which is in the Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur region of the French Riviera. Our trip into the city, though, was a lesson in what not to do. Fortunately, we still saw lots of beautiful scenery and architecture.

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Our view of Saint-Tropez from the ship.

Chuck and I decided not to do a cruise line excursion today but instead to explore the city of Saint-Tropez on our own. We made two different mistakes, though that would negatively affect our overall experience.

We woke up late, had a relaxing breakfast in the main dining room, and then finally made our way down to the tender by about 10 AM. There is not a dock here so the ship had to anchor offshore again.

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Our Oceania Cruise Ship The Riviera

It was a short ten-minute ride, and we came ashore at the edge of town across from a large boat basin. Their harbor is enclosed by a city wall with a lighthouse at the end of the wall. The harbor is called Vieux Port.

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Vieux Port with Saint-Tropez in the Background

Tip #1 – Buy Your Map Before Leaving the US

So Chuck and I took a nice long walk all the way around the harbor/basin, walking past all the street shops. There are lots of very expensive yachts here and sailboats as well. In between are small fishing boats also docked in the harbor.

Surrounding the harbor, are pastel-colored buildings and cafés with outdoor terraces. At one place on the wide sidewalk at the water’s edge, local artists sold their colorful artwork depicting scenes of Saint-Tropez and the area.

It was at this point that we realized that our map was bad. We could not find the first real intersection we approached. We spent a good ten to fifteen minutes sitting on a stone block trying to figure out where we were in comparison to where we wanted to go.

So here’s a word about the maps.  They quickly hand you one as soon as you get off the boat. They’re free for a reason, though. They’re designed to direct you to the business that provided them. This map was useless for anything except finding that business.

Saint-Tropez is larger than some of the ones we had been to earlier. Its population is about 5,500, and it is a more upscale city.

They told us that the city was really founded by the outside world when Bridget Bardot did the movie ‘And God Created Woman.’ Chuck remembered this movie well. He said he was a pre-teen when it came out and that all the boys in Fort Lauderdale were talking about it. He said though that he knew better than to ask his parents if he could go see it. Rumor was that she was nude in the first scene—and this was 1956.

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So Chuck never saw the movie until a few weeks before we went on the cruise. We ordered it from Netflix, and he finally got to see after all these years what all the talk was about. She was nude all right but you couldn’t see much at all. It was a classic Beat generation movie.

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The movie was made in Saint-Tropez; and before the movie, Saint-Tropez was just a little fishing village. After the movie, it exploded into a favorite destination for the jet-setters. It was also the first town on this coast to be liberated during World War II.

Still confused as to how to get where we wanted to go, we decided instead to make our way around the Vieux Port and walk out on the MoleJean-Reveille, the wall enclosing the harbor to the north. The weather was beautiful today. Warm and breezy. The wall gave us great views of the sea and the harbor. Unfortunately, I realized that I lost my cell phone so we had to circle back to the town for it.

Tip #2–Keep up With Your Belongings

We felt certain I lost it when we were struggling to read the map near the harbor. I was lucky though because two young men from Germany found the phone and got it back to me.

David and Jon are my heroes. Somehow they used a text stream on my phone to contact one of the texters, my niece in North Carolina. She sent a text to Chuck and was the liaison between the boys and us. It was about 4 or 5 am in the states and she happened to be up with one of her small children. It’s a miracle we got that phone back.

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My Heroes

Afterwards, Chuck and I rambled around the La Ponche which is the old city. This part of the town is between the Vieux Port and the citadel. It is a pedestrian zone of narrow alleyways and quiet cobblestone lanes with small shops, upscale boutiques, cafés, and restaurants.

There were small little squares throughout La Ponche and each seemed to have a large olive tree in it. There were still olives on some of the trees. I picked one and tasted it. There’s a reason no one wanted those olives.

In La Ponche we found the 18th century Eglise de Notre-Dame de l’Assomption with its beautiful Italian Baroque belltower, but we were unable to enter the church. It was closed.

We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch and then we hiked up to the citadel and looked for the Sentier du Littoral, a coastal path for hiking by the sea. We only had two hours before we had to get back to the ship.

Unfortunately, we still had the bad map. We walked for a good 45 minutes looking for the trail until we were finally successful.

But just as we found it we realized that Chuck forgot his backpack. So we backtracked to La Ponche where the restaurant was holding it for us, and then we were out of time. We gave up and went home, back to the ship.

We walked a long way today. Unfortunately, most of our time in Saint-Tropez was spent studying a map and trying to find our stuff.  Chuck said several years ago that he was worried that the two of us would someday need a handler, someone to follow us around picking up the junk we left behind.  That day may have already arrived.

What We Learned About Portofino

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Portofino in Italian means port of the dolphins. It is in the Italian Riviera, and our visit to Portofino was like walking into a postcard.

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Portofino

The Italian Riviera is the low brow, underappreciated, and less crowded alternative to the French Riviera with a beautiful breezy quality all its own. Yesterday, south of here, we visited the Cinque Terre and three of its little idyllic hamlets; but during the night we cruised north to the towns of Levanto, Sestri Levante, Santa Margherita Ligure, and Portofino, which all have more beaches.

In contrast, the towns to the south offered a mix of marble (Carrara), train connections (La Spezia), yacht construction (Porto Venere), and views from high up on mountains.

First stop was Portofino which is a tiny town of pastel houses around a small harbor. We had to tender ashore which means our ship couldn’t come in close to shore but waited offshore. We had to tender or take a smaller boat ashore.

Once closer we noticed these huge, very expensive yachts. There is a castle up on a hill overlooking the town. The hills around it are hilly if not mountainous. Like the Cinque Terre, I’m told it is surrounded by a national park and has many good hiking trails in it.

We are on a half day excursion to see both Portofino and Santa Margareta.

Touring Portofino we first walked through its streets of pastel-colored houses, high-end boutiques, and restaurants. The village fringes its Piazzetta, a small cobbled square overlooking its harbor, which is lined with super yachts.

We took a wonderful little footpath from the Piazzetta to Castello Brown, a 16th-century fortress and museum with art exhibitions and panoramic views of the town and the Ligurian Sea.

On the way, we stopped at a church to see an example of a poor man’s paving, which in this case was done by fishermen and farmers. Portofino used to be a poor village before its tourism days.

This is a marvelous little walk up to the castle and then to the lighthouse. The public path is very narrow with sometimes stone sides and a stone floor. It is also the path to the public beach, the only beach in Portofino.

If you pass the castle and keep going you eventually get to the lighthouse. In some places, the walls are covered with vegetation and the vegetation is very much like ours in Florida. There’s ivy on these walls. And in other places, it is a steep climb.

We walked on to the lighthouse for more views of the sea. There were great views of Portofino, too.

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Homes here are very expensive and owned by soccer stars, actors, actresses, etc.

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If you can’t get to Europe there is an authentic detailed full-scale replication of the Portofino Bay at Universal in Orlando.

Next, we boarded a ferry for Santa Margareta.

This is a larger city of people, with much less expensive real estate. There were cars, supermarkets, and all the amenities needed for life; and it was painted in the same way as the other villages. It is a growing city.

Afterword it was almost lunch so we stopped at a street cafe called Ristorante da Michele. We had a nice lunch of pasta with clams and a red sauce. It was very, very good.

Then we visited the Basilica of St. Margaret of Antiochia. It was as beautiful on the inside…

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As it was on the outside. They built it in the 1650s on the site of a former 13th-century church.

What a great city for walking.

Tomorrow we sail to Saint-Tropez.

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