Monaco

Another nice day on the Ocean Princess. We arrived in port an hour early today and had to tender to shore.  It was overcast and raining as we headed out on our excursion, but by noon it had cleared and we had a sunny afternoon before the rains returned later afternoon.  We even had a rainbow to greet us from our balcony after we returned from dinner!

On our excursion we visited the Royal Palace of Monaco as well as the main Catholic church where the Royal Wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier occurred in 1956.  The palace was beautiful and had a well-narrated tour.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. We were able to take pictures inside the church where this picture was taken.  We had over an hour of free time during which we walked a beautiful garden along the coast. 

We also happened to be outside the Palace at 11:55 when the Changing of the Guard happens!  It's a short ceremony, lasting under 10 minutes that involves a short march from the barracks to the palace, a ceremony, then marching back to the barracks. Mary got this nice picture of the drummers and buglers leading the squad of soldiers.

After returning to the ship (see details below) we had a late lunch on the back deck where we love to eat our buffet meals on the Princess small ships.  From our table we could see three countries at the same time: Monaco, France, and Italy! We love eating breakfast and lunch out here in the open air as long as the weather is fairly warm.  

Our tender ride back from Monaco was rather exciting. We sat near the front of the tender to get good pictures of the ship and were some of the last ones off.  After most people were off the tender some swells picked up, and we had to sit down for a few minutes before it was safe for us to exit.  From our balcony we watched several other tenders arrive and they had even more trouble!  One had to wait (with passengers bouncing around in the swells) for several minutes and when it came time for them to dock, they were unable to stabilize the craft so they had to release the ropes and go around again!  10 minutes later they tried again and were successful.  I have video of the tender bouncing around, but taking too long to upload it from the ship.   I bet those people were very glad to get off that tender!

We had even more excitement when, during dinner, the Ship's PA announced "Man overboard on the port side"!  Fortunately, a few minutes later they announced that the person had been recovered and the boat teams could stand down.  No word if it was a passenger or crew, but I suspect it was a crew member working the tender dock. 

Upon returning from our excursion we were greeted by those dreaded dis-embarkation papers 8-( You always know they are inevitable, but seeing them lets you know this part of the vacation is about to end.  On to Portofino tomorrow, then Rome!