Each year, State Farm has a travel incentive trip for all their agents and sales managers and in 2012, Derek achieved the trip. In July of 2013, we went on a Mediterranean Cruise. Our first stop was Villefranche sur-Mer.
At this port, we took a train with our friends (and State Farm agent) Kelli Davis and her husband Nash to Monaco where we walked to Monte Carlo, the famous casino. The money/wealth in this particular area was just phenomenal! We saw many Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, Bentleys and even a few concept cars. We walked around part of the Formula One race car track and even took pictures of the well-known hair pin turn and tunnel.
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| Behind us is the botanical garden and casino Monte Carlo. |
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| Behind Casino Monte Carlo |
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| Derek at the Formula One tunnel in Monaco |
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| Kelli and I at the famous hair pin turn on the Formula One track in Monaco |
While we were there, we had a yummy lunch at a café overlooking the casino and the botanical gardens. I had the BEST ham and cheese sandwich and some baguettes along with a latte. After having lattes and cappuccinos in France, Italy and Spain, it is sure hard to come back and drink the coffee in America. Starbucks has nothing on these cafes!
After we were done in Monaco, we took the train to Nice, France which wasn't as nice as we were expecting. The area we walked through to get to old town Nice seemed very similar to the dirty city streets you would find in big cities in the US. Lots of chain clothing stores and restaurants. The old part of Nice was pretty and we got to walk down the narrow cobblestone streets. We stopped for gelato at a café and accessed their wifi so we could Skype with the girls and Duckie.
From Nice, we took a wild cab ride back to Villefranche sur-Mer where we stopped for a drink and crepe at a café on the beachfront. The scenery was lovely and included a marina, a view of the harbor/inlet and even Speedos and some topless women! We had a little time before we had to be on the boat so Derek and I walked around the castle that was established in 1513. It was awesome to see the castle and how the defense was set up to guard the town. Currently the castle is used as free art museums so while we toured the castle, we got to see some displays of local art.
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| All the sculptures in the castle were a local artists' work - one of the four free museums in the fort. |
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| This was the lookout that housed the main cannon - the cannon could be positioned to shoot anywhere in the port. |
Seeing the castle was the highlight of my day. Of course, Derek really liked seeing the race track in Monaco.
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