Monthly Archives: December 2008

Welcome to St. Tropez, Cote d’Azur, France

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As soon as we got up, we started working on getting ready to go to sea. We were only making a short day hop, so getting ready went fairly quickly. When we checked out with the marina, we found out there was a 20% VAT (sales tax) on top of what we had been quoted. We wish they had mentioned the VAT before the moment we pulled out our wallet to pay.

We pulled out at 1100. We are sad to report that the fenders were all covered with a thick black slime that managed to get all over the entire exterior of the boat. It is pretty gross.

The ride over to San Tropez was Continue reading →

Travel Summary July 2008 to December 2008

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July 2008 to December 2008 — Egypt to Monaco

  • Suez City, Egypt
    29°56N by 32°34E
    Jul 8 – Jul 17, 2008
    Giza Pyramids, Cairo Museum, transiting Suez Canal
  • Aghios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece
    31° 11.2N by 25° 43.0E
    July 26 – Aug 26 & Sep 3 – 9 & Oct 6 – 7, 2008
    Monasteries, Sheep Party, Knossos Minoan ruins, trip to Athens, Delphi, Meteora & Thermopalye on mainland, visit to towns of Rythmeno and Chania on Crete, SCUBA diving, cave, olive oil factory, trip to Santorini, repairing exhaust leak
  • Kos, Dodacanese Islands, Greece
    36°53N by 27°18E
    Sep 10 – 17, 2008
    Ruins, Trip to Rhodes medieval city
  • Bodrum Peninsula, Turkey
    Turtugreis 37°0N by 27°15E
    Yat Lift 37°0N by 27°27E
    Sep 17 – Oct 6, 2008
    Haul out & accompanying work, underwater archeology museum, trip to Izmir & Ephesus
  • Bali, Crete, Greece
    35°25.0N by 24°46.5E
    Oct 8 – Oct 9, 2008
  • Pylos, Peloponnese, Greece
    36°54.0N by 21°40.5E
    Oct 10 – Oct 14, 2008
    Visit to castle/fort & bird sanctuary
  • Siracusa, Sicily, Italy
    37°03.0N by 15°17.2E
    Oct 16 – Oct 23, 2008
    Trips to Catania & Mt. Etna, Il Duormo church, kayaking
  • Vittoriosa, Malta, Malta
    35°53.4N by 14°31.2E
    Oct 27 – Nov 5, 2008
    Patron saint celebration, archeology & maritime museums, spectacular churches & accompanying museums, grandmaster’s palace, medieval citadel, Ggjanta Temples, maintenance work, blue lagoon
  • Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia
    36°22.3N by 10°32.8E
    Nov 7 – 18, 2008
    SCUBA diving, Medina, Ramadan dinner, Bardo museum, riding the sand dunes in the Sahara, set of Star Wars, traditional indigenous housing
  • Trapani, Sicily, Italy
    38°00.5N by 12°31.1E
    Nov 18 – 21, 2008
    Trip to Palermo
  • Stromboli, Sicily, Italy
    38°47.5N by 15°14.2E
    Nov 21 – 27, 2008
    Volcano hike, emergency rescues
  • Lipari, Sicily, Italy
    38°28.4N by 14°57.5E
    Nov 27 – Dec 2, 2008
  • Rome, Italy
    41°44.3N by 12°14.6E
    Dec 4 – 16, 2008
    Vatican, ancient ruins, Pantheon, Vatican fort
  • Monaco
    43°44.0N by 7°25.3E
    Dec 18 – 31, 2008
    Hiking in the Alps, underwater museum

Monaco’s Oceanography Museum and More

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It is yet another sunny and beautiful day, but noticeably cooler. We decided that the first thing we wanted to do today was to go to the Oceanographic Museum. Prince Albert 1, the well respected scientist prince, built it in 1910. It was cutting edge at the time. We already mentioned that the building is stunning. It is built into a cliff.

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The building has three levels. Like many buildings we have seen in Europe, each floor has Continue reading →

Back to Monaco

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We had to get up painfully early this morning in order to make it to the train station by 0645 for our train. Andrea was sweet and got up with, then walked us to the bus stop and told the bus driver where we were going and to make sure we got off at the right place.

The train ride to Ventrimiglia was uneventful, other than the fact that we were running late. The layover was only supposed to be 10 minutes. Because the people in the train station didn’t speak English, we’re not sure if our first train being late meant we missed the second train or if both trains were running late, but our layover turned out to be closer to an hour and a half. Of course, we waited diligently in the station the whole time.

We arrived back to Monaco around 1330. Eric called the Port Captain right away and apologized, letting him know we’d be there in a few minutes. We went to Kosmos, Eric dropped off his bag, and immediately was off to see the Port Captain. It turns out that Continue reading →

Hiking the Alps and Visiting a Medieval Village

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Continued from yesterday”¦ As we trudged up, we passed through a clearing with two small buildings surrounded by a grassy field. They were well maintained and looked like they were actively used as vacation houses. Christi was amazed that anyone would want to be in such a remote place, with such a long hike down to the closest village. And there wasn’t much of a village there, for that matter. To get to the nearest grocery store was a fairly long drive. Antonio explained that in the olden times, these were summer houses. One building was for the people, the other(s) for the cows and goats. Farmers would bring their livestock up for the summer to graze in the cleared fields. The farmers made cheese and other goods, then would go to their winter homes lower down on the mountain.

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We continued upwards through the forest, and passing through two or three more of these cleared areas. Each clearing had two or three small buildings in the traditional style with a circle of grassy fields around them. They were all abandoned, which Christi thought was no surprise. They were too high up and too isolated to be practical. We stopped for lunch in a shady spot in the forest.

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After lunch, we continued up and came to Continue reading →