This morning we woke to winds screaming at 22 26 knots an hour. The marina was lumpy. The ocean was full of whitecaps. We attached a second mooring line to the bow, even though it didn’t really fit right, figuring something holding us to a second concrete block under the water was better than nothing. We guess we aren’t moving Kosmos today, after all.
We decided to go for the four hour hike along the coast that was supposed to be absolutely beautiful. But after Continue reading
This morning we slept late and got off to a slow start. Eric went to the marina to check in and almost fell over when they told him it was $87.00 USD per night for a slip. Ouch. We certainly weren’t prepared for that. Isn’t this the off season where slips are supposed to be cheaper? We know St. Tropez is the stomping ground of the famous, but we figured that it would be less expensive than Monaco, the stomping ground of the rich. We suppose that famous must trump rich. Since we came from Monaco, there were no check in formalities.
The marina does have Continue reading
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
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
We were all up early for our big hike. Francesca woke up with the flu, so no hiking for her. Andrea stayed with her. So Antonio, Eric and Christi set off to the Italian Alps. From the little we have seen of Milan so far, it looks nothing like any other place we have been to in Italy. It is a modern city, with mostly newer buildings. The roads are wide, like almost as wide as in America. The cars are bigger than we have seen anywhere else in Europe. It is a pleasant place with tree lined streets. Milan was heavily bombed in WWII by both the Allies and the Axis, so there aren’t a lot of historical areas left and they were able to rebuild a more contemporary city.
It was yet another perfect day, with sunshine, clear skies, and comfortably warm weather for autumn. We headed north out of the city. Once out of town, the Continue reading