August 6, 2016- Monaco

We were supposed to meet up at the appointed tour bus at 9:00 am the next morning, but the ship was late docking and there was a huge mess of people waiting to get off the ship. They didn't have separate lines for people who had to meet excursions/ people disembarking permanently at Savona/ sightseers. As usual, organization continues to be a problem for Costa. They hadn’t told us to meet the group so we were nervous we’d miss it, but we did meet up with the group at the bus after all and we set off for Monaco.

The tour was in French and Italian and the guide spoke both fluently. She also spoke some English and we felt well taken care of. We could understand most of the French and the Italian filled in the rest. It was a two hour drive to Monaco.

In the bus on our way to Monaco finally!

Our first view of Monaco.

We were warned to bring our passports in case they were checked entering Monaco, because they are not a part of the EU (Bill had to get his out of the "secure" storage on the ship, they didn't ask him for ID when he retrieved his passport, so we don't think it was really that secure). We didn't have to show our passports after all.

We looked around Monaco-Ville first and were guided to the outside of the palace, which was surprisingly cheap looking to us. We then had some free time. We grabbed a delicious sandwich and ate it on a bench overlooking the iconic view of Monaco. We took some pictures from the lookout, browsed in some souvenir shops, took in the view from the other side of the palace, admiring the old cannons. We grabbed an ice cream before rendezvousing with the tour group at the bus garage.

We were thrilled that we had finally made it to Monaco.

Monaco looks as you would expect it to look, except for perhaps the palace which wasn't very impressive.

Bill went crazy with the photos.

Then April took photos.

Then we had to do a selfie or two.

We've never seen so many huge yachts in one place before.

Bill loves his cannons.

In the bus again, we drove over to Monte Carlo. It was very, very hot and humid. The foliage is very tropical and the cliffs are so high with everything built up close together below all the way to the sea. It is a very strange sight for us, coming from Canada where we don’t pack everything in so close together, but it is a very beautiful and picturesque view.

The guide walked with us up the streets where we could see the hairpin corners and tire marks from the Grand Prix. We strolled up steps through a garden to outside the famous Monte Carlo casino. It is evident that there is a lot of money around. We’ve never seen so many Rolls Royces, Ferraris, Bentleys, and luxury boutiques concentrated in so small an area—not even in Las Vegas. The exclusivity of these vehicles becomes diminished in a place like this, because there are so many of them.

We were given some more free time again and we wandered by the casino, some of the boutiques, and picked up a cold drink at a café. We wandered around a lush garden and then walked back down through the streets to the bus garage.

The gardens were tropical and lush.

The Monte Carlo Casino.

Hairpin corner on the Grand Prix route.

Pole position.

We were in Monaco for about three hours, but we had to start driving back to Savona, so that we could board the boat in time to leave. It was about a two hour drive back.

View leaving Monaco into the French Riviera.

The charming sites of Savona.

Finishing our last Costa Excursion ever.

We arrived back at the ship at about 4:45 PM and boarded.

We went to our room, dropped off our bags, and wandered the ship a little bit, since we didn’t see much of it while aboard. We really didn’t miss much. We tried to have a snack in the buffet, but there wasn’t much worth eating, everything was very lackluster or downright disgusting with the exception of the fruit salad.

The adults only 16+ pool, which we had considered visiting, was overrun with under 16 year old children, jumping into the small pool with huge splashes and making an earth moving noise (no enforcement of rules happening here).

The main pool deck was crowded, extremely loud (animation team was in full swing again getting the occupants pepped up for dancing to crap music), and filled with smokers. The noise level here was almost as high as at our EDM concert at Ushuaia in the front rows by the speakers and we could not understand how people could ever contemplate "relaxing" here.

Some weird dance or aerobics lesson was deafening on the pool deck. It reminded us of our experience last year on the Costa Magica. We were glad we didn't bother trying to decompress by the pool on the Costa Fascinosa.

We stopped into the gym to fill some water bottles up, so that we could have drinking water in our cabin (you can't drink tap water without getting sick apparently as it is so chlorinated and we weren't about to pay Costa's water prices).

We tracked down our English speaking host, Raymond, to ask about disembarkation procedures for the next day.

We then returned to our room and ordered room service for dinner. We relaxed, listening to Harry Potter, and we watched some Summer Olympics on TV (muted because it was in Italian). We then packed.

It’s hard to believe that the vacation is almost over, but we will be happy to get off the ship. It has served it’s purpose as a vehicle to transport us to some interesting destinations, but the ship and the cruise experience in itself is not our cup of tea (and the tea is terrible on this ship!).

The Costa Diadema followed us around the Mediterranean to some of the same ports. It's newer and bigger. This is the port of Savona.

The Costa Diadema is huge. It's hard to show how big it is.

We actually spent a lot of time in the robes and slippers provided in our cabin. 

The sunset was gorgeous.

We went by Monaco that night. You can see the distant lights in this picture.

July 25, 2016- Rijksmuseum, Surinamese Food, and Wandering Around

This morning we awoke later and had a breakfast of fruit, cheese, and yogurt in our room. The fruit tastes so much more vibrant here. The strawberries are like a punch in the side of the cheek they are so strongly flavoured. What happened to our fruit back home?

We wandered from the hotel towards the heart of the Museum District, because we were going to the Rijksmuseum today. We stopped near to the museums at a cafe and had lunch outside on the patio. We watched the bikes whiz by. There are about 800,000 people in Amsterdam, but we read that there are 1 million bikes here. Sure looks like it. The bike lanes are a terrifying thing to cross because the bikes never yield like the cars do and sometimes don't follow traffic lights either. It is good to always look everywhere and to have a buddy doing the same for those times when you have your mouth hanging open with tourist wonder and you're just not paying attention.

We walked to the Rijksmuseum (photos below after writing) and bypassed all of the lineups and ticket buying areas with our Museumkaart, walking straight in. They just scanned our Museumkaarts directly. The museum, unlike many others was purpose built to be an art gallery, yet it is a bit of a rabbit warren and we kept losing ourselves/minds trying to find various rooms. Eventually though, we worked out the system of stairs that lead only to certain places and we saw pretty much everything in this giant museum. We spent all afternoon there, pausing for tea and sharing a brownie at the cafe on one end of the museum.

April saw this museum when she was 18 and now seeing it again notices and appreciates different things. We both enjoyed the Dutch Masters very much. The lifelike qualities of the paintings of people and animals were incredible, the still lifes were gorgeous, and the humour injected into daily Dutch life were priceless. Jan Steen's picture of children teaching a cat to dance was a highlight. I mean, who hasn't done that (and doesn't still do it sometimes on Instagram, no names named)?

Jan Steen's "The Dancing Lesson"

After the museum closed at 5:00 pm, we walked to just north of the museum district to have a Surinamese dinner. We had chicken curry, fried rice, roti,beans, and then off the Indian menu we ordered saag (spinach curry).

FYI we didn't finish all of this vast quantity of food, ordering too much just so that we could try more things and the portions were huge.

We trundled back towards the hotel, stopping at an underground grocery store in the middle of all of the museums. We bought some more fruit, cheese, and yogurt for breakfasts. We needed something to carry everything in. We thought that the thick canvas bag for sale would be about 10 euros, but it was only 1.69 EU. Wow and the canvas was so thick and the straps long enough for a tall person to carry comfortably. Amazing.

We walked home and spent some time writing and then retired to bed exhausted.


Rijksmuseum photos:

Take that Mona Lisa.

A lion and a bull pulling a cart together sounds like a recipe for disaster.

An ancient piggy bank. Who knew the idea dated back over a millennium?

Why not make canons more interesting? South East Asia certainty did.

Hungry hippo canon.

Opium in a lovely display case.

They covered B.C. all up with writing... although there's a lot of blank space around it.

One of Van Gogh's self portrait's lives here.

The centre of "Night Watch"

The hall of honour in the Rijksmuseum.

If April were a goose and had to pose for a portrait, this would be the result.

Vermeer.

Frans Hals.

Lots of pictures of merry drinkers in this museum.

Jan Steen's picture of a drunken couple watched by a cat who was probably disdainful (I mean why wouldn't he be? He's a cat.)

A scarf is always made better by the addition of a hidden cat.

An awesome self portrait with cat by this Japanese artist.

A cat sleeping while you're reading. Definitely reality.

A kimono with a cat on it. Perfection.

This guy's hair would make hair metal band members from the 80's weep with jealousy.

I want something like this on my ship if I ever get one.

The library in the museum is like something out of Game of Thrones.

A sweet Delft tile with a kitty.

This peacock is thinking "oh shit, all the birds are dead and I'm next."

We've all seen a couple of drunks like this at the bar or some party. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme.

And now for something completely different, the small modern art section of the museum had some interesting pieces.

A couple of Dutch girls were giggling about this piece when we happened upon it.

Fancy cows.

Pick a key, any key. Why are our keys so boring now?

Bill with the exterior of the Rijksmuseum.