We spent the morning on a private tour to Monaco with 2 other couples. It was not an included Viking tour but one recommended by Bart, the Viking concierge. We were glad we took his advice. We had originally planned on taking the local bus since Monaco is a fairly short ride away. Our tour with Jean-Marc was so much more. Our 1st stop was at a panoramic view of the rocky coast. The next stop was at the old medieval town of Eze. It was built on a high peak along t...

Nice is a wonderful, young and exciting city. We could stay here for many more days. The only negative is that you need water shoes to use the beach since it is so rocky. We did manage to get our feet wet today in the Med. We spent the morning on a Viking provided tour of the city, visiting panoramic overlooks, the Matisse Museum and Gardens and ending up with a walking tour of old town. After resting for a while we went out to get a lunch/dinner (linner). We ate...

The bus to Nice did not leave until 8:30 so we were able to have a relaxed breakfast on the ship. After about a four hour drive we got our 1st view of Nice - a beautiful sight. A long curved bay filled with azure water with a long promenade along it. We checked into our hotel and went to their rooftop restaurant to get some lunch. We looked at the menu and it said that a burger was 29 Euros so we quickly left. Our 1st stop was a sad and disturbing one. The memori...

Our last day on the cruise was spent in Arles, the home of Van Gogh for several years. For a change it was cloudy which made for a cooler and more comfortable walking tour. Arles has a well preserved Roman Arena which once held 20,000. It is still used today for concerts and bull fighting. Surprisingly, the bull fights here still end up with the bull getting killed. I had thought it still only happen in Spain. We spent relaxing afternoon on the ship and then pack...

Today we were in Avignon, which was the home of the Popes for about 70 years in the 1300’s. We had a 3 hour morning walking tour, the majority of which was to tour the Pope’s Palace. It is absolutely huge but quite barren since all the furnishings and decorations were moved back to Rome when the Pope moved back there. It was used as a barracks for soldiers in World War One and was then bought by the city of Avignon. It has no religious function today ...