3 Days, 3 Countries, 2 Mussel Lunches

Catching up again.  Monday we were in Saint-Tropez, France.  We'd been there twice before.  The last time was a good beach day with our family.  The time before was not so good when my debit card info was skimmed from an ATM transaction.  We hoped for a better day and it was.  We took the tender in from the ship which was a bit of an adventure.  All of the yacht traffic in Saint-Tropez makes the water in the bay a bit rough.

When we arrived, we began a walk through town and along the waterfront.

Of course, there were many nice yachts to admire.

                                          

And then there were these:

We worked our out to the Tour du Portalet.

From there, we had a good view of a beach on which I took a photo of Linda many years ago.  I think that it's on a slide that I'll have to dig up once we're home.

Linda was feeling a bit under the weather from a cold, so we decided to just walk back through the town and head back to the ship.  But first . . . we passed a restaurant offering a good looking plate of mussels.  I couldn't resist.

We then completed our walk through Saint-Tropez before taking the tender back to the ship.  The return trip on the tender was much smoother as yacht traffic seemed to have eased.

Tuesday we were in Monte Carlo, Monaco.  That brought the country count to 21.  It was a sad day as Marc and Yasuko left us to spend a few days in Nice before returning home.  We had an amazing 3 weeks with them.  They are missed!

We've been to Monte Carlo several times so there was no urgency to get out.  Linda wanted to rest in the morning so I walked up to the casino.

On my way back to the ship, I passed a restaurant that offered mussels and, believe it or not, they were cheaper than in Saint-Tropez.  Since it was embarkation day, the restaurants on board the ship were very crowded.  Linda decided that she was up for the 15 minute walk to the restaurant.  The mussels were good and plentiful.  I didn't count but there must have been 10 dozen.

On our walk back to the ship, I made Linda an offer - if we would pass up next year's world Cruise, I would buy her this yacht.  Apparently, it was an offer she could refuse!

Wednesday, we were in Livorno, Italy, another port we have been to before.  It holds great memories for us from three years ago, in April, 2022, when we visited twice.  The first visit was the first port after being released from Covid quarantine.  

Can you tell how happy Linda was to finally get off the ship that time?

On the second visit, about 1 week later, we met up with our good friends Pat and Angelo.  No such luck this time.

In the morning, Linda was still not feeling well so I went out for a walk having 2 objectives.  The first mission was to find a pharmacy and buy Linda some decongestant.  Mission accomplished.

My next objective was to walk to the Terrazza Mascagni, an area that we hadn't been to on our previous times in Livorno.  Second mission accomplished.

After I returned to the ship and we had lunch, Linda decided that she was up for a little walk.  We wandered across the port and into Livorno a bit.  Can you tell how happy she was to walk off of the ship this time?

And today, we are back in Civitavecchia.  After our uninspiring visit last week and with Linda still not feeling great, we've decided to take the day off and not even get off the ship.

I have tried my best to help Linda heal, but there is only so much that I can do.  After all, Rule of Civility Number 38 states:

In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician if you do not know therein

Peace, blessings, and good health,

Linda and Larry