[hutchibk]

I lived another lifetime in one week and it was spectacular!

Wow, where to begin...

Flew into Paris to meet Mark and then flew together to Nice to board the Seabourne Legend. We were both apprehensive whether we would enjoy a cruise (a hotel on the sea as it were), but we actually fell in LOVE with the entire experience. We were in each port from 8am-12mid everyday, and only sailed at night, so we were able to fully experience every port and surrounding areas. What an amazing experience. It was a chartered cruise and everyone on the 'yacht' was connected in some way, so essentially there were no strangers on the boat. And only 250 people. Our crew were precious. Most of them were South Africans and a few other favs were from Poland, Switzerland, Brittany, Romania, and Denmark... We fell in love with the crew. We wanted to bring them all home. It was probably the best trip I have ever been on and I wish I could live on that boat forever (with the cats of course)... Ports of call were in the French and Italian Riviera part of the Mediterranean: Nice, Cannes, St Tropez (love it!), Monte Carlo (love it too!), Portofino/Santa Margherita (love it too!), Livorno/Pisa, Islola d'Elba. We disembarked in Civitavecchia, ITA (Rome) and flew home from there.

We rented scooters (35-55 euros per day) in Cannes, St. Tropez (Vespa, we love you) and Portofino. It was a blast. M. did all the driving and I just rode 'bitch' on the back (can you really be "bitch" on a moped or scooter? Ha ha). I was really proud of his mad skills driving alongside/avoiding the crazy French drivers... and even more-so the INSANE Italian drivers. Actually, the Italian drivers did him in and we gave up scooter rental after Portofino....chose bikes in Elba instead. We went to the beach in almost every port and I got a great (and careful) tan. First one in years and it feels good, however, the sunburned bottom lip didn't feel good, and I woke the 3rd morning looking like I had an overnight Botox treatment of the lower lip, which was hilarious. Days and eves were spent on land, and late nights were spent on board - usually at the Sky Bar. There was a certain group of bar-flies who held court every night there until at least sun up every morning and we only tried to hang with the partiers one night until about 3am, but just couldn't do it. The on-board entertainment were 2 different bands, one from San Antonio (Texas homies!) called CCMaxx who were a talented duo and great fun, and the other a band of all Filipinos (great musicians) called Oasis... haha - we imagined Noel and Liam and the lads as an on-board cover band - what a hoot that would be! One of our friends was such a kook that he did not leave the boat the entire trip, and we are not entirely sure that he has even left the boat yet at this point, LOL.

I would say that St Tropez and Monte Carlo were my favs, but I loved Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure, too.

St. Tropez-
For all of it's perceived glitz and glamour, St T is really just a very charming little fishing village. You can see the underpinnings of the wealthy side of it a little when the evening hours arrive and the glamorous start driving into town in their Porches, Ferrarris and Bentleys to hit the cool dinner spots, but during the day, you don't really notice... We scootered (this one was the Vespa, ciao baby!) all around St Tropez (my new home away from home... I COULD live in St. T/Provence) through the countyside north of town, past acres and acres of vineyards and olive tree farms, to and from different beaches (Tahiti Beach is where we chose to dip into the Med - saw some big old ugly jelly fish and decided to think again), and up to a beautiful chapel above town which was the an operational center for American 7th Army and Paratroopers in the liberation of Provencal on Aug 15 1944. Sadly, I forget the name of it, but it was beautiful.

Monte Carlo, Monaco-
Next day, I went into Monte Carlo for the day by myself (M. needed down time) and wandered. Missed out on the famous casino because I didn't have proper ID on me (which is needed to get into the main casino -driver's license or passport- and our passports were held by the Purser's ofc on the boat. On a side note, our friends went in last week when they were in M.C. and ran into Bono on his way out...) Oh well, there was more to do and I decided to go looking for Prince Albert. Walked up to the Jardin Exotique. OMG. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I have to give the French (and Monacans) some major props here... they do flowers and gardens like no-one else. It was breath-taking. I could live in that garden with my Seabourne Legend yacht parked in the harbor below. By the by, the 19th Annual Showboats International Rendezvous was just starting when were were there, so we got to see some of the biggest and richest yachts in the world docking in the harbor at Monte Carlo. Saw a few with Helicopter pads on them, including Ralph Lauren's. I can only imagine who some of the others belonged to. It was impressive to say the least. Anyway, back to my walk... in the garden was a tree called the Yew Tree which yields the bark that is the source for taxanes, which are chemotherapy drugs Taxotere and Taxol (which have been a life-saver for me for about 18 total months of all my treatments) as well as Abraxane, which may be an option in my future. It was donated to the Principality of Monaco the Tartikoff Foundation (Lilly/Brandon Tartikoff) in 2001 in honor of the Prinicpality's commitment to finding a cure for women's cancers. That made for a beautiful and emotional day, I gotta tell you. I wandered from there through the streets around the palace (Monaco-ville) and decided it was time to go back to the boat and get M. It was evening and almost dinner time, so I took him up the hill to Monaco-ville where we happened upon a celebration of St Jean Baptiste in the square in front of the Palace. It was attended by only about 60 locals and included a bonfire and traditional dancers and musicians putting on a performance in the square for the Prince. We positioned ourselves closer to the palace for the festivities and just as the bonfire was lit, I turned and looked up at the balcony just above me and saw the Prince come out to view the performance... I turned to M. and said "hey, look, there he is!" and Prince Albert heard me and smiled and waved at me. Mark just cracked up - and right about that time everyone else saw him and turned and waved to him. Yeah, Prince Albert waved at me. I'm cool. From there, the dancers and musicians then took off in a street parade through the tiny little streets of Monaco-ville with the revelers in tow, clapping and marching along, and we joined in until we got to our chosen dinner restaurant on one of the tiny streets called Pinocchio's (which looked like a little hobbit hole) where we had a really wonderful Italian dinner. All in all, a truly spectacularly lovely day in Monte Carlo...

Portofino/Santa Margherita Ligure-
Woke up the following morning anchored off the coast of Portofino, ITA, again deciding to scooter around the areas surrounding this truly charming little fishing village. This time we talked our friends Tim and Noey, and Christian and Nikki into renting scooters and riding with us. We rode across the hills to Camogli (again thru vineyards and olive tree farms for miles and miles) and then around the coastal road to Santa Margherita Ligure. It was stunning. Stopped for lunch in Santa Margherita and I have never tasted more delicious pasta. Oh my. Fresh made pasta with the most gorgeous pesto sauce I have ever eaten, and the salad tasted like the lettuce and vegs were picked only moments after we ordered. Wow. We also rode up to the Abby at San Girolamo Cervara for an afternoon reception, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Everything about that part of the Italian Riviera was so charming, clean and perfect, it was almost like being on the Universal backlot... simply amazing.

Livorno/Pisa/Siena-
The following day we traveled inland from Livorno by train to 'hold up' the Leaning Tower of Pisa and ride the train through Tuscany to Siena. (Many on the cruise chose the bus tour to Florence, but we decided that Florence deserves more than a 6 hour day trip and we wanted to experience the Tuscan countryside a little... Sadly, we didn't hop off the train in San Gimignano on the way to Siena, but hindsight is 20/20, oh well...) We walked (more like climbed) through the streets of medieval Siena to the beautiful Duomo di Siena. I didn't love Siena as much as I thought I would, and we wished we had taken the train to Lucca or Volterra instead. It turned out that we preferred the coastal villages much more than the inland towns of Tuscany that we chose to visit...

Isola di Elba
Our final day was spent riding bikes to the beaches on the Islola d'Elba which reminded me a lot of Mexico. (Napoleon was exiled to Elba after his forced abdication in 1814. Although he was nominally sovereign of Elba, the island was watched (more or less) by British naval patrols. He stayed on Elba for 300 days before he escaped.) It is a beautiful island and the largest one in the Tuscan Archipelagos. (the Isle of Montechristo is only 40 km south of Elba and we sailed past it as we left, which was pretty cool, I love the Count of Montechristo!...) We sailed past Corsica in the distance, too. Wish we could have stopped there as well...

One of the best parts of the trip was that the sunset wasn't until about 10pm every night. I love that. Wish the whole year could be that way. When I got to Paris, sunset wasn't until about 11pm, which even I have to admit was too late. 10 is good, 11 too late.

So, we are home now, and sad. Besides Texas and Heidelberg, GER (where I grew up as an Army brat) I have now found another home away from home where I could easily live. The French Riviera. I really liked the Provencal people, more than I thought I would and definitely more than the Italians. And I thought it would be the other way around. The French cities were also cleaner than most of the Italian cities. It was a trip that M. and I will never forget. And I am thrilled that I got to experience it with my sweetheart. He needed a break from work and from all my crap. We had a blast and I would rather have experienced it with no-one else! Thanks Mark for the best vacation EVER!


More pics to come soon, stay tuned...