Clay was asleep in bed last night before 8 pm again. Then he was still asleep when I woke up just before 7 am. He made noise last night about staying in today if the weather was bad. Screw that noise. I planned to go out anyway. Also, he's insisted we be consistent about being out of the cabin on a strict schedule so Feli can keep her promise to always service our cabin first. So that meant we had to be out by 8 am. I got up and got going. He thought I was crazy because his tablet had the wrong time and was an hour earlier. When he realized it was between 7 and 8 and not before 7, he got moving. But, that was a long night's sleep.
Well, after all the gloom and gray of yesterday today was forecast to be rainy and cloudy again. It wasn't! It rained early and then was blue sunny skies all day. We walked around the harbor (the long way due to all the Grand Prix grandstands blocking sidewalks and streets) to the Plaza Ste. Devote. We located the entrance to the 24 Hour Casino Supermarche! We didn't see it yesterday afternoon because at the time the pizza window and the sandwich window on either side of the entrance doors were stacked 3 deep with people. We got separated there just trying to get to the corner and lost each other and neither of us saw a way to enter the building. Today we had to walk by twice looking for it to find it. We found actual Duct Tape there (called adhesif textile) and bought 2 small rolls of 10 meters each for 3 Euros each. Too bad we didn't find it yesterday afternoon, but the pressure was off now. At Plaza Ste. Devote we had to hunt for the entrance we knew from instructions and the map was there to lead to the escalators to the train station above. Just one wrong turn to take us slightly out of our way but that was our only misstep all day. Round trip tickets for 2 on the slow coastal route train were 16.40 Euros. (Crystal wanted $89 pp for their Nice bus transfers only.) We arrived at Nice Ville about 10 am when both museums we wanted to visit opened. Clay used his phone app and the furthest said it was a 37 minute walk. We walked out to the street to find a taxi sitting there. He drove us to Musee Matisse for 25 Euros or so. The pedestrian route was different but it still would have been uphill and would have taken us over an hour or even 2. So good job there. We got 2 tickets at 10 Euros each that were good for at least 5 or 6 other museums for 24 hours but none that we wanted to visit. We were both disappointed in this museum. It was chopped up like a 3D maze of stairwells and rooms. There was a lot of copycat work by another artist very prominently displayed that was a distraction. I don't know if they even had audioguides as we weren't offered any. But, they had no English language brochures or maps because we did ask. We were told no and given an Italian language leaflet listing all the museums covered by our ticket. We just missed catching a taxi as we walked out to the street to leave. So back to the app and it was a 17 minute walk (downhill as it happens) to the Musee Marc Chagall. They had a cafe in their front garden and as it was just after noon, we ate first. We shared a Croque Monsieur and a Nutella crepe with a hot chocolate and a Coke Zero for 18 Euros. It was delicious and just enough food. We went back to the ticket office and learned admission was free on the 1st Sunday of each month! We were offered English language audioguides for 2 Euros each. We had to leave a drivers license as a deposit as well until we returned them. This was an excellent museum experience. I think it helped that Chagall was involved in the design and layout of the building that would house the collection he donated. The exhibit flowed and the audioguide made sense and other than the toilets there were no stairs. We really enjoyed it.
We walked about 15 to 20 minutes downhill again, this time down stairways to return to the Nice Ville train station. On the way we saw a baggage store open directly across the street from the station. I convinced Clay it was a sign that we were meant to replace the broken handle suitcase today. We went over and bought a perfect substitute for $39 or 35 Euros. Knock on wood all the bags survive to RDU! We caught the 4:01 pm train back to Monaco (6 stops from Nice Ville and some spectacular sea coast views when out of tunnels if you could see through the filthy windows). We were back onboard before 5:30 pm and had time to repack the broken suitcase into the new one so the old one could make the evening trash collection. We changed for dinner and were out of the cabin by 6 pm. Waterside was pretty busy on this final night especially since we're docked overnight. Our final meal was nothing special.
The luggage is out in the hall. Breakfast starts at 6:30 tomorrow. Our transfer to the airport should leave from Galaxy Lounge at 9:45 am so I am not planning a 6:30 am breakfast. The final newsletter has no deadline time published for vacated cabins. We like to come back and brush our teeth after breakfast so we'll plan to do that even though it will put Feli in here later than usual. Our BA flight to Heathrow leaves Nice at 1:45 pm. We got checked in online on Clay's phone today and found ourselves assigned to 2 of the last available seats. They are not together. They are on opposite sides and a row apart, both on exit rows. It is only supposed to be about a 2 hour flight so I guess I'll live. We are overnighting at the Sofitel at Heathrow before the flights home on Tuesday.
The final Reflections says this segment from Cape Town has been a total of 7212 nautical miles sailed equal to 8283.8 land miles. I'd have to do some research to tell you how far all the segments traveled but it is bedtime so I'll just click publish now. I think Clay's ready to link his photos anyway.
