Monaco

For our last weekend in France, we took a trip to Monaco. Caitlin was very excited, as she has always been a fan of Grace Kelly, who was the princess of the principality of Monaco. We were worried that getting to Monaco would be infeasible, as train tickets were pretty expensive, but luckily we found about a local tour guide who was taking a group for 25 euros a pop. Not too shabby!

We set off in the morning and arrived just before lunch. The views driving along the French Riviera are pretty excellent. There are the Alps on one side, and on the other, the blue water of the Mediterranean. When we got to Monaco, this beauty was improved by some very pretty Monacasque (that's the word for someone or something from Monaco) architecture.

Our first activity upon arriving was going to the Palace to watch the changing of the guard. Well, we tried to watch it. There was a large crowd. It didn't seem that exciting though. After the crowd cleared out, we walked around le Rocher, or the old town of Monaco.

We also visited the Cathedral of Monaco. Inside, several princes and princesses of Monaco are buried, including the late Princess Grace. It was very pretty. For some reason though, a guard was yelling at people to be quiet in the church. I can understand why he wanted people to be quiet (it is a church, after all), but his yelling was not a proportionate response. OH WELL.

This is the picture of the main port of Monaco. There are several cool features to point out in this photo. First, if you look directly in the center of the picture, in the far corner of the harbor, on the top of a hill is the Monte Carlo casino. Second, on the far right of the picture, half cut-off, there is a cruise ship. Several cruise ships were stopped outside Monaco. Apparently it is one of the most popular cruise destinations in the Mediterranean. Third, look how huge those yachts are! They are massive! Compare the boats on the left side of the harbor to those on the bottom right. Those on the bottom right are regular speedboats. Some of the yachts were close to a fifth of the size of the cruise ship, it seemed like. Fourth, at the bottom of the picture you can see a long gray and blue structure. These are the stand for observing the Grand Prix, one of the most famous Formula One races. We came a week before the races started. These seats sell for around a few thousand euros for the four day race. Some residents of Monaco will rent out their terraces for people to watch the race. These can go for more than 15,000 euros! That is crazy!

Here is where we had a lunch. I was very impressed with how beautiful Monaco was. There are so many gardens interspersed throughout the city. Although really, it is not surprising that such a wealthy and small country is pretty. They don't have a lot else to spend money on here.

To traverse the port, we took a little ferry across for a 2 euros. This, unfortunately, was not the boat that we took. It was a super cool yacht though.

And here is the Monte Carlo itself, after which my car is named. They have a dress code (jacket and tie for men) and an entry fee, so we did not get to see the inside. It was purty fancy though. I was very excited to see the casino, mostly because my car was named after it.