Friday, February 23, 2024

Monaco, Monte Carlo

 So our early start wasn't quite so early since we only woke up at 8AM. Breakfast at the apartment for Andre and I, Joey is sticking to her breakfast of croissant on the go, pretty sure that will not change for 2 weeks. She will be able to do a review on croissants in Nice at the end of this trip.

Off to the train station, tickets purchased, Wendy manages to purchase her ticket twice, oops. Pretty sure there is nothing we can do about that. A train is just coming in so no time at all to wait.

We took the train as far as Cap D'Ail as we want to walk the shoreline from there into Monaco. All sounded good but didn't quite know where to start the walk, but eventually found the gate to the waterfront after a good climb uphill then back downhill. The gate, it was closed and said the trail was closed, this of course means we will climb over and under the gate to get to the trail. We are not sure if the trail is closed in the winter, or just because the waves are so rough today it is splashing up a bit onto the trail, whatever the reason we are committed now and follow the trail. Some beautiful lookouts along the way, lots of waves, and surprisingly only the 3 of us and one other woman are on the trail.

End of the trail brings us to the first marina just outside Monaco still in Cap d'Ail. Lots of nice boats here, but we know it is going to get even better.

Keep walking until we eventually arrive in Monaco. First thing on our agenda is to see the Changing of the Guard at 11:55. We are there in plenty of time. Andre decides to stay put to keep a spot for viewing, Joey and I walk around to kill some time not too concerned about the Changing of the Guard. 11:55 arrives, Andre is in a better spot than us so he is happy. As far as changing of the Guard goes, London has way too many people to see anything, but our favourite so far has to be Athens. If you haven't seen Athens google it.

Changing of the guard done and we venture into old town, which really isn't very big here. We are not looking for somewhere to eat and settle on a place we can get a sandwich and actually sit outside at a table.

Lunch done and across from the lunch spot is a limoncello store where we get free samples, ok. We keep exploring old town, some beautiful viewpoints over the port. We have seen Monaco often on TV and the ports are full of amazing boats, lots of empty spots here today, but still see some amazing boats.

We walked around to the Aquarium, wow what an amazing building. Debated for a few minutes but decided against going in, our choice would be the Princes Car Collection instead. We all liked the car collection, but know we have nephews and probably Robin would have been the one that loved it the most, actually he would probably still be there if he was with us.

Next was to find the tunnel and hairpin corner for the Monaco F1 Race. Not sure how many pictures Andre took of the tunnel, but he seemed to really like it. The hairpin corner was found when we saw people taking pictures, we knew we were in the right place.

From here climbed up further to the Casino, Hotel de Paris, and Opera house, all so very impressive buildings. Joey is now investigation if we could stay at Hotel de Paris, I doubt it. It was fun seeing people drive by in there very expensive cars, we did see a Lamborghini, Bentley, Ferrari ... parked right outside the casino.

Next off we are done, time to walk up to the train station. Caught the train back to Nice with about 1 million other people, it was crazy packed. Very glad to get off that train.

Back in Nice, it is happy hour time. Joey and I decided on Aperol Spritz, Andre beer. It was nice and sunny when we sat down, turned cool quickly once the sun went behind the buildings.

Decide to just make supper at home tonight, stop at the little store around the corner from us and curry it is. We are all done now for the day. It was a great day, 28,000 steps or 17.70 KM. Many ups and downs. We should all sleep well tonight.

At the start of the seaside walking trail, closed





Tall ship at Cap D'ail marina


Oceanic Museum


Going up to See the changing of the guard at Prince Rainier Palace


Monte Carlo marina






Monaco marina on the Cap D'Ail side


Justice Palais


Cathedral in old town


From the 1500s


Beautiful dome




Across from where we had lunch


Andre's croque monsieur


An administrative building


At the aquarium



On the way down looking up at the Palace


A replica of Fangio and his Formula 1 car


At the Marina


What $100 Million Canadian gets you


Prince Rainer Private Car collection









If you are a big car fan and want to see more pictures of cars go to this page


On the way to find the tunnel and the hairpin turn





The opera house




A selfie in front of the casino





The Hotel de Paris $$$ as you can imagine


Top of the casino


Beautiful cars everywhere but also many smarts type cars as well



At the train station




Everybody is Happy at Happy Hour



1 comment:

We appreciate any comments/questions you would have or any stories about the places we visited.