Day 408: Monaco

Up and out quite early, heading eastwards along the coast towards Monaco. It's actually quite close to Nice, only about 30 kilometres, but it's a fairly slow road. Wanted to stop in a cute little village about halfway along but couldn't find parking!

Drove across into Monaco and struggled again to find somewhere to park! There are several parking lots underground, but the specific one we were looking for was really difficult to find, and in the end we just parked in a different one, underneath the Old Town.

It's an interesting little place, Monaco, since there are separate districts within the town and they're all quite different. We started underneath the Old Town where the streets are quite narrow and small, though obviously the buildings aren't actually that old. Had a look at the royal palace and watched the changing of the guard ceremony (much smaller than the one at Buckingham Palace!), and had a look at the cathedral too. Found out later that this is where Princess Grace is buried.

Walked down the hill from the old town to the main harbour, where we wandered a bit and had a look at the main straight of the grand prix track. Was mildly amused to see a Volkswagen dealership almost directly opposite the start-finish line! Choked a bit on seeing restaurant prices in the area, so ended up with supermarket sandwiches for lunch instead!

Walked around the foreshore through the grand prix tunnel and eventually up to the Casino, where lots of tourists were hanging around but not much was happening. You can poke your head in for a look at the foyer without paying several hundred euros, so we did that one at a time since dogs aren't permitted inside!

Wandered a little more in this area before deciding it was time to head back to the car. Struggled again to navigate our way out of the city since our phones weren't working (underground + no network since it's a different country!), but we managed and took the coastal road back to Nice.

Rather than head straight back to our apartment, we headed for the centre of town instead. There's a huge long promenade and beachfront which was quite nice, and by now it was lovely and sunny so we rather enjoyed it and spent a bit of time just sitting around enjoying the warmth.

Later in the evening we met up with a blogger friend of Shandos's who lives here in Nice. Had a couple of drinks and some dinner with her which was fun. She also showed us around a bit of the old town as well - there's a beautiful large garden area set back from the waterfront that's also very lovely!

Finally headed home around 9pm, very late for us!Read more