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Published: July 28th 2014
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View over Monaco Harbour
Monaco Harbour as seen from a small park near the old town If you can't stand bad jokes you might want to skip the text in this blog entry and limit yourself to just looking at the photos
Here comes the first joke, if you can even call it a joke: Nice is nice.
That one is so obvious that it probably is featured on two thirds of all the blog entries about the city Nice. We thought that we put it right at the top and thus get it over with now already. Sadly, the other jokes in this blog entry aren't much better.
Three days off from work thanks to the national day being on a Friday in combination with us having travel vouchers that we had to use before they expired made us book a trip to Nice. Since Monaco is not far from Nice we thought it was a good idea to combine those two.
If anyone reading this is thinking about visiting Monaco we can inform you that accommodation in Monaco is more expensive than in any other country we have visited. As far as we know there simply aren't any budget hotels at all. We managed to
The train station in Nice
The train station in Nice is in our opinion well worth a photo on the blog find a simple hotel but we still had to fork out twice as much money for a night at that hotel than we paid for a far better room in Nice the next day. The main reason for the lack of low end accommodation is that real estate in Monaco is very highly valued. People living in Monaco do not pay any income tax regardless of their income. Therefore people from all over Europe buy apartments in Monaco to avoid paying tax, apartments they not always live in by the way. Supposedly a tennis player, who lived in Monaco for tax reasons, once when he played a tournament in Monaco was asked how it felt like to play in his hometown. He explained that his apartment in Monaco was only 9 square meters large. He did not live in that apartment, he only had it so that he could avoid tax.
Here comes another bad joke (skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't wish to read silly jokes): Question: How many people live in Monaco? Answer: Less than half.
Monaco is small and consequently you can quickly cover the main places of
Monaco Harbour
Monaco Harbour as seen from a small park near the old town. Some of the yachts moored down there are ridiculously large. Many had a pool on the deck. Don't the owners know that they can swim in the sea? interest. In fact, the entire country is so small that you can easily walk from one end to the other. We started our walking tour in the old town. There we went to see the Prince's Palace, the official residence of the prince or princess that reigns Monaco. Since the current regent of Monaco, Prince Philanderer (Oh sorry, we slipped again. There you had another bad joke) aka Albert II, is living in the palace access is restricted. We only saw the palace from the outside and left.
According to legend the Grimaldi Family, the royal family of Monaco, came into power when Francoise Grimaldi in the year 1297 managed to sneak into the Monaco Castle dressed as a monk. To commemorate this event, which most likely is just anecdotal, they have near the palace put up a statue of Francoise Grimaldi dressed up as a monk.
The old town is sitting on top the Rock of Monaco, a mountain with a flat top. On one end of the Rock of Monaco you can find the Oceanographic Museum. The building that houses the museum is majestic, to say the least, when seen from the
Francoise Grimaldi
According to legend the Grimaldi Family, the royal family of Monaco, came into power when Francoise Grimaldi in the year 1297 managed to sneak into the Monaco Castle dressed as a monk. front. But that is nothing compared to the backside. The building is sort of incorporated in the rock face and looks very dramatic when viewed from the sea.
A few kilometres away from the old town is a district and a mountain known as Monte Carlo. It is here the Monte Carlo Casino is located. The casino is one of the biggest sources of income for Monaco and the royal family of Monaco. In interesting fact about the casino is that the royal family even though they own the casino are not allowed to enter it. When the casino was established the purpose was to lure wealthy people from the rest of Europe there and make them loose money gambling. An unwanted scenario could be that the locals went there and started gambling. Therefore Monegasque citizens aren't permitted in the casino at all.
We spent one day in Monaco and we thought that was enough for us. We didn't dislike Monaco, it just is not a place for us.
We also spent one day in Nice, which is in France only 20 kilometres or so from Monaco. Nice we found was
St Nicholas statue
A statue of St Nicholas in Monaco old town more relaxed than Monaco and we liked that city better. Still it isn't quite our kind of place. It was enjoyable for a day but that was enough.
Our favourite place in Nice was a recently built fountain in the city centre. The fountain was designed as a combination of fountain and playground. The nozzles that eject the water are places in a grid formation just so far from each other that you can walk between them without getting soaked. Walking though the fountain was encouraged and, needless to say, the kids absolutely loved to play in it. We also enjoyed walking and running through it too.
One of the buildings where Nice Library is located is a bit interesting. It is shaped like a neck with a head on top, but the upper portion of the head is replaced with a cube. Supposedly there is at least one room filled with books inside the head.
The recreation area Castle Hill was also a place in Nice we liked. From Castle Hill you get good views over the city and it is a good place for a picnic or to take
Oceanographic Museum
The building is sort of incorporated in the rock face and looks very dramatic when viewed from the sea. This photo does not do it justice a walk or to have a cup of coffee.
Unlike Monaco we are likely to return to Nice in the future. Then we will probably spend more time there and we will also rent a car and make daytrips away from Nice. We are pretty sure that there are many nice villages and picturesque valleys near Nice. We will also make sure to go down to the beach in Nice and have a swim because we actually didn't this time.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I recommend that you visit nearby Antibes...
as it feels more like a hometown with open air markets and old homes along narrow street with flowers in the windows; its fortress has a Picasso museum; and it has sandy beaches. We spent many vacations there. Cap d'Antibes is minutes away as is Juan les Pins. And you must visit the hilltop towns of St Paul de Vence, Eze, and Grasse (with the Fragonard perfume factory).