Monaco & Monte Carlo

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An early breakfast and I'm very excited to find that eggs are on offer - albeit boiled only. The breakfast is quite good here, and I thoroughly enjoyed the respite from ham and cheese on stale bread rolls!

Once we'd booked our train tickets to Barcelona, we headed out to Castel Hill, which gives a view of the whole City of Nice. We caught a tram - they're very new and impressive - back to the beach and walked up to the lookout. Although it's not particularly high, the view is fantastic - right along the beach and over the city stretched behind it up to the hills. The weather is very overcast and did rain briefly on the way up, so the beach is deserted and visibility not ideal, but you can see right along the coast past Antibes and towards Cannes. We stayed for about 15 minutes enjoying the view.

We wandered back down to the tram, through the markets and a few souvenir shops, and boarded the train for the 25 minute trip to Monaco. Although there are glimpses of the coast on the way, it didn't prepare us for Monaco harbour!

As we made our way down to the Grand Prix circuit, it was curious to note that there were all manner of fencing and tyre barricades lining the roads, and as we turned the corner we could see the seating for the race still in place. When we came apon a promo sign we discovered why - the race was on only 2 days ago!!!

Working our way along the track, we could see that they had only just started work on dismantling the infrastructure - seating, podiums, barricades, signs - all nearly intact from the race! And of course Grand Prix merchandising everywhere! It was great timing!

We reached the end of the track and ascended the 'rock' of Monaco, housing the palace and other principal buildings. The view from the top is astounding! Overlooking the harbour with its billionaire boats, the city itself climbing into the steep mountains behind - it has to be seen to be appreciated! I've decided that Salzburg, Venice & Cinque Terre are definitely out - Monaco it is!

After a few hours looking at the view, the palace and the dozens of souvenir shops, we finally wandered down to the harbour front, past Monaco Yatch Club and checked out a few prospective boats. We skirted the harbour and the race track, following it up to the Monte Carlo casino and the Paris Hotel. After taking a few pictures outside, and together with about a thousand tourists, milled outside for a bit watching the valets collect and retrieve very expensive cars, hoping to see someone famous, we decided to check out the casino. Alas, it was Euro 10 to enter, so we consoled ourselves by using the bathrooms and heading back out. The valet had seemingly misplaced our (rather pedestrian) orange Lambourghini, so rather annoyingly we had to walk back to the train station.

Back in Nice, some housekeeping at the internet cafe and a cheap but rather good kebab and chips before retiring after watching a bit of world news on CNN.

Final thoughts. Nice is nice, but probably more a place to stay and relax (if you could afford it) rather than a sight-seeing destination. Monaco was amazing, and I'm very pleased that not only did we get to see it, but only 2 days after the race! I'd like to see what it looks like sailing into the harbour next time, rather than arriving on a train! 😉

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