Monaco

Time to get back to the cruise. I need to revisit the sun!

We arrived in Monaco in the early morning and the views of the harbour were quite good. It isn’t as grand as Valletta nor as impressive as Barcelona but it was still quite a view.



Here's another view of the coastline. A few too many high rise blocks for my taste.

Monaco is a self-governed sovereign nation under the protection of France. It has been ruled by the Grimaldi family for the past 700 years (apart from a short period during the French Revolution), and its 1918 treaty with France decreed that if the prince -- any Grimaldi prince -- failed to produce a son, the territory would be ceded back to France upon his death. This was changed in 2002, if Albert II, the current prince, fails to produce a male heir, the throne will be passed to his sister Caroline. At present Albert is isn’t married!

Monaco, is tiny, 485 acres in total, and surrounded by France on all sides except for the 2.5 miles of coastline. The principality has no natural resources whatsoever; its national economy is based on tourism and banking. Lots of famous people live in this tax haven. These include Formula One World Champion Jensen Button, Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard, Shirley Bassey, Ringo Starr, Roger Moore and lots more.

We decided to just have a walk up to The Rock to see, the Royal Palace, Monaco-ville which is the original fortified town of Monaco, the Oceanographic Museum and Saint Nicholas Cathedral.

It was very hot as we walked up towards the Royal Palace and we decided to hang about to see the changing of the guard outside the Palace.

Here's the lone guardsman before the changing took place.

A couple more arrive.

Here they are changing the guard.

There they go, it's all over!

Quite a laid back event compared to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. For one thing there were no railings keeping the tourists back, security was low key. For another the guards were chatting to each other!



I loved the colours of the buildings, very attractive. There seems to be a predominance of pink in the choice of colours. Looked a lot like marshmallows or strawberry and vanilla ice cream.





I did like these buildings on Monaco-ville. Can’t remember what this one was but it was an administrative one.

There were some nice traditional streets too.



Next on the route was the cathedral. This is where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier were married and they are also buried here. I took a couple of photos of the cathedral but I didn’t really like to take them of the burial places although others didn’t have any qualms about it.





Along the side of The Rock facing the sea are the Saint Martin Gardens. There were quite a lot of statues and some great trees and plants.

This is a Yew Tree donated to the Gardens by a charity. The bark of the tree contains taxol which is used in cancer treatments. It symbolises the hope and commitment of the charity and the Principality of Monaco to finding a cure for women's cancers.



On the way down to the harbour are some great houses.





Wonder how much these cost? Pink again!

The Oceanographic Museum is constructed on the edge of The Rock and in front is a Yellow Submarine! Didn’t have time to go in, maybe next time.



It was starting to get a bit choppy by the time we were walking back. You can see along the side of the Museum how it's built on The Rock and close to the sea.



You can see the swell was getting bigger here.


Back up on The Rock you could get some great shots of the marina and the harbour.





One of the things Monaco is famous for is the Grand Prix Formula One race which takes place in May. The track is actually in the middle of the city, it uses the road system and goes under an overpass within direct view of the cruise ship dock.

Here's one of the tunnels they use which as I said is just one of the ordinary roads.



Near to where the ship was docked were these Daimler Darts which were there for a rally. My husband showed more interest in these than anything else we saw in Monaco!





After lunch I decided to have a walk out again by myself, Eric had done the tourist thing and was going to the gym and then lazing about on deck.

I walked along the marina and went to cross the road. Good grief, the traffic was incredible. I had quite a difficult job to take a decent photo of sculpture of Juan Manuel Fangio, the famous racing driver and his car. It was almost in the middle of the road! Fangio dominated the first decade of Formula One racing. He won five Formula One World Driver's Championships, this record stood for 46 years until eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher. Many still consider him to be the greatest driver of all time.



Just look at where they've put it. Surely they could have found somewhere better where people can get a good look at it. For goodness sake, it's in the middle of a really busy road.



I have to say there was a lot of renovation work going on around the marina, boards up etc so I didn't see the place at its best. There were some quite nice streets but nothing special apart from this square which was very attractive. Pink again!









I'm a sucker for teddy bear shops!



We didn't get to Monte Carlo. I was going to get on the little train but it stops running quite early. Maybe next time!

I did get a photo of the casino from the ship.



One thing I was really disappointed with was the quality of cafes and restaurants around the marina. They were really tacky looking. Not a tablecloth in sight. Some of the little places we visited in Italy and Greece were far superior. Maybe we hit a bad day.



The views of Monaco from the ship were good but this one doesn't show a pretty picture. Just a place with lots of concrete blocks of flats. Maybe this isn't where the rich and famous live. I bet the flats are still expensive though. Not my cup of tea! Someone on the ship said the buildings reminded them of Hong Kong. I've never been but I knew what they meant.

If I could afford a flat abroad it wouldn't be here I have to say, it would be in Barcelona! Now that's a fantastic city with a wonderful marina. The restaurants there are fabulous.

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