Monte Carlo

After a night of music on board ship that lasted into the early morning hours we arrived at our first port call, Monte Carlo.  The first thing that catches your eyes is the size of some of the buildings, and the fact that they are squeezed into a relatively small space between the mountains, and the sea.  the next thing you notice is the harbor its self, and the large number of gigantic yachts

Some of the yachts were the size of small cruise ships.  Martins gazes at them.

Above the city of Monte Carlo, the Royal Palace sits on a high hill.  This shot was taken from the city.  Later in the day we went up to visit it.

We had the morning in Monte Carlo free, and in the afternoon we had a prearranged tour scheduled.  So in the morning we just wandered around.  In those wanderings, we discovered this little church, wedged up against the mountain.  This was Saint Devote's church.  Saint Devote is the patron saint of Monaco.

Inside Saint Devote's church

This was a view from Saint Devote's church looking up and out of the little canyon that the church is in.  This is a Roman Aqueduct.

Of course one of things Monte Carlo is known for is the Monaco Grand Prix, which is run through the winding city streets.  This is a statue of the winner of the first race which was held in 1929.  His name was William Grover and he was driving a Bugatti 35B.  Interesting to note that the Bugatti cars of today still have the same basic front hood shape of 1929.

We were getting hungry so found a nice street Cafe called Le Bilig.  We sat out on the sidewalk and Marlene had this wonderful vegetarian pizza which Martin shared and Martin also had an apricot crepe.

t

After our little lunch we caught our prearranged tour.  One of the first stops was at the Monte Carlo casino.  This is the same one featured in one of the early James Bond movies.    We just went  into the lobby of the main casino.  For 15 Euros we could have gone into the main part of the casino, but we settled for just taking these photos on a giant roulette wheel and holding really big chips.  Next door to the old casino was a newer and more modern casino that anyone could go into without paying an extra charge.  Martin played a little on one of the slot machines there and doubled his money.

Parked around the casino was an amazing number of exotic super cars.  Some of them had Russian licence plates, some Saudi Arabia.   The one above happens to be something called a Pagani Huayra ...800HP and 3.5 million dollars!!!!!

After the Casino we went up towards the Royal Palace.  To get there we walked through this beautiful park.

Before getting to the palace we stopped at this Cathedral.  This is the church where Princess Grace married Prince Rainier.  They are now both buried there.  Their tombs are shown below.

Tomb of Princess Grace

Tomb of Prince Rainier

Getting closer to the palace we passed this building on the side of a cliff. This is the Musee Oceanograpique otherwise known as the Cousteau Aquarium.  This aquarium was built by Prince Albert the first in 1910. and Jacques Cousteau was head of it for 32 years. 

Finally we arrived at the Palace Square.  We took a guided tour inside the palace, but unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside.  Below, a palace guard, let Marlene take his picture.

It was a full and enjoyable day in Monte Carlo.  We headed back to our ship and the next day will be a full day at sea.  Before we left we took a final picture in front of the aquarium with one of  Jacques Cousteau deep sea submarines....a real yellow submarine.