Monte Carlo, Monaco, August 8

Ahhhhh we are sleeping in today. I hate to say this vacation has sucked the life out of us, but it has been very ‘on-the-go’. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fantastic, but it has been very active.

In the afternoon we end up at the palace. It is quite a climb to the palace - although pretty much everything has you climbing in Monte Carlo as it is on a mountain side. Often this climbing isn’t so bad as there are public elevators and escalators here and there, not so many that you never climb stairs or walk up a steep incline, but here and there. It is not as hot as it has been recently, but it very humid – wow! By the time we get to the palace we are drenched – even Chris is drenched and he pretty much never breaks a sweat. We decide we must stop for a road beer (a beer you drink while walking along the road). It’s still funny to me to be able to drink a beer while walking down the road. Thankfully it is ice cold and we stop in one of Monte Carlo’s many parks (pic.) Monte Carlo has many beautifully kept parks - pretty much this entire place is beautifully kept and very clean.

There seems to be some sort of medieval festival going on in the streets outside the palace. This makes the atmosphere lively and a fun place to be. When we stop for lunch every so often a band walks by about a foot from where we are eating (pics, video). Lunch for me is of moules et frites (mussels and fries) D-lish. These mussels are tiny compared to the ones I’ve eaten at home and are much better I think.

I haven’t mentioned that there are Ferraris all over the place here. I started noticing them at first, but they’ve almost become too numerous to notice.

On the way back to the hotel we stop at a Monaco soccer team shop where Chris buys a shirt and a few other souvenirs. The clerks at the shop suggest that he tries the shirt on first but there’s no room for that other than in the middle of the shop – I don’t know what would have happened if I wanted to try something on??

We spend the rest of the afternoon reading and napping. Each hotel room here has a balcony which is fantastic. Ours doesn’t face the sea, but does face a courtyard and the top of the casino can be seen also (pic). There is a shrub just next to our balcony with white flowers all other if that has attracted the tiniest hummingbirds – probably an inch or 2 long. The evening is spent at dinner and the casino.

All in all Monte Carlo has exceeded expectations. Not really sure what the expectations were, but it is a great place to spend a few days and probably less expensive than we expected. I’d be happy to spend more time here in the future.