Monaco

During our honeymoon we had the pleasure to visit the two smallest countries in the world:  Vatican City and Monaco.  We’ll talk about Vatican City another time (both the awe and major disappointment), but for now we want to focus on the country of luxury, fancy cars, yachts, and casinos:  Monaco.  During our stay in Nice we took a day trip to Monaco because A) staying there didn’t seem within budget (look at us being grown ups) and B) since it’s about the size of Central Park we thought a day would be enough time to see it.  Little did we know what the day would have in store for us…

As soon as we stepped out of Gare de Monaco, we found ourselves in what felt like the center of Monaco.  We immediately took a picture of the map—hey, we learn fast, and then did what any prepared traveler does:  picked some people and followed them.  As we walked along the extremely immaculate sidewalks we were amazed at the luxurious vehicles—people drive these things in real life?  Who knew! (We didn’t).  Soon our sidewalks started heading uphill and we caught sight of Le Palais des Princes de Monaco (a.k.a. a castle). 
Bonus travel tip: Head for high elevations.  Get a great view and figure out where you are all at the same time!  Brilliant, we know.

On our way to the Palace we were able to climb up rocks, and see beautiful views of the country of Monaco.  Once we reached the top we had a view of The Palace to one side, the Mediterranean Sea to another, and then the “Place du Palais” (similar to a town square) on the other.  We snapped a few pictures of the palace (tours were available for purchase but…we decided to visit Musee Oceanographique de Monaco instead) , basked in the beautiful views of the Sea and country, and then went to explore the alleyways in the Palace. 

Within these alleyways, we had the BEST pizza of our entire trip (sorry Italy).  We stumbled upon this place that seemed packed, but was able to sit us in the back.  After observing the whole pizza and entire bottle of wine consumed by a French gentleman who had arrived on his yacht for a holiday to gamble at the Monte Carlo (yes, we gave him a back story and identity), we were pretty proud of ourselves for choosing this place.  After eating our pizza, it made complete sense why he ate an entire one.  As far as drinking a bottle of wine—yeah, there’s no reason to judge that, we get it.

Now that we were well fed (mmmm), we were ready to continue exploring.  Next up was the Cathedrale de Monaco and the Jardins de Saint-Martin.  So beautiful.  The organ in the Cathedrale was high up and glowed—Sarah was mesmerized.  The statues and history in the Jardins and just along the path was also fascinating.  While John is more well-rounded in history and enjoys many elements, Sarah finds royal history more interesting—Mika’s “Grace Kelly” suddenly made way more sense to her!

Next, the part we’ve all been waiting for:  Oceanographic Museum.  Guys—this is situated right on the cliffs with a GORGEOUS view (like most of Monaco) of the sea.  Honesty time, we were expecting an aquarium.  While there was a floor or two dedicated to fish, a lot of it was history and stories of Prince Albert 1’s discoveries.  However, each level we explored contained so much.  In Sarah’s head: Picture when Belle is discovering the Beast’s castle for the first time—that’s what it felt like (but in well-traveled clothes, and replace the books with marine-esque items).  After quite a lot of time spent here, we decided to head to the Monte Carlo area (if we could find our way back).

Musée Océanographique de Monaco

If we were to tell you how to recreate our route from the high cliffs near the Palace & Museum back to the yacht marina, we would advise you to wander and take random pathways until you find a sign where your husband..err..spouse points out that they were correct.  (Sarah’s directionally challenged, oops) However, along the way, make sure to get pictures with all the interesting finds!  If you’re lucky, you’ll find out that you’re actually exploring Fort Antoine.  How neat is that?  That’s pretty neat.

Eventually, we found ourselves walking up the opposite hills towards the Monte-Carlo Casino.  Now, we spent quite some time taking pictures of this beautiful building while wondering where the expensive and ornate casino was.  Oh, we were looking at the back of it.  Obviously.  Once we walked around to the front, we realized how hard it might be to miss this place.  We decided to see if they would let us in (we forgot our formal tux and ball gown back at our hostel…uhh, penthouse suite).

The back of the Monte Carlo--you're welcome!

We got in!  WOOHOO!  What to do next?  Check out the bathroom.  Wow.  We were in awe.  Next we decided to walk around, and choose a lucky machine to gamble on.  After some walking, some velvet ropes we couldn’t go beyond, and some fancy outfits, we decided we were ready.  We were going to gamble.  We were going to get rich enough to gamble again.  All right, here we go….Oh. Awkward.  How do we gamble here?  We still don’t know.  Our guess: someone was looking out for us and knew we just couldn’t handle it.  So we did the next best thing:  had a glass of wine at the bar.  Yeah, we had wine at the Monte Carlo.  No big deal.

The front with our purple [cool name fancy car]

Now that we had explored most of the country, in ONE DAY, we headed back to the Gare de Monaco.  We loved every second in this country.  Next time, we’ll see a ballet there, after sailing on a yacht (surprise John!). 

It's our honeymoon, we can kiss anywhere we want!

What’s the most luxurious place you’ve visited?  Would you rather spend money on one place (Monaco) or be thrifty and see many places?  Do you know how to gamble at the Monte Carlo?  (Seriously, it’s still a mystery).

Chasing Time Zones,

John and Sarah