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Euro Adventures Pt 11 - Monaco & Monte Carlo

So our full free day in Nice quickly became a half day when we awoke at 11am... Oh shit -no one set an alarm. That was very silly of us. So we decided to make it a lazy day all round, we did some more shopping, had some lunch and went to a public laundromat to try and make a dent in our large piles of laundry. We wanted to go and check out the beach but we needed to be back in time to get ready for our big night out.

WE WERE OFF TO MONACO! Also to the famous Monte Carlo Casino. We got dolled up to the nines and jumped on the Topdeck bus for our fun evening! Noddy took us up to a beautiful lookout over the French Riviera for a beautiful picnic dinner where we could take some pictures and enjoy the pure majesty of Nice.



Only a short 20 minute drive to the country of Monaco - we approached the border and Noddy told us to get out our passports and open them to the face page. She said to put them up against the window and they would be scanned by border patrol... Of course none of us knew any better so we held our passports up, Noddy and Greg (our driver) burst out laughing and we knew we had been had! BLAST THEM! Haha 

We drove up to the Monaco Royal Palace and walked up to the cathedral where Grace Kelly was married and saw the palace where the current royal family reside. It wasn't exactly the most beautiful palace but Noddy explained that Monaco was the safest place in the world with a 0% crime rate so the Prince and the Royal Family walked around the city with very little protection. It was quite a hike to get up to the palace and cathedral so our beautifully made up faces were fast becoming hot and red. But this however was not the end... 



We parked the coach and began the walk to the casino... Which none of us knew included about 8 billion steps... By god it was hard - I have done a lot of walking on this trip so far, up mountains, across cities but I have never been more proud of myself for making it up these steps to the Monte Carlo Casino (even if sweat was pouring down my face and I was bright red - I made it). 

Monaco is very famous for the Formula One Grand Prix and we were able to see the track and the famous hair pin bend near the front of the casinos. We also saw a lot of very VERY expensive cars - needless to say the people of Monaco are obviously very wealthy, Ferraris, Lambo's, Bentleys, Bugahtti's, Porsche's, sooooo many cars. 

We enter the casino and were immediately underwhelmed... There was a room with poker machines and another room with two blackjack tables and two roulette tables... That was it. Apparently that was all us commoners could afford - to be able to see and experience the real Monte Carlo you needed to have the big bucks. Oh well - I lost €20 playing on the pokies in Monte Carlo, it's not something I would ever be able to do again. 



Majority of our group ended up back at McDonalds (yes there is a Mickey D's in Monaco) having ice cream. We jumped back on the bus and headed back to our hotel for a good night sleep as we have a full day of driving to get into Italy tomorrow where we will head into Venice!! 
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