Hiking Monaco Hill

I am sad our time in Nice is sooo short. I still haven’t even seen Nice! Today Adrienne and I ventured to Monaco and were hoping to squeeze in Nice after we returned but train delays didn’t allow for that. Monaco is magnificent and so posh and high class. The whole concept of it being its own state is just crazy in my eyes. The city is so hilly and somehow we ended up going up and down and up and down, probably due to our planning or lack there of. We started off at Port Hercule where we got to gaze at some of the fanciest yachts I’ve ever seen. They were all shining in the sun and looked immaculate. We then hiked up Monaco Hill and saw the Palais Princier aka the Princes Palace which had silly guards manning the entrance marching back and forth. The vegetation around was so beautiful and tropical. Palm trees lined all the streets and I also spotted quite a few aloe plants and orange trees and I so tempted to pick an orange but I was behaved and didn’t! It was so fun being in a beach area especially in contrast to last week’s Alps. When the sun was beating on you it got pretty warm too which was very pleasant!

Nearby the palace we also saw the Cathedrale de Monaco, white Neo-Romanesque Byzantine church where the famous Prince Ranier and Grace Kelly got married. It is really an awesome looking church! And right down the road from there was the Oceanography Museum which is also an exquisite building. There were so many nice gardens all around we got to walk through but we had really wanted to see the Jardin Exotique. We went on quite the uphill journey to find it only to realize it was closed because they were doing work on it. Later we went to the Japanese Garden which had a pond filled with large fish of all different colors which was really fun.

Our hiking gave us quite the appetite so we ate at a little place right along the water called La Bambi, and yes the sign had a picture of Bambi on it! Hahahaa Then we went to Larvotto, the main beach in Monte Carlo and stuck our feet in the Mediterranean Sea!! The water was really blue and so pretty and also wicked cold! Then we walked around the big casino Monte Carlo is so famous for.

I like how Europeans don’t put so much value as American do on cars. For such a ritzy area I was surprised to not have seen more Bentleys and Rolz Royce and other super expensive cars. There were quite a number of people sporting ridiculous fur coats though!