Monaco 2011

View from the apartment

In summer 2011, one of my good friends invited me to spend a week with her in Monaco, so my summer of adventure continued! Monaco is the second smallest and most densely populated country in the world, and I feel I saw most of the principality in my time there. My first impressions of Monaco were that, despite all the high-rises, it's a very pretty place with a striking contrast of hill and coast. The streets were clean and bright, there were very modern, cosmopolitan areas but also quaint continental streets with cafes and ice cream stalls.

We went to see the palace, which was lovely but had an extended part that was made to look like Disney's take on a medieval fort, which looked completely out of place. I have no idea who decided to add that bit of the castle but it looked as awkward as wearing socks with sandals!

The Royal Palace

 We also visited the cathedral. The architecture was beautiful both outside and inside the building. There was a one way system around the memorial tablets, with almost everyone going solely to visit Grace Kelly's memorial tablet. We also stopped off at the oceanographic museum, which included an aquarium, natural history exhibits and a maritime exhibit. In the aquarium, I couldn't get enough of the little jellyfish which glowed with a four-leaf clover pattern under UV lighting. There were also displays from the recent prince's wedding to Charlene Wittstock, including their outfits and many large pictures of the day. I wouldn't want to comment on whether the less smiley, 'off guard', photos were due to unhappiness or just an achy face from a day of photos!

The Cathedral

 To celebrate our friend's upcoming birthday, we went for an evening out in Monte Carlo. We had dinner on the balcony of a beautiful restaurant, with a sophisticated yet relaxed atmosphere and great food. If we were left for 5 minutes, the waiters apologized for taking too long to serve us and gave us complimentary canapes and shots. We then moved on to Buddha Bar, which contained a huge sitting Buddha, watching over us as we sipped our fruity cocktails. Finally we moved on to another bar, which was smaller but had more of a party vibe than the chilled cocktails-with-the-girls vibe of Buddha Bar. In here, there were a group of crazy Belgian guys, solving the problem of not enough room to dance on the floor by dancing on the sofas. If you can't beat them...
Wandering through Monte Carlo, we passed the famous Casino, which has featured in James Bond movies. It is a spectacular building, especially lit up at night with a park full of fountains in front of it. We also passed some of the F1 racetrack (which is hard not to do in Monte  Carlo!) and the Champions Promenade on the waterfront.

The Casino

Monaco beaches are pebbled, but there are a few man-made sandy areas accessible for a fee. We spent a morning on one of these and I even braved the sea! Although commercialised, it was nice to relax on the beach in the sun, be served lunch and generally make the most of the lovely climate. In the afternoon we visited Monaco zoo. The zoo was originally a menagerie for the prince, and was critisised for holding large animals, such as tigers, in small pens. However, the zoo now takes greater responsibility over its animal welfare and has found alternative homes for the animals that lived in unsuitable conditions. One of the joys of this zoo, was buying a packet of biscuits on the way in which could be fed to the animals. I don't know why it's so nice to have a goat, wallaby or even a bird take food from you but it just is. My favourite species was the mara, a large rodent which, to me at least, resembles a cross between a rabbit and a dog! On the way out however, I had the unfortunate experience of being a little too close to the hippo. I was enjoying the fact it was so close to the outside of it's enclosure when it performed the territory-marking act of flicking its dung as far as possible. Things could have been worse but let's face it, no one wants to go around smelling of hippo poo...