Hello my friends,

When I visited my daughter in Nice, we spent also one day in the most famous little country I know: MONACO. It´s 1,95 km2 small. Only one independent state is smaller – the Vatican City in Rome with 0,44km2 area. You may know also many stories about the Grimaldi family in the rainbow press… Monaco  isn´t very far away from Nice. By the way, Monte Carlo is just a regio from Monaco with for example the casino in it.

We took the train from the Gare De Chemin De Fer De Provence, via the nice little village Eze, where lots of artists have their residence,  to Monaco.The railroad tracks are situated along rocky cliffs and you can overlooking the sea on many places!

It took about twenty minutes and when we went out of the train, the way to the right street seemed a bit obscure because the railwaystation in Monaco is built in a hill. And it is very important, were you go out. The first entrance  led  us to a big balcony with a very goow view over the harbor and the bay…

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When we took the second possibility to go out, we stood on a road,  but after crossing it, we looked about fifty meters deeper on another road… So we were looking for some staircases to go down. At first, we wanted to go to the starting point of the little tourist train, called „Azur Express“, where you can ride to the important streets and buildings of Monaco. It seemed quite near to the harbor on our map. But in reality, there is a high  difference from a hundred meters again!  But in this moment, we didn´t know that. So we had found the „right“ way and were standing on the other road after about another ten minutes.

How can we come down to that road?

Huge yachts in the habor. I don´t know, what just the place for the boat costs in the yachting club!

We went on the Boulevard Albert 1er to the harbor, then again up the hill. That was quite exhausting because of the heat, but we mastered it! Later on, I read that there are also some escalators inside a near building, were you can move on the hill. But we didn´t know, so we walked on the Avenue Port Neuf.  We found a lovely parc with nice plants where we had a great view! We were a bit astonished finding something that looked like a very big frame. But I think, it should be a kind of art…

We made some pictures, but our real goal was to find the starting point of the Azur Express. After going through the Avenue St.Martin, we saw it! The nice little red train was standing in front of the Oceanographic Museum! How cute it was! Quick, we bought some tickets and moved in… So we waited for another fifteen minutes. But that little break was ok. Only a pungent smell of peppermint and menthe from the old women behind me was a bit bugging. I usually use this for inhalating when I have catch a cold.So, every time I think now on the tourist attractions of Monaco, I have that smell of illness in my nose…

But forget it! We started in the quarter of the Palace of the Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife Princess Charlène (the swimmer Charlène Wittstock married Prince Albert in 2011) and their sweet twins, born on10 December,  2014 Gabriella Thérése Marie and Jacques Honoré Rainier Grimaldi. But unfortunately, we had no time to met them. Well, it´s unlikely, but it can be, that they don´t read my blog already, so that they are not offended that I didn´t visit them.

The train  went down to the harbor again and showed the famous car racing course, the casino and the narrow alleys. We were astonished, how many high raise buildings there were. All seemed a bit narrow. But nevertheless, it´s a wonderful, rich city, very sophisticated and classy.

After the train has stopped his tour in front of that famous Oceanographic Museum, we decided to go in. And it was marvellous! Founded by the Prince Albert I, great grandfather of  Prince Albert II, it was designed as a palace entirely dedicated to art and science. In the basement, there are the aquariums. Anxelottels, pirahnas, sharks, jellyfishes, lots of poisson fishes and a huge amount of other fishes were presented in a very attractive way.  And the museum itself with a great variety of exponates impressed me like I couldn´t imagine before!

Even my son was absolutely flashed from this variety of fishes.  And also from an old submarine.

After visiting the museum, which contains also some modern art, we were very tired and it was time to go back to the railwaystation again… But we were more clever than at the arrival and took the bus. It was on that day for free, because it was the day for the environment protection.

We saw such a lot of great things that we were overwhelmed from our impressions…

We would have liked also to see the immense chambers of the prehistoric Observatory Caves, whose stalagmites, stalatites and limestone concretions are admirably illuminatedand which are situated under the sea level!

And the time was also to short to discover the Exotic Garden of Monaco for a longer time….

And unfortunately we didn´t eat some barbagiuans, also known as  „barbajuans“, at the Condamine Market. They are a national dish from Monaco, especially eaten on the National Day. It is also known as The Sovereign Prince’s Day and is currently annually celebrated on 19 November. The word  „barbajuan“ means Uncle John in Monégasque. The main ingredients are Swiss chard, spinach, ricotta, Parmigiano-Reggiano,  onions, leeks, egg whites, pastry (flour, eggs, olive oil, water).

But… what´s about the UFO in the picture? By regarding it exactly, I found, that it looks more like a …

…street-lamp! Sorry about that „bad“, old joke…

Bye, bye,  tiny but  great, obscure but also wonderful  beauty Monaco, see you again…