A Visit to Monaco - Tuesday 3/24

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 Monaco
Up by 8 AM with a breakfast from the grocery store and best of all a microwave in the kitchen so we could make our coffee with real hot water. By 9 we were on our way to the train station to catch a 9:30 train to Monaco.
After buying our tickets we just made it to the train before it pulled out.
The view from the train was just great as we went between the mountainside and the Mediterranean Sea all along the coast for about 20 minutes. Walking out of the train station in Monaco we saw a beautiful small church and couldn’t resist going in… we have so many pictures of church alters that they tend to run together…. But each one is special in it’s own way…
Then as we walked along the waterfront snapping pictures… to our surprise around the corner came police motorcycles surrounding several big black cars followed by more police…. We were not quick enough to catch this with our cameras but we are just sure that we saw Prince Albert in his car…. A missed photo opportunity for sure. Walking on we came to the Monte Carlo Opera house. A very beautiful building but sad to say the tours would not start until after April 1st. We walked back up the street and around the corner to the Monte Carlo Casino. Out front was a large group of men in bike jerseys all set to begin a “ride up the mountain”. We walked up the steps to peek inside the casino but the doorman shook his finger at us and said “sorry Madam… not allowed” Guess we were not up to the dress code expected for such a fancy place…. Jeans and back packs just don’t make the cut. Oh well …we wouldn’t have gambled any money anyway.
Continuing on our walk we again went up and down and around… finally making our way, on a different level, back to the train station where we found, much to our relief a WC. Leaving the train station again, we picked up the city bus for a trip up the hill to the bottom of the walkway that leads uphill to the Fortress that holds the old town of Monaco and the Grimaldi Castle. This walk way took about 20 minutes and the shedding of our inner shirts before reaching the top. By the crowd in front of the castle we knew that the Changing of the Guards had not yet happened… so with cameras held high over the heads of people in front of us we waited…..
We were rewarded as before the guards changed out of the gate came the cars and motorcycle with the same important person…this time we were ready and snapped away. And soon they did have the changing of the guard, which was impressive but not as good as some others that Martha has seen. While waiting I took notice of a bronze statue of Francovis Grimaldi, who dressed as a monk invaded the castle and took it over for the Grimaldi family. This happened in 1297. On the 700th anniversary this statue was given to Prince Rainer as a gift by the people of Monaco.
Walking around in the old town we made our way over to the church. This is the church where in 1956 Grace Kelly married into the Grimaldi family. Both she and Prince Rainer are buried in this church along with all the other deceased members of the royal family. Walking outside we realized that it was noon already so found a park bench to enjoy food from our back pack that we had brought along with us before heading back downhill towards the new town and the train station. As usual we got turned around some but a helpful street maintenance man walked us back up to a street that we had missed and got us back on the right path. While waiting for our train back to Nice we met a really nice family from Pittsburgh PA who were also traveling to Nice. The daughter is on break from Ohio State University, the son is employed in Washington DC and is quite fluent in several languages. Father was just happy to be traveling with his children.
Visiting and sharing travel stories with them made our wait for the train go fast and soon we were on our way back to Nice.
Pulling into Nice we saw that it had been raining while we were gone but had just about stopped. Computer & picture time back at the hostel. Then we were off to church for a 6 pm Mass after which we dropped by the local Subway sandwich shop and got salads (subway without the bread) to take back for our dinner. Not many people at our hostel but we had dinner in the kitchen area with a nice young couple from Wales. Again, lots of fun sharing travel stories and experiences. They also are on their way to Rome as we will be doing after one more day in Nice. Think tomorrow we will be doing the Marc Chagall Museum and one other old church.
Checked Skype and found my girls online at a McDonald’s in London.
Found out that Debbie’s debit card was not working. As I have world wide skype telephone access… I called her bank in Wisconsin…said I was calling from France about my daughter who is in London and can not access her debit card….. lady said “Oh I know what the problem is..we have been getting so much bad stuff from Great Britain that we have put a total block on everything coming into the bank from there” I said, “oh great now what is she to do” the lady “don’t worry I will make a call and unfreeze her transactions” called Debbie back and said “wait an hour then go try to use it again, I will keep my computer on until 11 to see if everything works” Finally got back with the girls by 10:45 pm… they had not been able to find a bank machine but Debbie had been able to use her card to charge something, which she had not been able to do before…. Problem solved..we hope. They leave for Paris today so hope all goes well there. You can follow them at Marybeth blog site. www.redhedmary.blogspot.com
Au Revoir for now.