Monaco
12:10 PM
G'day
Well, Friday night I took off for Monaco which was a journey in itself. Flight to Zurich, layover, flight to Nice, cab to train station, wait, train to Monte-Carlo. Got in around 1:15am and passed out.
Saturday got up, saw 5 Ferrari's in the space of about 15mins and realised this was no ordinary destination. As I approached the main harbour, it became infintely clear that I was the poorest person in the principality by about $5m odd. The yachts, cars, shops, food, cabs, etc are just super expensive and everywhere. If you don't drive your Ferrari/Porsche/Aston Martin/Rolls/Bently/Maseratti down to your yacht which could double as a 500 room hotel, then you don't deserve to be in Monaco. I spent most of my time drooling and picking my jaw up off the pavement.
There isn't a whole lot to actually do in Monaco but what they recommend is going and seeing the Prince's castle, which I did, where I watched the changing of the guard, then I headed to the Aquarium which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe and it was impressive. I then just browsed around past a few museums, througha few parks, up and down the various hills of Monaco and just generally took in the place. Saturday night I headed out for a nice dinner at Lorenzo's which wasn't too bad - 50 Euro then I headed to the Casino. 10 Euro cover charge followed by a 15 Euro Jack's and Coke followed by a 20 Euro series of bets at Roulette and nearly another 50 euro was gone. I actually won the first spin and doubled my money but felt ripped off about stopping there so continued to bet and lost the lot. Oh well.
On the way back to the hotel, I again past an assortment of nice cars. One nightclub has a little car park with the following all parked next to each other: Porsche, porsche, lambo, ferrari, porsche, aston martin, aston martin. Crazy. Accross the road was another lambo, another aston, and two bentlys. Damn.
Sunday I slept in, got up, wandered down to the hotel's private beach (I wasn't exactly slumming it hotel wise) and after a few minutes of mentally building up to it, i through myself into the ocean. It was freezing and I was out within 5 mins of getting in. I then layed on the beach chairs and soaked in the lovely 18 degree sunshine. Not exactly warm but bear in mind, I've had no warmer than 8 odd degrees in the last 2 and a bit months.
Wasted the rest of Sunday walking around, some the Exotic Gardens which was cool then headed back, checked out, and got picked up and taken to my departure location - the Monaco helipad. That's right, I left Monaco the way the players leave, by Helicopter. 80 Euros saw a 6/7 min flight back to Nice airport. Very VIP and very cool.
Countless hours of layovers later and I'm back here in Stuttgart.
Hope you are all well.
Speak to you soon!
Dave
Well, Friday night I took off for Monaco which was a journey in itself. Flight to Zurich, layover, flight to Nice, cab to train station, wait, train to Monte-Carlo. Got in around 1:15am and passed out.
Saturday got up, saw 5 Ferrari's in the space of about 15mins and realised this was no ordinary destination. As I approached the main harbour, it became infintely clear that I was the poorest person in the principality by about $5m odd. The yachts, cars, shops, food, cabs, etc are just super expensive and everywhere. If you don't drive your Ferrari/Porsche/Aston Martin/Rolls/Bently/Maseratti down to your yacht which could double as a 500 room hotel, then you don't deserve to be in Monaco. I spent most of my time drooling and picking my jaw up off the pavement.
There isn't a whole lot to actually do in Monaco but what they recommend is going and seeing the Prince's castle, which I did, where I watched the changing of the guard, then I headed to the Aquarium which is supposed to be one of the best in Europe and it was impressive. I then just browsed around past a few museums, througha few parks, up and down the various hills of Monaco and just generally took in the place. Saturday night I headed out for a nice dinner at Lorenzo's which wasn't too bad - 50 Euro then I headed to the Casino. 10 Euro cover charge followed by a 15 Euro Jack's and Coke followed by a 20 Euro series of bets at Roulette and nearly another 50 euro was gone. I actually won the first spin and doubled my money but felt ripped off about stopping there so continued to bet and lost the lot. Oh well.
On the way back to the hotel, I again past an assortment of nice cars. One nightclub has a little car park with the following all parked next to each other: Porsche, porsche, lambo, ferrari, porsche, aston martin, aston martin. Crazy. Accross the road was another lambo, another aston, and two bentlys. Damn.
Sunday I slept in, got up, wandered down to the hotel's private beach (I wasn't exactly slumming it hotel wise) and after a few minutes of mentally building up to it, i through myself into the ocean. It was freezing and I was out within 5 mins of getting in. I then layed on the beach chairs and soaked in the lovely 18 degree sunshine. Not exactly warm but bear in mind, I've had no warmer than 8 odd degrees in the last 2 and a bit months.
Wasted the rest of Sunday walking around, some the Exotic Gardens which was cool then headed back, checked out, and got picked up and taken to my departure location - the Monaco helipad. That's right, I left Monaco the way the players leave, by Helicopter. 80 Euros saw a 6/7 min flight back to Nice airport. Very VIP and very cool.
Countless hours of layovers later and I'm back here in Stuttgart.
Hope you are all well.
Speak to you soon!
Dave
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