Requirements for Monte Carlo-Monaco: Rich, Famous and Great Knees!

Requirements for Monte Carlo-Monaco: Rich, Famous and Great Knees!

You know what they say about best laid plans! That’s kind of what happened today. All along we had been planning to go to the Aquarium of Monaco. It’s the former home base for Jacques Cousteau. Somewhere along the way, we changed the plan to go to Nice, France. We went there before and is a very nice city (get it?).

We left the ship this morning and headed out towards the train station. We have a map identifying its location. Pedestrians are routed here and there. Normal sidewalks are “hidden” by barricades set up for the Grand Prix of Monaco in early May. So we zig and we zag, working our way towards the train station. We finally arrive, but wait, this is just a tunnel! There are people movers taking us down other tunnels where we finally see train tracks. We are somewhere deep inside a mountain. Monaco is pretty much built on the side of a mountain. I don’t think there is hardly any flat land in the country!

OK, next problem is how to buy a ticket. There isn’t a single worker in the tunnel. The whole system is completely automated. There are kiosks for purchasing your tickets. They are only in French, but we figure it out. Two tickets to Nice, round trip today, 2nd class—buy. Next the machine wants you to make your payment of 13.60 Euro. Insert coins or credit cards. Great—none of our credit cards work in the machine and we only have paper bills, no coins. So its back out of the tunnel and find a Tobacco Store (they sell everything). Of course, “Nope, we don’t sell train cards.” OK, how about a Diet Coke? (to get some change) So its back down the tunnel to the ticket machines-- Two tickets to Nice, round trip today, 2nd class—buy. Ooooops—we don’t have enough change! OK, how about Two tickets to Nice, one way trip today, 2nd class—buy? SUCCESS! OK, next problem—which track? Remember the drill? Go down the stairs, under the tracks and back up the other stairs by the track! Nope—wrong track! Go back down the stairs, under the tracks and back up the other stairs by another track! I think we’re in the right place now. I wonder when the train is going to be here? Along come some train experts and we quiz them about details.

In the end, they talked us out of going. They told us that the neighborhoods around the train are not so Nice and we only have one train to come back on or else we will miss our boat! FORGET IT, we’re not going. Oh well, we spent 6.80 Euros, and now we know exactly how to get from Monte Carlo to Nice!

By now Maridee’s knee had had it and she was getting grouchy from all the up and down so we headed back to the ship and called it a day!

P.S. In trying to post this blog we found a free Wi-Fi at the front of our ship based from Monaco. We went back there to upload the pictures and the ship’s maintenance had forgotten to post wet paint! We stepped somewhere and had blue paint on the bottom of our shoes! We took a few steps (thinking it might be water) and made tracks of blue shoe prints on their nice teak decks. So stuck as you might say, we found someone to get us help and they brought out turpentine and wiped the blue off of our feet and the deck! What a day!!! Nothing went right!!!!! Print this post