Our flight back to England was out of Nice. And so, taking advantage of the fact that we had to drive towards Nice anyway, we decided to swing by Monaco as well!
By the way, driving on the freeway in Southern France was one of the weirdest experiences in Europe as it seemed that dozens of people had dropped some random equipment, boxes, sticks, bricks--whatever--from their vehicles and now they were left on the freeway for people to crash into. We were fortunate to avoid all of those debris on the road, but sometimes it was a very close call.
A couple of things about Monaco, while we wait in traffic to drive into the city.
Monaco is the second smallest country in the world (Vatican is the smallest one)--1.24 square miles area. People native to Monaco are called Monegasque but those who were born somewhere else and then moved to Monaco are called Monacoian. Monaco gained its independence from the Republic of Genoa (that's Italy) in 1297. Now it's the home of many rich foreigners. Who own a lot of nice yachts.
We didn't visit the famous Monte Carlo Casino, but I think it would have been a cool experience. It's crazy but Monaco residents are not allowed to gamble at the casino here! Let the foreigners gamble away their money:)
Instead, we wanted to do something to feel like the locals. So we went to the pool that is located right near the port to swim with the Monacoians and Monegasques! It's called Stade Nautique Rainier III.
It was a very fun experience to be swimming right in the middle of Monte Carlo!
And a very affordable too, unlike other things in Monaco.
We spent several hours here.
And some of us even were brave enough to take a plunge from the jumping board:
Katya
and Alex.
The rest of the time we relaxed and "tanned". Twenty percent of that relaxing time hwe were averting our eyes from a 70 year old woman lying next to us without the top part of her swimsuit:). "Go children, jump into the pool, QUICK!":)
After showering and getting changed into dry clothes we walked up the hill to the central part of Monaco.
We saw the Prince's Palace.
And his fancy white-uniformed guards.
And we did feel like we were visiting a small fairytale land.
We bought a couple of pizzas and ate them in the park overlooking the harbor. Blissful!
It was early evening by then so we headed to Nice to find the airport.
Pretty soon, after returning our rental car without any hiccups, we were on the plane to go back to Stansted. We arrived to England shortly before midnight and as we arrived to the parking lot to pick up our car, it struck midnight. So of course, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" to Katya right there and right then. She was turning 13th on July 6th! The kids were tired but excited.
We think this last trip in Europe was a success all around.
Until next time...
Lyana.
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