Monte Carlo

What a beautiful place, very chick, and clean and a lot of money there. You should see the cars and the yachts, too much money. I would like to have a little more money but I don’t want that much.

I walked the country which is not big. I visited the Prince Rainier palace, well, Albert’s now; actually it is call “Palais Princier” and the old town surrounding it. At 11:55 everyday day they have the changing of the guards, they are so cute in their white uniforms.

 I walk the entire boardwalk around the Port de Fonteville, Port Hercule, Monte Carlo and the beaches of Larvotto. A very nice walk that only took about 2 slow hours.

I also visited the Jardin Exotique and I will recommend you take a bus going there, they are far and uphill and they are not easy to find, the signage are very confusing.

There are many museums and exhibitions many of them about Princes Grace, I did not go into any of them, and they also have a big aquarium where you can visit their nursery.

                I went to the casino which is beautiful, I took pictures of the outside only because you are not allowed cameras inside of it which is a shame because it’s beautiful, really nice and classy, the atrium has spectacular marble floors and onyx columns and the ceilings are decorated with frescos. They have an American lounge = slot machines, and then the regular roulette and black jack, however you can only go to this one lounge all the other ones are private. I did not gamble as I can’t afford to lose.

Everything is beautiful and very rich but of course it’s the playground of the rich and famous, however, Punta del Este has nothing to envy of Monte Carlo, the beaches are beautiful with white sand, the casino it’s great, well it’s the playground of the rich and famous.

 Actually all the beaches in Uruguay have white fine sand, in Montevideo the water it’s a little murky sometimes because it’s the river, but on the Atlantic Ocean beaches the water is green and clean and not stones, just miles and miles of sand and dunes.

I am not saying this because I am from Uruguay, I am saying it because I been to many beaches in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe, and we do have better or as good beaches than most place

Of course I walked the street with all the expensive shops and window shop and then I walk the street with the regular shops.

I had a great day, it was very hot but I did not care because the place was gorgeous.

Nice

I bought a train ticket to Nice and I will be playing tourist until I have to go to Italy.

 The HI hostel has a great location, its right in the centre, about 7 blocks from the train station, 7 blocks from the beach and 5 blocks from the old town, behind the mall and a supermarket 2 blocks away, just great.

The water was a beautiful color blue, well, they don’t call it the blue coast for nothing.  The only thing is that there is not sand, it’s all stones, and let me tell you it’s not comfortable at all trying to lay down on them. Still it was nice being in the sun looking at a blue sky with not a cloud on sight.

Nice is the oldest settlement in Europe and the second largest city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille.  Now a day it’s the second most visited place in France after Paris.

The town use to be surrounded by a protective wall, however when the English started to come to Nice to get away from their winter about 250 yrs. ago the wall was destroyed to make a promenade called the Promenade des Anglais =  Walkway of the English, this way it was more appealing to them. Actually it is a very nice promenade which I walked a few times in the evening when it is a little cooler.

The whole town is very nice and very easy to walk. The old part it’s great with all the restaurants and cafes and little stores, the centre is nice just like any other centre in Europe.

At the end of the center and the entrance to the  old part there is a promenade with the statues of 7 men which represent each continent and each statue it’s looking in the direction of the continent they represent and at night they light up in different colors, very nice.

 At the end of the promenade there is Massena Square which is the main square of the town and contains a fountain with the statue of Apollo. This square is at the end of many roads and what links the centre to the old city and the way into the promenade and the beach.

 

Another nice place is the Garibaldi Square at the end of the old town and near the market square.

Near the Garibaldi place I eat at a little pizzeria some Socca = Faina = Kalinte, really good. I grew up eating pizza with faina, so when I saw it here I of course I had to have it and it was nice because it was eaten the same way that we do in Uruguay with pepper on top.

Jean Medecin was the Mayor of Nice for 33 years and his son Jacques succeeded as mayor for 24 years. Under their leadership the city had an economic boom, however an investigation about Jacques leadership proved racketeering so he fled to Uruguay where he was later capture and extradited back to France where he was convicted of corruption and sentence to jail.