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Now, I'm up to day 9 of our trip. It was a Tuesday already. We learned starting on Wednesday, the streets in Monaco were going to be closed for the Grand Prix. So we figured we'd better make our trip there before that happened. Because of the wild party the night before, I was afraid the guys wouldn't be able to get up early enough for the trip. But the husbands surprised me--they all got up respectably early, and we were able to leave the villa for Monaco before noon (we had such a large party, it was quite a feat to get everyone and everything ready).
Since we had three families all together, we were driving in three separate cars. We ended up being the last car following the other two. Not bad, we thought, we didn't have the map and it was nice not having to worry about where to go--just follow the leaders!
We came to the first toll booth--oops, not enough changes, the smallest bill I had was a €10. Fortunately I spotted an attendant with a bag of coins walking among the gates to exchange money for the hapless motorists. The only problem was we had to wait for her to come to our gate. Ha! By the time we passed through the toll, our friends were nowhere in sight! Uhm, what now? Geoff and I looked at each other--we were separated from the group, and we had our friends' son with us again. I was afraid that our friends would worry about their son. I did recall that we (especially the ladies) had all put on our swimsuits under the cover-alls. So I suggested once we got to Monaco, we should find beaches to look for them.
As we got near Monaco, the road signs were getting complicated. We passed a sign pointing to Monaco, and I cried out for Geoff to turn the car around--to me, the sign seemed to be pointing to a side road branching off to the right. Geoff was suspicious, but he made the U-turn anyway and went back there to take the side road. Soon after we got on the road, it became evident that we had taken the wrong direction. The road was getting smaller and narrower by the second. It looked like it was a dead-end. Geoff was being facetious and needled me that no one would be so "dumb" to misread the road sign. I didn't even have time to take offense at his jests, we came to the dead-end, and I looked up--there they were--our friends and their cars "boxed in" at the end of the road!
Geoff and I got out of the car laughing. But above everything, we were relieved we found our friends. The guys quickly conferred on how to get back on the right track, and we then resumed our journey. It turned out we weren't too far from Monaco at that point. Once we figured out we should have veered right AFTER we pass that sign pointing to Monaco, it was pretty straight forward to get there.
Before long, we were at the "heart" of Monaco. We came to a circle, and our car was stopped by the traffic light. Not again! By the time the light turned green, our friends' cars were nowhere in sight! We learned later that they had entered the Casino Parking structure right after they went through the traffic light, but neither Geoff nor I saw them entering the parking lot. We ended up circling the place many times and went back and forth on the nearby streets looking for them. It was already in the early afternoon, Geoff and kids were getting hungry since they haven't had lunch. At one point, we went back to the circle where we lost our friends (or they lost us), Geoff wanted to park the car in the same Casino Parking lot so that we could walk around and look for a place to eat. But I nipped the idea because I argued our friends were heading to the beaches, not casinos! Turned out I was full of bad ideas that day--had we parked our car there, we'd saw our friends hanging around the casinos waiting for us and looking for a place to eat themselves!
Anyway, our quest for the beaches had led us toward the Italian part of Monaco. We found a small cafe off the street and went in for lunch. The place was actually quite nice, we had appetizer, salad, sandwiches, and beers for less than €40 (it was quite cheap comparing to the other places we've been to lately). After lunch, we resumed our search for the beaches. Not too far down the road, I noticed a sign with a beach umbrella. We followed the road sign and found what we were looking for! We did have to trek lots of steps and a tunnel to get to the beach after we parked our car. The beach was unlike anywhere I've been to before--it was full of pebbles and not a grain of sand!
Kids had a blast at the beach. I challenged Andy and his little friend to find the most interesting pebbles. The stones were hard, prickly and painful to the feet, but they were warmed by the sun. Geoff came up with this idea of having me put the rocks all over his back so that he could enjoy a "hot stone treatment!" He urged me to try it as well, but I wasn't relishing the idea of having rocks all over my body--I might end up with a marbled tan!
We had given up on finding our friends in Monaco by then. So we relaxed by the beach. Geoff and kids got into skipping pebbles in the ocean! Geoff was really good at making the rocks skimming and jumping on the ocean surface. He even taught Andy's little friend on how to skip stones. Andy on the other hand, was mostly interested in looking for "treasures" among the pebbles.
We stayed at the beach until it was past 17:00. Again, I was worried that our friends would miss their son, so I wanted to head back. On the way back though, Geoff decided to stop at the Palace museum since we might not get a chance to come to Monaco again. He also argued that if we got back before our friends, we would not be able to get in the villa anyway since they had the gate openers. Oh well, I wanted to see Monaco too, so it wasn't too hard to convince me. We parked our car at the public parking for the Palace. To our amazement, the same parking structure was used to house trucks for various race teams, and some crews were assembling race cars right there in the parking garage! The boys were excited to see that.
From the parking garage, we took the elevator to get to the upper part of the city. It was gorgeous--we saw the imposing Oceanography Museum, the Cathedral (I'm guessing that's where Grace Kelly married her prince), and of course, the palace. We also found an alcove off a street that had a very nice view over looking Monte Carlo down below. We spent some time wondering around and enjoy the views. I was quite impressed by what I saw--Monaco seemed to be a city carved off the cliff to me. I wish I had time to come here early enough when every thing would be open.
It was getting late, and I started to feel really uncomfortable for our friends not knowing where their son was. So we headed back to the villa. As it happened, we were right behind our friends' "heels"--we got back 5 minutes after they did! Turned out they had spent most of their time around Monte Carlo and casinos, but they did get to go to a beach around there for a little while late in the afternoon. They also told us that although starting the next day, the streets in Monte Carlo would be closed during the day, they would be reopened again after 19:00. We shared our experiences of our day. It was then I learned that our friends had made a dinner reservation for the following night at a Michelin 2-star restaurant in Metropole hotel! {{excited}}
Since we had three families all together, we were driving in three separate cars. We ended up being the last car following the other two. Not bad, we thought, we didn't have the map and it was nice not having to worry about where to go--just follow the leaders!
We came to the first toll booth--oops, not enough changes, the smallest bill I had was a €10. Fortunately I spotted an attendant with a bag of coins walking among the gates to exchange money for the hapless motorists. The only problem was we had to wait for her to come to our gate. Ha! By the time we passed through the toll, our friends were nowhere in sight! Uhm, what now? Geoff and I looked at each other--we were separated from the group, and we had our friends' son with us again. I was afraid that our friends would worry about their son. I did recall that we (especially the ladies) had all put on our swimsuits under the cover-alls. So I suggested once we got to Monaco, we should find beaches to look for them.
As we got near Monaco, the road signs were getting complicated. We passed a sign pointing to Monaco, and I cried out for Geoff to turn the car around--to me, the sign seemed to be pointing to a side road branching off to the right. Geoff was suspicious, but he made the U-turn anyway and went back there to take the side road. Soon after we got on the road, it became evident that we had taken the wrong direction. The road was getting smaller and narrower by the second. It looked like it was a dead-end. Geoff was being facetious and needled me that no one would be so "dumb" to misread the road sign. I didn't even have time to take offense at his jests, we came to the dead-end, and I looked up--there they were--our friends and their cars "boxed in" at the end of the road!
Geoff and I got out of the car laughing. But above everything, we were relieved we found our friends. The guys quickly conferred on how to get back on the right track, and we then resumed our journey. It turned out we weren't too far from Monaco at that point. Once we figured out we should have veered right AFTER we pass that sign pointing to Monaco, it was pretty straight forward to get there.
Before long, we were at the "heart" of Monaco. We came to a circle, and our car was stopped by the traffic light. Not again! By the time the light turned green, our friends' cars were nowhere in sight! We learned later that they had entered the Casino Parking structure right after they went through the traffic light, but neither Geoff nor I saw them entering the parking lot. We ended up circling the place many times and went back and forth on the nearby streets looking for them. It was already in the early afternoon, Geoff and kids were getting hungry since they haven't had lunch. At one point, we went back to the circle where we lost our friends (or they lost us), Geoff wanted to park the car in the same Casino Parking lot so that we could walk around and look for a place to eat. But I nipped the idea because I argued our friends were heading to the beaches, not casinos! Turned out I was full of bad ideas that day--had we parked our car there, we'd saw our friends hanging around the casinos waiting for us and looking for a place to eat themselves!
Anyway, our quest for the beaches had led us toward the Italian part of Monaco. We found a small cafe off the street and went in for lunch. The place was actually quite nice, we had appetizer, salad, sandwiches, and beers for less than €40 (it was quite cheap comparing to the other places we've been to lately). After lunch, we resumed our search for the beaches. Not too far down the road, I noticed a sign with a beach umbrella. We followed the road sign and found what we were looking for! We did have to trek lots of steps and a tunnel to get to the beach after we parked our car. The beach was unlike anywhere I've been to before--it was full of pebbles and not a grain of sand!
Kids had a blast at the beach. I challenged Andy and his little friend to find the most interesting pebbles. The stones were hard, prickly and painful to the feet, but they were warmed by the sun. Geoff came up with this idea of having me put the rocks all over his back so that he could enjoy a "hot stone treatment!" He urged me to try it as well, but I wasn't relishing the idea of having rocks all over my body--I might end up with a marbled tan!
We had given up on finding our friends in Monaco by then. So we relaxed by the beach. Geoff and kids got into skipping pebbles in the ocean! Geoff was really good at making the rocks skimming and jumping on the ocean surface. He even taught Andy's little friend on how to skip stones. Andy on the other hand, was mostly interested in looking for "treasures" among the pebbles.
We stayed at the beach until it was past 17:00. Again, I was worried that our friends would miss their son, so I wanted to head back. On the way back though, Geoff decided to stop at the Palace museum since we might not get a chance to come to Monaco again. He also argued that if we got back before our friends, we would not be able to get in the villa anyway since they had the gate openers. Oh well, I wanted to see Monaco too, so it wasn't too hard to convince me. We parked our car at the public parking for the Palace. To our amazement, the same parking structure was used to house trucks for various race teams, and some crews were assembling race cars right there in the parking garage! The boys were excited to see that.
From the parking garage, we took the elevator to get to the upper part of the city. It was gorgeous--we saw the imposing Oceanography Museum, the Cathedral (I'm guessing that's where Grace Kelly married her prince), and of course, the palace. We also found an alcove off a street that had a very nice view over looking Monte Carlo down below. We spent some time wondering around and enjoy the views. I was quite impressed by what I saw--Monaco seemed to be a city carved off the cliff to me. I wish I had time to come here early enough when every thing would be open.
It was getting late, and I started to feel really uncomfortable for our friends not knowing where their son was. So we headed back to the villa. As it happened, we were right behind our friends' "heels"--we got back 5 minutes after they did! Turned out they had spent most of their time around Monte Carlo and casinos, but they did get to go to a beach around there for a little while late in the afternoon. They also told us that although starting the next day, the streets in Monte Carlo would be closed during the day, they would be reopened again after 19:00. We shared our experiences of our day. It was then I learned that our friends had made a dinner reservation for the following night at a Michelin 2-star restaurant in Metropole hotel! {{excited}}
