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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2888 |
16th June 2016 Hiking - Walking: Around Monaco :) Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods and showers Max Speed: Distance Covered: 12.38 mile (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 16th June – Hike **** Around Monaco :) sunny periods and showers. 12.38 miles out 6hrs.35 mins ! We were up and on the road to Monaco by 10. We had to navigate the windy road down to Menton again but no major problems this morning! We followed the road round to the Cap Martin where we had biked to yesterday and were pleased that we had a rather dull day to do it as today, with the sun out, the prom was a lot more crowded and it would have made it difficult for us to bike round the bay. After the Cap we took the first turning to the right and found ourselves at the Roquebrune Cap Martin railway station. We parked really easily and after taking the subway under the railway line found the signs to the Sentier Littoral to Monaco straight away! We did have a bit of a detour down to a public beach because of a badly positioned sign but it was nice to look at the clear water with what really looked like a beach for a change! There were an awful lot of steps down which we had to climb back up again to get onto the path. We then had a second detour because the path was shut and we had to go back under the railway line and came up high above the sea front and heading straight into Monte Carlo. We were a bit fed up about this deviation initially but when we saw the view our new route gave you down to the sea, the marina and up to the many sky scrapers which make up Monaco we thought it was a stroke of luck. The old buildings are very beautiful and there were a surprising amount of them up on our level. They are, at times, completely blocked in by the new sky scraping horrors and a lot of them can’t see out of their windows for the many tropical plants they let grow too big on their balconies! There are a huge number of buildings with roof gardens too. We have never seen so many rubber plants grown into huge trees! We found ourselves at the top of a strange run of new buildings which house the big designer named shops, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior etc., all complete with flunkies and doormen bouncers! This space age mall then gave way to the Monte Carlo casino which is an old building with lots of history and the Hotel de Paris alongside. There were many flunkies here, one guy in a posh uniform was parking cars which had just been abandoned by their rich owners in the middle of the road! We navigated our way round the tourists and headed to the front of the casino where we found a roof garden park with views over the marina. We stopped here to have our packed lunch and not far away a gang of workmen from a nearby construction site were having their lunch too. We carried on on a higher level than the marina thinking we would return along the front. We were able to look down on a couple of private clubs where people were lounging around in their posh bath robes and positioning themselves on their sunbeds! We reached the far side of the marina which had an amazing amount of access to the big yachts. We were able to get quite close to one which was just leaving. It was a very ugly grey thing and looked more like a warship but it was fun watching the staff talking into their walkie talkies as they prepared to leave and finally went! There was a really lovely bright blue huge sleek mini ocean liner called Madame Gu – that was our favourite and it had a Bentley alongside which was dropping off its rich passengers! A passing tourist reckoned that you could count on these vessels being a million per metre so there was an awful lot of millions in Madame Gu!! No helicopters on the yachts here but there were a lot coming in and landing in front of the buildings beyond the Palace. There is a big festival of American TV on in Monte Carlo at the moment and another huge ship was having blacked out people carriers bringing clothes, bags and people out to board ready for a jolly! We walked back along the upper pathway of the marina and followed the signs to the Palais. Amazingly once we had followed the path around the rocky coast (complete with outdoor swimming area for the public!) we found ourselves inside a building with escalators to take you up inside the rock to the very top where the principality buildings and old town are. There is a museum of Oceanography but we didn’t feel tempted to go in there. We walked through the tropical gardens to the Cathedral and then the old streets containing lots of souvenir shops. We had already bought 3 post cards from the shop at the top of the escalator! Then eventually we came to the Palais of the Grimaldi family and watched the guard in his very very white uniform go through his marching performance – it reminded us of a Disneyland performance really! Found the steps down past the old canons and piles of old canon balls and at the bottom came across a Spar shop so we repeated our ice cream trick from the other day and bought a lemon meringue flavour tub and used some more of our plastic spoon supply! A cheap treat in an expensive place ;) Unfortunately just as we emerged from the shop it decided to rain for a while :( We didn’t get very wet as it was only a light shower – we just sat and ate our ice cream on the side of the marina. Then we started the long walk back, coming across the start from the Monaco Grand Prix in the middle of an ordinary street with rectangles drawn on the road for poll, second and third etc grid positions!! We walked along the prom and beach path until it disappeared and turned into a lot of steps up. We didn’t quite know where the diversion from this morning would appear and when it did it appeared to send you along the side of the railway line! We soon discovered this wasn’t quite right but climbed over a gate to get back onto the path because there was no way we were walking back the way we had come!!! Reached the station and sunk into our seats in the van more than ready for a drink and a rest!! Decided to stay here as we are too tired to try and negotiate Monaco and Nice today! No view but we intend to go back to that public beach just across the railway line tomorrow morning for a swim in the sea :) Photo Gallery Here |
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