Monaco - Cote d'Azur
Monaco
Sunday 28th June 2009
Stayed the night at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, went gambling at the famous casino, and got confused and bewlidered by the windy streets of Monaco.
Cote d'Azur
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| 09:54:53 Breakfast at the hotel we stayed at the previous night, very near to the station in Nice. | 09:55:02 Very typical French breakfast... | 09:56:11 Coffee wasn't bad considering it came out of a sort of self service vending machine. |
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| 10:19:16 The stairwell in the hotel. | 10:21:54 A view of railway, with a TGV passing through, from the window of our hotel. | 12:13:38 Chie in Nice station, waiting for the train to Monaco. |
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| 12:44:09 On the train now - very nice views to be had along the coast between Nice and Monaco. | 12:44:13 Same thing again. | 13:12:32 ...and here we are in Monaco! |
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| 13:54:24 This is taken from our room at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel - a somewhat nicer view than the previous night's hotel. | 13:54:29 ...and facing in slightly the other direction. | 13:55:16 This was undoubtedly the best room of the whole week's holiday. |
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| 13:55:23 Chie helping to demonstrate the size of it. | 13:56:03 Chie on the balcony. | 14:25:37 Interesting lifts at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel. |
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| 14:25:44 | 14:25:51 ...so much so they apparently merited three pictures. | 14:28:30 The fountain outside the hotel. |
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| 14:47:44 Off for a wander around Monte Carlo. This was fairly successful to start with, as we fairly soon stumbled upon this Japanese garden... | 14:50:21 ...standard attempt to take an arty shot of the Japanese garden in the foreground with the highrise buildings of Monaco behind. | 14:51:53 ...and more of the same. Apparently Princess Grace had liked Japan. |
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| 14:54:02 A view across the bay of Monte Carlo. | 14:54:13 ...and out to sea - looks like a cruise liner out there perhaps? | 15:04:28 The front of the opera house. |
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| 15:20:33 We started to fair less well from here on, getting lost in the endless maze of windy little streets that make up Monaco... | 15:23:40 ...with roads on lots of different levels that are very hard to get between... | 15:25:46 ...there's the front of the station, seen from above. |
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| 15:25:57 In hindsight the streets of Monaco look eclectic and interesting, but at the time it was oppressively hot and it was like a bewildering labyrinth. Not a place to go for a random stroll! | 15:35:27 Next week they'd be hosting the start of the Tour de France. | 16:00:20 The weird little multicolour tunnel leading into the shopping centre. |
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| 16:46:13 Eventually we made it back to our hotel, which it turns out is on the Monaco-France board, as this sign attests. | 16:50:48 While we were out some little gifts had arrived - I really like these nice little touches. | 20:41:32 In the evening we got dressed up to go to the casino, here we are taking a picture of ourselves in the mirror in our hotel room... |
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| 20:43:34 ....and again in the lift... how very vain! | 20:50:13 Waiting outside the hotel for a taxi. | 21:41:53 In the interests of not exacerbating what could turn out to be a very expensive evening, we decided to go for a modest dinner at an Italian restaurant called "Tip Top" recommended to us by the taxi driver. |
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| 21:54:35 There was a slightly unnerving rotating barrel thing above our heads. | 22:02:40 ...which they pinned orders to. In hindsight these don't make for very interesting pictures! | 23:17:25 The doors to the casino, taken after leaving (they don't allow photography inside). |
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| 23:18:37 Me in front of the Monte Carlo casino with the staggering 5 Euro profit I made from my gambling exploits. I'd turned 50 Euros into chips, and almost lost the lot on the roulette table, but with one of my last few chips clawed back 40 Euros. | 23:18:43 I'm really rather pleased with this, as hopefully you can tell from this picture. | 23:19:55 The Monte Carlo casino by night. |
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| 23:21:08 There's a sequence of fountains going up the hill from the casino which offer some nice views (can also see the famous Hotel de Paris on the right hand side). | 23:21:37 Chie and the fountain. | 23:22:58 Can jut about see the casino poking through this fountain. |
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| 23:24:09 I think this is the last one. | 00:50:32 Back at our hotel now, the view from our room by night. |
