We got up and walked 25 minutes back to our friend’s hotel. The girls stole Paul away and the 3 decided to skip Monaco and stay in Nice. The 6 adults walked to the train station to catch a train to Monaco as we had heard that parking there would be harder than driving there. We found the automated ticket machines in the train station and quickly mastered the French interface but could not get the machine to accept our Mastercard. I finally noted that the machine said (in English even) that it only accepted smart cards. We stood in line the old fashion way to get tickets.

We arrived in Monaco just before noon and walked up the 154 stair steps to the palace just inn time to watch the changing of the guard. The day was picture perfect, not too hot nor too cold (when you were not climbing 154 steps).

As we looked down on the town from the palace and old town we saw numerous yachts (some of them simply enormous) and a Holland American cruise ship. We wandered the smaller lanes in the old town, did some shopping and bought food to picnic in front of the palace.

At the other end of the old town we saw the chapel where many of the monarchs of Monaco are buried including Princess Grace and Prince Ranier.

We walked back to the train station and hopped on the train to Nice. I texted Liz and found out that she Paul and Danna were back at the apartment. They offered to make dinner if we would bring the groceries. That is not an offer one turns down. They made us a nice pasta dinner complete with a nice bottle of Burgundy which was only 2 euros.

After dinner we walked down to the water while it was still light. We walked along the Quai des Etas Unis until it turned into the Avenue Des Anglais. We had heard the beach was pebbles but really it is rocks or stones. The beach front area, especially just behind the Quai des Etas Unis seemed surprisingly under utilized to me. Much of it seemed to be closed stores or perhaps the backs of buildings.

We stopped at an restaurant for some (expensive) ice cream and crepes and then walked up to an area near the train station with an abundance of internet cafes so that people could reconnect with home. We left Jim, Marylyn and Paul there at about 11pm to walk back to the aparentment. We tried to stop at our car in the garage and pick up some dirty laundry but the garage appeared closed.