two backpacks and a diaper bag

Saturday, May 12th. Monaco. Originally, we had planned to go to Monaco on Monday. However, the train strike made it seem like there wouldn’t be any train going on Sunday and Monday. So our best chance to go would be today.

The train journey took about 30 minutes because it stopped multiple times in the various cities along the coast. The view was definitely very pretty, though.

Once we got off the train station, we took the elevator up, went to a souvenir store to get a pin and shot glass, and made our way to the exit. Interestingly, although there was another elevator up to the exit level, there were no other elevators to the street level. We had to take the escalators and then walk up a set of stairs.

I didn’t know this before but Monaco is a super small country built on a hill. So there were layers of streets and stairs and elevators all around.

Our first stop was Jardin Exotique. It was supposed to take only about half an hour of walking. But, with stops along the way to feed and change Arthur, put him to sleep, and enjoying the view, it ended up taking us about an hour or so.

Oh, right, and we visited Monaco on the day of the Historic Grand Prix. So as we walked the streets of Monaco, we could hear the roaring of race engines, a couple of levels below us, near the harbor.

This is such a pretty place. The streets were pristine clean, the greens were well-manicured, the buildings looked well taken care of, mostly modern-looking, and you could always get the view of the ocean.

The apartment buildings actually reminded me of Singapore. And there was always construction going on.

We passed by Princess Grace Hospital Centre and took the public elevator up to the Jardin Exotique level.

The elevator only had a “Start” button because you were either going up or down.

There were many ways to get to the Jardin. Our way turned out to be really good because we didn’t have to walk up a slope, and at the end, we only had to take the elevator up.

Right outside the garden, there was a small cafe with a wonderful view. We decided to stop by and grab something quick to eat.

Arthur woke up during the meal.

After the quick lunch, instead of visiting the garden, we decided to walk to Old Town.

At first we took the slope down, but then we took an elevator down a level. And another elevator down to another level. It took us to a small garden. Lots of kids and parents around.

And we continued our way and took the stairs down another level. And another level. And another level. We found ourselves in the lowest level of the city, which was the same level as the harbor.

We stopped by a Starbucks. Yup, that’s right. Starbucks. I was longing for a Frappuccino. And we fed and changed Arthur there.

Then we climbed up the slope/stairs up to the Old Town and Palace.

We could see the race from up here.

We ended up spending our afternoon walking around this area. We occasionally stopped to try to put Arthur to sleep. Unsuccessfully, multiple times.

We wanted to visit the cathedral, but there was an actual wedding happening so we were not able to go inside.

The walked the quaint streets of Old Town. It felt almost similar to other Old Towns we’ve visited, but this was cleaner and more well-maintained.

And the garden by the sea. Beautiful! Les Jardins Saint-Martin.

We successfully put Arthur to sleep at the Palace of Justice. And we decided to head back to the train station.

Except, some streets were closed. We couldn’t walk to the train station on a pedestrian slope. The guards asked us to turn around to the other side of Old Town.

We decided to take the bus instead. 2 Euro per person.

At the train station, we went directly to the platform for our train to Nice. We got there at about 5:30. The next train to Nice was at 5:52.

Arthur woke up around 5:45.

At 5:50, I noticed that the sign on our platform said that the train to Nice was going to arrive at 6:11. I told Sean, and he conjectured that it might be delayed.

But then I looked at the platform across from us, and the TV on that platform said Nice at 5:52. They had changed the platform on us!

The train was just arriving. I asked Sean if he would rather wait for the 6:11 or catch this one. He said we could catch this one.

So we quickly went down the stairs and went up the escalator to the other platform. I was carrying Arthur. Sean had folded the stroller. Everyone else on our platform just realized what was going on and they decided to do the same thing.

It was madness!

We got on the train and sat down. We probably should have walked up the platform further because our carriage became quite popular.

The man on the speaker came on and announced the change of platform. More and more people piled onto the train hoping to get in before the train departs.

It got really crowded in there.

For the next twenty minutes, we had a crowded carriage to Nice. Can’t believe they changed the platform on us!

Well, we got to Nice all right. We walked home, stopped by a couple of pharmacies to compare Pampers prices. Finally got two packs of Pampers, went home, cooked, and watched some YouTube late night shows.

I wish we had stayed in Monaco a couple of nights. A day trip was good, too, but a longer stay would have been nicer. I would love to walk around the city some more. Perhaps next time…