Welcome to Money Carlo, Monaco!

Uh, Monte Carlo. Thanks to the Mistral winds, we sailed into Monaco harbor on a spectacularly beautiful morning. Monaco is Europe's second smallest country (after Vatican City) so all of it's single square mile surface area is visible from the ship. (BTW, if you want to own any of that area, an average apartment will start at US$2500/square foot - yes, I asked). It's tucked up against the hills, curves around the cove/harbor and is surrounded by France proper. The official resident language is Managouques, although French and Italian are both spoken throughout. BTW, there are only approx 8000 true, passport-carrying residents of Monaco among it's 35,000 residents - you must either be born within Monaco proper or be granted citizenship by the prince by submitting a formal letter-of-request, accompanied by a laaaarge check. Also of interest, those 8000 citizens are banned from the casino?!?

Our day started with a coach drive up to the Medievel village of Eze, originally a fortified castle perched on a rocky peak. Narrow, winding alleys lined with homes and shops coexist with a fascinating old cemetary and spectacular panoramas of the coast and Monaco below.

Our coach then returned us to the "Old Town" in Monaco (la roche) to visit the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in which Princess Grace and Prince Rainier were married and are now interred, along with all other Princes and Princesses of Monaco. The area also contains the Town Hall and Prince Rainier's personal residence.

Rather than take the coach back to the ship, we left the group and headed over to see the famous Casino, hotels we'll never stay in, shops we can't afford and cars I'll never drive. A white Lambo pulled up and we followed it's driver into the Hotel de Paris where the doorman immediately recognized us as riffraff and tried to shuffle us out a side door. I sniffed haughtily and we left of our own accord. We strolled down the grand avenue, past the Formula 1 Gran Prix starting line (stopping for an obvious photo op) and around the harbor, back to the Mariner.