Monte Carlo Monaco.....Part 5 (the final part)

Last port on the cruise before heading back to Barcelona was Nice, France. Since it neighbors Monaco we opted to take an excursion to Monte Carlo to see the world famous Aquarium and walk the Palace grounds.

The port where we dock is really the prettiest port! We had no real dock to dock at, so they anchor in the bay area and you take a tender boat to shore from the cruise ship. Jeff and I had an excursion that didn't leave until around 1:00, so we were able to eat breakfast on the ship and enjoy the beautiful view.

The view from the cruise ship

Another view from the ship

So we headed to shore and got on a bus to head to Monaco. Beautiful curvy roads that leave France and head into Monaco. The weather that day was great too, so no rain and lots of sunshine.
Monaco is really where the "other half" lives. Amazing in beauty and you can just tell everywhere you look that only the richest can afford to live there. The bay area is filled with yachts and the palace grounds overlook the city. The Grand Prix was to start the weekend after our cruise so they were set up for Grand Prix already and we got to see the stands lining the streets and all the signage. And even though a lot of the roads were blocked off we were able to ride the bus along a short route of it and experience the narrow and curvy roads.

Our first stop was the aquarium. Jeff and I had really been looking forward to seeing it. Boy was I a bit disappointed. It's a nice building to see and there is a lot of nice things in the museum but it's just not what I thought it would be. Lots of tanks filled with blue formaldehyde that encased dead animals like doves, sharks and even a sheep slip in half so you could see the inside! They call this ART! And we were told that no pictures were allowed. The place was filled with security and it was impossible to enjoy the parts that were nice. Our guide wasn't great that day and she took us all over the museum part and then only allowed us about 20 minutes to enjoy the aquarium and the fish. But we did see a HUGE sea turtle!

The artist advertised on the banner is the one that does all the dead animals in formaldehyde

Monaco Aquarium, main entrance

This was also outside the aquarium. Kind of creepy if you ask me!

Our next stop was the cathedral in Monaco where Grace Kelly is laid to rest. Beautiful cathedral!

The cathedral in Monaco

We walked along the Palace grounds and got to overlook the city down below. We were suppose to go by the Grand Casino but there is some construction and such going on there so we didn't actually end up going by. But Monaco is really beautiful and the gardens surrounding the area are beautiful as well. I wish we would have got to see Nice too or went to Cannes as well but we just didn't have enough time to do both and we really wanted to see the aquarium. I think in hindsight, had we known what the aquarium was going to be like, we would have opted to take a different tour. BUT it was really neat to see Grand Prix area while it's set up and it was really nice to see the harbor area.

Overlooking part of the harbor from the palace grounds. You can see the blue stands for Grand Prix

The harbor from the palace grounds

The palace in Monaco where Prince Albert lives

Some of the beautiful gardens in Monaco

All in all the cruise was really nice. We had a great time and we made a new friend on board. We really enjoyed Barcelona too. I couldn't have been happier with the opportunity to see Italy.

So that's it for the cruise. I guess now I have to find something new to blog about!