Noon Report:

• Location: N 43° 44.17′, E 007° 25.86′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: 12º C; 54º F
• Wind: ESE 5 knots; 6 mph

We arrived in Monaco shortly before 10:00 AM – so the decks were full of people watching us back in to the harbor as we came ever closer to multi-million dollar yachts docked there. Our bridge crew is really good, though, and docking was slow and smooth.

Our excursion – a “Walking Tour of the Old Town” was scheduled for 11:00.
We met our group on the pier and walked toward “the Rock”.

Along the way our guide talked about the layout of the principality. First, Monaco is built nearly vertically as it is a very small area. Then, Monaco is divided into 5 districts. The most famous are The Rock and Monte Carlo (“Mt. Charles” – named after one of their princes). The Rock is the oldest district – home to the Grimaldi Palace and the Cathedral.

The Monte Carlo Casino has been made famous in many James Bond and other spy intrigue films.

Our guide led us on a path that circles the base of the Rock some 20 meters above the sea level. This brought us to a view of the Oceanographic Institute as it faced the sea.

From there we took 2 escalators, an elevator, and another escalator to get up to the street level.

May is right around the corner and the city is busy setting up for the Grand Prix of Monaco – one of the most famous races for Formula 1 cars. The first race (for electric Formula 1 racers) is next week. The rest of the month is filled with other activities culminating with the big race on May 28.
The “track” runs thru the streets of Monaco and the whole city basically shuts down for the events.
Our guide mentioned that super yachts book docking space well in advance and in many cases pay more in docking fees than the yacht cost – and they cost several million dollars (the local millionaire yacht owners have to leave the harbor so the mega millionaire’s can dock there for the races).

Our goal on the walk was to get to the Palace in time for the noon time changing of the guard. I shot video and eventually hope to post it here. Until then, here are a few photos shot by Cheryl over the heads of the crowd in front of us:

Once the guards were safely changed, the crowd disbursed and we headed for the gardens.

Our next stop was the Cathedral

Following the Cathedral we moved on thru the side-street shops to the Grimaldi Palace again. From there Cheryl and I left the tour and returned to the Oceanographic Institute/museum – this had aquariums with fish and marine life from all over the world! Plus a “curiosities” hall.

The Oceanographic Institute was established in 1910 by Prince Albert I. It truly is a world-class facility with over 4,000 species of fish and over 200 families of invertebrates. We saw as much as we could before staggering back to the ship for a late lunch and a nap.

The rest of the afternoon and on into the evening was spent blogging. Eventually our room stewards kicked us out so they could do their evening “turn-down” service. We went to dinner and then staked out places on the pool deck for the showing of …

(Cheryl could only remember seeing the part where Gregory Peck sticks his hand in the mouth of the Roman Oracle face which is supposed to bite off your hand if you have told a lie – then he yells! She screams! He pulls back his arm without a hand – which he then pops back out from where it had been hidden up his sleeve, she hits him, and everyone laughs with relief.)

Movie on the pool deck…popcorn…wine…what could be better.
Bed.
So we did.

That’s the end of this 4-day run of ports. Tomorrow we have a sea day. It will be busy but we’ll see if we can get caught up. We dock in 10 days. That’s six ports to go and four sea days. It’s gettin’ close.

Cheers,
R

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Monaco, the second smallest state in the world after the Vatican City in Rome, is a tiny city/state located on the Mediterranean shore of France near the Italian border. It has mountainous slopes with very little rain. With no natural resources and no agricultural means, the region relies on tourism (especially on the casinos which were prohibited in repressed European countries-so all the wealthy people congregated here for fun) and small industries.
• Known as “the Rock”, the area was first controlled by the Phoenicians, then Romans, Saracens, Genoa, Sardinia, and finally France. It came under the House of Grimaldi in 1297 and has been a sovereign principality ruled by a hereditary (male) constitutional monarch since 1911.
• In 1297 the Grimaldi families seized power in Monaco by entering the city dressed as monks-then pulling out their swords (which is on the seal of Monaco to this day).

• They turned it into a base of operations against the Genoese Ghibellines in the power struggles of the Holy Roman emperors versus the Pope in Rome (the Grimaldis supported the Papal faction). Over the next century they alternately lost and won control of the city during a period of turbulent politics and wars throughout Italy.
• The Grimaldi family, which has ruled Monaco for eight centuries, is Europe’s longest-ruling royal family. The presently reigning prince is Albert II, (son of Prince Rainier who married American movie star Grace Kelley in 1956). He ascended the throne in April 2005.
• Prince Albert I of Monaco (1858-1922) was in the Spanish navy as a young man and developed a love of the ocean. As a navigator of advanced oceanographic ships, he undertook 28 scientific explorations (always accompanied by biologists, zoologists, botanists, geographers, and other specialists) of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea discovering species, studying ocean currents, and under his command the first maps of the ocean depths were drawn (valid until 1944). In 1889, he became the monarch of Monaco and had to give up the ocean to take on the kingdom’s responsibilities. He founded 2 Oceanographic Institutes (Monaco and Paris) aiming to promote the vital significance of preserving the marine ecosystem and the importance of protecting the oceans from pollution. Jacques Cousteau was a firm believer in Prince Albert’s vision. He was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung and the open-circuit SCUBA system still used today. He opened the ocean to scientific underwater archeology. In 1957, Cousteau took over as leader of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco.