Geeky Yet Waterproof

This morning we arrived Monaco. Monaco is a country located (embedded?) in France and near Italy, and takes up less than one square mile! It is also the only full monarchy left in the world, ruled by a king named Prince Albert.
Monaco is famous for being a very rich country, partly due to all the casinos. A complete contrast to Casablanca, which is poor, and very dirty. Monaco also the home of the Grand Prix, so all the gift shops are filled with race car models and shirts. In fact, everyone there seems to own a fast car!

The only dock in Monaco was occupied by another cruise ship when we arrived, so we had to anchor offshore, and then the lifeboat (called a “tender” when ferrying people) took us to land.

As soon as we were ashore, we started walking to find the king’s palace. We passed through some medieval walls and towers along the way, which were right on the edge of cliff overlooking the ocean. It was cool to see our ship in the distance, with the lifeboats taking people to land.
When we got to the palace, there were crowds of hundreds of people waiting outside! We asked what was going on, and were told that the changing of the guards was to take place in 15 minutes. So we waited around to watch.
It wasn’t that exciting since I could hardly see anything through the hordes of people (my camera got a better view than I did), but there were trumpet blasts and drummers followed by a procession of guards. It was just like a parade, only this time, it was real.

After this, we walked around some more, stopping at a cathedral and Jacques Cousteau’s Oceanography Museum gift shop, and eventually ended up at — what else could it be? — a restaurant. We had divine French pizza, French fries, and pasta. All the food reminded me of France… in fact, the whole country reminded me of France! Even the hairy cook downstairs running with a knife, shouting angrily in French, and banging things around.

By this time it was only 2:30, but we decided to go back to the ship since we were all tired and didn’t feel like spending the day in the Casinos (like the rest of our shipmates…).
So, we passed the rest of the day relaxing, eating, playing guitar, and eating, and eating dessert. Now we’re getting ready for tomorrow, our second-to-last stop: Livorno, Italy!