Monaco - Part 2

Monaco

On Sunday morning we again woke to a glorious sunny French morning...although we were a little slower to get going. We checked out of the hotel and had another brilliant breakfast, this time at Cafe de Lyon. We sat outside soaking up the sunshine and watching the French early-risers going about their business. Breakfast was fantastic - we can fully recommend the crepe au nutella and the chicken club sandwich, although the croissants and pains aux chocolats were top notch too.

We caught the train to Monaco (we were just like locals on the ticket machines by the Sunday) and this time we were treated to a busker with an accordion providing live entertainment on the train. There was also a rather odd guy who leapt up and started singing and dancing along to the accordion music! We also had no problems finding our way from the train station this time. However, some of the bus routes were suspended due to the annual Monaco/French Riviera marathon that was held that morning, which meant that we had to walk up the hill to the Princess Grace Rose Garden.

This would not have been such a problem, except that it was very difficult to find the garden, and we ended up walking a lot further than we probably needed to. The difficulty in finding the garden, in conjunction with our already tired legs having to walk up and down some hills, meant that we were not in the best of moods by the time we found the garden. This was not helped when we saw that there were no roses in the rose garden at all - obviously not the season for roses in Monaco! The garden actually looked rather bland without any colour - so if you're visiting Monaco when it is not rose season, perhaps give this one a miss off your list of things to do.

In saying that, the garden boasts over 3,500 rose bushes of over 150 varieties, so when it is the correct season, the garden will no doubt look amazing! The garden was inaugurated in 1984 and was dedicated to Princess Grace, who was a great lover of flowers. There is a fine statue of Princess Grace at one end of the garden, one of many statues and sculptures scattered throughout Monaco - there is actually a Sculpture Trail that you can walk and admire the works of art as you go.

Our next stop was the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium, which unfortunately meant a walk back down a hill and a walk up a different hill. The museum was built between 1899 and 1910 to house collections of underwater species brought back by Prince Albert I from his expeditions. In the St Martin Gardens next to the museum there is a bronze statue of Albert I at the helm of his ship - see photo of Megan helping him steer in Part 1 blog.

The aquarium is one of the most famous and impressive of its kind in the world. Over eight tanks, in which for every species the original natural environment is recreated with minerals and local flora, contain fishes of all shapes and colours from the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, as well as shellfish, giant squid, turtles and many other species. The tanks are filled with sea water pumped directly to the foot of the museum and it is constantly renewed.

We were all very impressed with the aquarium - there were so many amazing creatures to see, including small spotted eels, that looked like really small snakes that stand vertically with half of their bodies buried in sand at the bottom of the tank and half sticking out of the sand in the water - very odd. Tim was also amazed by the flat silver-coloured fish that can camouflage themselves in deep sea water by deflecting light downwards, thus becoming almost invisible at the right depth. They look almost see-through on the photo below. Megan was intrigued by the octopus and Libby with the sea horses.

Because of time restrictions we didn't visit the oceanographic museum, although we are reliably informed that it contains skeletons of marine mammals such as killer whales and that it has embalmed penguins, polar bears, sea lions and polar birds, etc etc. Another visit perhaps. We returned to the same spot for lunch, although not to Le Bambi, this time a place further down the street. We had another very nice lunch, the common theme appearing to be hot chips with mayonnaise. Yum!

Nice

We then caught the train back to Nice, where we had hoped to check out a few of the shops in the city centre. However, that plan was thwarted by the Sunday trading laws in France - none of the shops were open! We got down to the beach and walked along the Promenade des Anglais (along with several thousand other tourists and locals). After getting an ice cream from a gelateria we sat down on the beach, away from the crowds on the promenade, for a while.

As we were leaving again, we were treated to a very "special" display from what we could describe as a street busker, only he wasn't "performing" for money; he was doing it for the love of the game. There was a guy who was obviously trying to impersonate Michael Jackson - he had long black hair, crazy pants, an open shirt and he had actually painted his face white to look more like the modern MJ. He then had a stereo sitting on the footpath playing various Michael Jackson songs, while he "danced"/swayed in a drunk hippie kind of way with arms going everywhere. He reminded us of all of the famous David Brent dance-off from The Office TV series.

He had a few moves that kind of passed for Michael Jackson, such as the kick in the air and the grabbing the crotch region and he actually did a very impressive moonwalk. However, the moonwalk was the only impressive part of his routine. The rest was a cross between comical and scary. The best part was watching the expressions on peoples' faces as they walked past - disbelief, shock, fear. A few people took some pretty wide berths around the guy to avoid being hit by a flaying arm. He is probably the best advertisement yet for why kids should not do drugs.
Nevertheless, it was a memorable send-off from the French Riviera.







Tim and a
donkey
sculpture












Princess
Grace
statue in
rose garden






















Oceanographic
museum and
aquarium

















Octopus
sculpture at
aquarium










Tropical
fish












Fish and
shark
tank











Crazy
camou-
flage
fish










Tim on top
of aquarium












Fountain
in Nice











Beach at
Nice













Megs and
Libby on the
beach












Michael
Jackson
impersonator















Nice
again

Monaco - Part 1

Monaco

On Friday night we, along with our friend Libby, flew from London to Nice, in southern France, where we stayed so that we could spend the weekend in Monaco. We had planned the trip with Libby and Ben, although unfortunately Ben was not able to make it, as he had to work through the weekend. We arrived in Nice around 11.30pm and we managed to find our way into the city centre and to the Hotel Ellington without any drama.

The hotel was solid - a jazz-themed boutique hotel with a really fun bar in the lobby. Our room was pretty nice too, although we didn't get the fancy balcony that Libby's room had! We were woken early on Saturday morning by the intense sunshine (something we had not seen for months!) streaming in through the window.

We found a nice little cafe down the road from the hotel, where we had a very French breakfast with croissants, pains aux chocolats, jus d'orange, cafe au lait and yoghurt with berries (that was way too hard to do in French). After breakfast we wandered down one of the main streets of central Nice to the train station and caught a train to Monaco. We were tres impressed to discover that the train journey takes only 15 minutes and costs just €6.60 return! The journey itself was fantastic, as we were treated to spectacular views of the Mediterranean coastline. We arrived in Monaco around 10.30am.

The Principality of Monaco is a small sovereign city-state in the south-eastern corner of France, on the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world with an area of just 1.95 square kilometres. It apparently takes the average person just 56 minutes to walk across the width of the country. The population of Monaco is around 33,000, which makes it the most densely populated sovereign country in the world. Monaco is a constitutional monarchy and a principality, with Prince Albert II the head of State. The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco since 1297 and the state's sovereignty was officially recognised by the France-Monegasque Treaty of 1861.

After initially being very confused by Monaco's labyrinth-like streets and hills (along with a number of other tourists), we found our way down to the waterfront area and then headed up the hill to the Prince's Palace. The Prince's Palace, official residence of the Prince of Monaco, was founded in 1191 as a Genoese fortress. Since 1297 it has been the home of the Grimaldi family. Unlike other European ruling families, the absence of alternative palaces and land shortages have meant that the Grimaldi family has ruled from the same residence for more than 700 years.

We did not tour the opulent palace, but we watched the guards marching in front of the palace and enjoyed the breath-taking views down over Monaco from the hilltop, before carrying on to the cathedral. St Nicholas Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Monaco, where many of the Grimaldis are buried, including Grace Kelly and, more recently, Rainier III. It was consecrated in 1875 and is built on the site of the first parish church built in Monaco in 1252.

Further around from the cathedral, through a beautiful little garden, is the impressive Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. We were all keen to visit the aquarium but decided to do that on Sunday so that we could continue to explore Monaco by foot in the sunshine. Just past the aquarium we noticed a huge four-car garage in front of big house. There was a guy inside the garage tending to one of his four amazing cars. There was a Rolls Royce and a Porsche in the front and a massive 4WD and what looked like an even more impressive sports car at the back. That's a lot of cash in one garage!

We were pretty hungry by this stage, so we headed back down the hill to the waterfront area, taking in the amazing views of the super yachts lined up in the port as we went. We found a place called Le Bambi, where we could sit outside in the sun and look out to the port and all the boats. Le Bambi did some pretty solid chicken paninis, although they charged us €6 for a coke!

After lunch we headed for the Monte Carlo district and the world famous Monte Carlo casino. Don't be fooled by the very strict dress code set out in guide books and websites; so long as you are fairly respectable they will let you in - we were all wearing jeans and Tim did not have a jacket or tie but we had no worries getting in. You do need your passport to get in though.

Aside from the gambling rooms, the casino complex also includes the Grand Theatre de Monte Carlo, an opera and ballet house, and the headquarters of the Ballets de Monte Carlo. Strangely enough, the citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms! The magnificent building was opened in 1863.

Inside the casino is every bit as impressive as the outside of the building. The walls and ceilings are decorated with art work, similar to some of the royal palaces we have visited. We all managed to leave the casino as winners, albeit rather small winners. We started on the slot machines, where they have those old fashioned machines with levers that you pull down to spin!!! Tim and Libby both made a bit of money on those, while Megan was far more lucky on the roulette tables.

We watched some of the more serious punters on the tables for a while before we decided to have a go ourselves. There was one guy who put €2,000 on the table in four €500 notes (we didn't even know there were €500 notes!), then scattered the chips he was given all over the place and 10 minutes later repeated the process, again without any luck...pretty quick way to blow €4,000. Tim had a bit of luck with the old red-black-black-red combo, while sneaky old Megan made €25 in one pop.

After quitting while we were ahead, we sat outside the Cafe de Paris next to the casino and enjoyed a drink in the sunshine. There is a big roundabout in front of the casino and it seems that only incredibly expensive cars are allowed to drive around it. While we sat there with our drinks we saw dozens of Ferraris, Porsches, Bentleys, as well as the odd Lamborghini and Rolls Royce...it was insane!

It was getting late in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to disappear behind the hills, so we had a walk through Monte Carlo and down to the Promenade de Champions - a long walkway along the seafront that has a collection of the footprints of some of the world's most famous footballers moulded into the footpath. We saw the footprints of Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, as well as the supreme football genius, Zinedine Zidane (photo below).

Then it was time to catch the train back to Nice, where we rested our very tired legs before having a couple of drinks in the hotel bar. We made our way towards the Massena Square, where we found dozens of restaurants, including one called Le Maori, complete with Maori artwork on the menus!!! But we opted for another restaurant across the road from Le Maori, where we had a fantastic dinner and some fairly decent French wine. We also wowed our waiter with our extensive French vocabulary, before heading home via the Haagen Dazs ice cream shop - so good!

View from

Princes

Palace

Apart-

ments

and super

yachts

Princes

Palace

Guarding

the palace

St Nicholas

Cathedral

Megan helping

Albert I steer

Spring in

Monaco

Megan in

massive

picture

frame

View over

Monaco

port

Monte Carlo

Casino

Cafe de

Paris

Libby and

Megan at

Cafe de

Paris

Zidane's

footprints on the

Promenade de

Champions

Cambridge

Cambridge

On Saturday we took the train north to Cambridge (about 45 mins). It was our first trip to Cambridge - we had tried a couple of times last year to go there but the weather got in the way! On Saturday is was a fairly sunny day but still very cold in the wind. We arrived around 11am and walked through the town centre, stopping to admire some little boutique shops and the markets along the way.

We soon found ourselves outside Trinity College, one of Cambridge University's most famous colleges. Henry VIII founded Trinity College in 1546. The main entrance to Trinity is through an enormous brick gateway (built in 1535) complete with a statue of Henry. Beyond the gate is the Great Court, the largest of its kind in the world - but don't walk on the grass!!! Grass seems to be very precious in these parts. The place is literally dripping with history - to the right of the gateway is a small tree planted in the 1950s reputed to be a descendant of the apple tree made famous by Trinity alumnus Sir Isaac Newton.

While on the subject of famous alumni, Cambridge University has produced 78 Nobel prize winners (29 from Trinity College alone), 13 British prime ministers, nine archbishops of Canterbury, as well as many scientists, poets, writers, etc etc.

The Great Court is also the scene of the famous run in the film Chariots of Fire. The impressive Gothic chapel to the right of the gate is full of huge statues of famous Trinity men such as Newton and Lord Tennyson. We stopped in the chapel for a few minutes to listen to the choir - very impressive.

After a quick look in the dining room and then continuing through to yet another square of sacred grass behind the first, we found the Wren Library. This place is insane. They allow visitors (up to 15 at a time) in for two hours a day; luckily for us there was no queue. They have over 55,000 books printed before 1820 as well as 2,500 manuscripts. The highlights included a glass case dedicated to Newton, including a lock of his hair and some letters he wrote to a friend explaining his theories; the original autographed manuscript of A A Milne's Winnie the Pooh (both he and his son Christopher Robin Milne were graduates of Trinity); one of the first ever bibles printed in the English language; and an 8th century copy of the Epistles of St Paul.

After leaving the Wren Library rather amazed by what we had seen, we wandered along the river banks at the back of Trinity College, watching people punting along the river, some better than others!

By now we had worked up an appetite and Megan had read about an excellent place for lunch called The Snug. The Snug was brilliant, it had a really nice relaxed atmosphere and the food was amazing. We had possibly the best burgers in the world, followed by an enormous chocolate brownie fudge sundae to share It was so large the people on the next tables were laughing at us, but we made a valiant effort nonetheless. If you're ever in Cambridge, definitely go to The Snug for lunch!

After lunch, we rolled down the street towards the town centre again. We had hoped to visit the King's College chapel, however it was closed for a private service until Evensong at 5:30pm. So we decided to look around the shops and go for another walk along the river to fill in the afternoon until the chapel re-opened. There are some really nice shops in Cambridge, including (unsurprisingly) some very impressive bookshops.

All of the college chapels in Cambridge are spectacular but King's College chapel is supreme. It is one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in England. The foundation stone was laid by King Henry VI in 1446 and building was completed around 1516. The king's successors, notably Henry VIII glorified its interior.

At 5.30pm we lined up and eventually made it in. We really just wanted to see this much hyped chapel on the inside so we had a look around before the service started and then stayed for about ten minutes of the service before sneaking out. It did not disappoint - the beautiful carved ceiling and stained glass windows were amazing, not to mention the huge carved wooden screen, another gift of Henry VIII, which bears Henry's initials entwined with those of Anne Boleyn, who supposedly inspired Henry's act of generosity.

From there it was back to the train station and off home to London town. Although we did stop and check out the Corpus Clock, a large sculptural clock on the outside of the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College. The clock's face is a rippling 24-carat gold plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 metres in diameter. It has no hands or numbers, but displays the time by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs. The dominating visual feature of the clock is a sculpture of a grim-looking, devouring, metal insect similar to a grasshopper or locust. Conceived as a work of public art, the Corpus Clock reminds viewers in a dramatic way of the inevitable passing of time. It was deliberately designed to be terrifying; to remind us that time is not on our side. Disturbing, but pretty cool.

Gateway to
Trinity College

Great Court
Trinity College














Megan and
Lord Tennyson
















Chapel at
Trinity














Tim in the
Great Court












Inside the
Wren
Library












By the
river

Megan and
spring flowers

Punters
punting

Megan and
Newton's
apple tree
descendant











Cambridge
town










King's College
Chapel












King's College
courtyard













and again
















Corpus
Clock

Anna and Guy's wedding in New Zealand

New Zealand

In early February, Megan flew back to Aotearoa for her sister Anna's wedding to Guy. Megan had three weeks back in New Zealand, as she was sole bridesmaid for the wedding and needed to assist with preparations and also because she wanted to have some time off and enjoy the Kiwi sunshine. Tim made a flying visit for three days to attend the wedding and see his family before heading straight back to London.

The wedding took place on the day of romance, February 14th, at Te Awa winery in Hawke's Bay. The winery made for a beautiful venue as Anna and Guy were married outdoors amongst the vines. The bride was stunning and Guy had a nice suit. Everything went according to plan, we had a fantastic time and it was wonderful to share the special day with two people so dear to us.

The day after the wedding, Tim flew down to Christchurch to spend the day with his family, who had descended on the Garden City from the far corners of Middle Earth. It was wonderful to have the whole family in one place and we had a lovely day, including a fantastic dinner at the Curator's House. It was also an opportunity to toast Tim and Megan's recent engagement - Tim's family were all gutted that Megan couldn't join us for the day.

Once Tim had departed, Megan enjoyed a further two weeks of (mainly) sunshine in Hawke's Bay, catching up Margaret and Tony and Jackie and Simon. It was wonderful to see they had settled so well in Hawke's Bay and we hope to see Margaret and Tony in the UK later this year.

At the end of February, Megan returned to a slightly less grey and cold London than the one she had left, with a suitcase full of NZ goodies that you just can't get in the UK...including NZ Cadbury chocolates and Easter Eggs!