Monte Carlo; Friday, 09 November, 2018

I woke to the sound of the heavy rain still hammering on the windows and did wonder how wet I was going to get on the 5-minute walk from the hotel to the train station.

Thankfully, but the time I left the hotel it had eased off to a light drizzle, so I didn’t get too wet walking to the station or waiting for the train onto Monaco. The train journey was very impressive with the train running alongside the coast for a lot of the way, with tunnels helping it through the sea cliffs.

We arrived into Monaco station on time and I took the lifts and escalators up to the top level of the station and then walked to the bottom of several hefty flights of stairs that lead up towards the hotel. I climbed up the first double flight to the middle level between the station and the hotel. When I got to the top, to my surprise, and delight, there was a lift on the opposite side of the road going up the final part of the climb. As I got into the lift I looked back and saw there had also been a lift next to the first set of stairs!

I headed the 20m out of Monaco into France and over to my hotel. It was still very early, and the hotel said I could check-in now for €40 or come back in three hours and check-in for free then. They did at least offer to hold my bag for free, so I took them up on that and then made my way back down to the station, via both lifts, and then headed down through several flights of stairs and ramps to the harbour side at sea level.

I had a wander along the harbour front, which is also the main straight and pit lane for the Monaco grand prix, though it was difficult to tell with the funfair that was in situ. At the other end of the harbour I arrived just as the open top bus tour was pulling into the stop, so I took advantage of that to do some sightseeing from the top of the bus.

With the weather now cleared to sunny spells I did two full circuits of the bus to take in all the key sights and then, once it had returned to near the station, took the combinations of lifts and escalators back up the hill, through the station and on up to the hotel where I was able to check-in and get into my room to drop off my stuff.

After freshening up I headed back down into town and picked the bus up again on the harbour front to take the last full tour of the night, that was conducted in the dark with the floodlit sights of Monaco the main attraction.

Back on the harbour side I headed over to the supermarket I’d spotted there to do some shopping for dinner, as I was staying in an aparthotel, I thought I’d take advantage of the cooking facilities in my apartment to save the cost of at least one expensive meal out.

Shopping completed I headed back to the hotel and started to make dinner, with the original idea of then heading back out later to visit some of area around the Princes Palace at night, but whilst I was having dinner the rain returned, so I decided instead just to stay in and have an early night.