Just Ice and Whiskey

February 14th

Today we took a side adventure and went to Monaco!

The Nice train station has palm trees in it.

Monaco is the second smallest country in the world.

It encompasses a whopping two square kilometers or 0.75 square miles.

Confusing point. In France and Monaco there is a grocery store chain named Casino.
Don't ask for the nearest casino or you may end up in the produce section and not the slots.

It is the playground of the wealthy. That yacht has a helicopter pad and helicopter on it.

Monaco also annually hosts the Monaco Grand Prix.

It is one of the most prestigious and difficult Formula 1 races.

Monaco wants its tourists to cover up when not at the beach.

Monaco is also the most densely populated country.

Monaco is built into a mountainside for the most part, so a lot of walking around it is actually going up or down steps.

SO many boats!

Francois Grimaldi "Malizia" 1297-1997

This requires some explanation. Francois Grimaldi aka Il Malizia (The Malicious One) and his men capture The Rock of Monaco in 1297. They disguised themselves as monks, hence his costume in the statue. He got kicked out a few years later, but in 1419 the Grimaldi Family purchased Monaco from the Crown of Aragon and became the official rulers of The Rock of Monaco. In 1997, Monaco celebrated 700 years of Grimaldi Family rule. Hence the 1297-1997 on the statue. Now you know.

Cannons and guards!

And the Changing of the Guard.
We thought it was done and I wanted to go to the other side where there weren't as many people.

We chose poorly and tried to move, and then lost our good spot to be among the masses.

I tried to take video, and failed.
Instead I got like three minutes of the back of Plaid Cap's head.

After the Changing of the Guard, we went to explore the Saint Martin Gardens.

Pretty flowers!

There were several sculptures in the gardens, including this one of Prince Albert I. Dan wanted to be at the helm, but Albert wouldn't get out of the way.

Our first view of Monaco's Oceanography Museum.

A submarine!

Two-seater submarine ANOREP 1 manufactured in Nice in 1966. It weighs 2,700 kg (5,950 lbs), has a 3.5 HP engine, can cruise at 2 knots, and can reach a depth of 100 m (328 ft).

The museum was unpleasantly crowded with small children.

A little Angelfish.

A Nurse Shark and a Bride of the Sea fish.

This guy is disappointed that I don't know what kind of fish he is (or if he's a he).

An octopus is saving you from falling down the historic staircase that leads you 18 m down to the sea.

Tiny aliens! AKA jellyfish.

European Lobster.

And its identifying photo.
This lobster totally did some sort of drag queen makeup magic for its photo.

And now, the Flying Gurnards!

Not, in fact, a trapeze act.

Sleepy octopus. This one will not stop you from falling down ancient stairways.

Mediterranean Morays. This tank was full of them.

They're creepy to begin with, but en masse, they're extremely unsettling.

Seriously, jellyfish are aliens.

I mean, they're blobs of mostly water that eat things. They don't have brains, hearts, or blood.

All the colorful fishes and a shark lurking in the back.

And this thing. I thought this was some weird discarded shell of the fish or something and the real one was hiding, but then it moved and may have made me jump. I failed to note what it or it's roommate (below) are called.

A teeny, tiny, 6-legged, starfish.

ALL the clownfish!

And this crazy long-spined sea urchin with bio-luminescent streaks.

It's the raver chick of the urchin world.

Pufferfish have weird faces.

This disgruntled looking fellow is a Guineafowl Puffer. This is the yellow version, the white-speckled black version makes more sense of the name. They are super poisonous like the takifugu.

This Zebra Bullhead Shark is just thinking about shark things. Turns out sharks are weird. Among all the shark species there are three different ways in which they can reproduce.

1 - Oviparous, in which the shark lays eggs.
2 - Ovoviviparous, in which there is internal fertilization and the young are born live, but there is no placental connection and the unborn young are nourished by egg yolk.
3 - Viviparous, in which the young are developed internally with a placental connection, and are born live.

Upstairs they had some cool mosaic floors.

Chandeliers and stuffed fish and sea equipment! Oh my!

Ye olde dive suit.

Ye slap-dash looking and terrifying dive suit.

And a terrifying monkey/fish hybrid pretending to be a mermaid.

Whale skeleton.

A Smooth and Great Hammerhead Shark "skulls."

What animal kills the most people? I'll give you a hint, it's not sharks.

Dan reliving his submarine days in The Bushnell "Tortoise."

SCIENCE!

Who needs a white noise machine when you can have a wave machine made out of drums, sand, and pulleys?

The roof allowed for some lovely views.

Including this seagull.

And us.

HARPOOOOOOOOOON!

They had this really cool playground on the roof.
I tried really hard not to look like a creeper while taking a photo of the playground.
I'm not sure I succeeded.

And then there was this sea urchin inspired lamp.

We left the Oceanography Museum to make our way back through The Rock of Monaco.

Peacock!

We made our way over to the Prince's car collection. Just to be clear, it is NOT a museum, just a private collection of old cars that you can pay a small fee to look at.

Super 1911.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride here we come.

All of the sign stands were made out of old car parts. Some of them were really neat.

Ford Break de Chasse 1937.

This ridiculously adorable wicker Fiat from 1959. If my grandmother had known about this car she would have had one with white wicker seats and the car would have been bright blue.