Monte Carlo!

I must apologize for my long absence... We've been visiting family, and (sorry, dear readership, but) they are so much more important than time in front of the computer! Anyway, day 3 of our trip to the French Riviera involved an afternoon in the country with the highest per-capita income of anywhere in the world. Monaco. Before that, though, we took a little outing in Nice...

The morning was spent climbing the "Castle Rock" (as we dubbed it) - a ruin-topped hill overlooking Old Nice and the ocean. Just a short stroll through Old Town and a lot of stairs later, we arrived at the top, which had spectacular views of the main beach:

And Nice's Port:

The highlight of that hike, though, was the playground at the top for the little ones. Oliver spun on the merry-go-round:

And especially enjoyed the little motorcycle bouncer:

He never wanted to leave:

But nap time was coming... Though the lighting was hard, mom was determined to get a few pics with Oli in front of those killer views before we headed down the hill:

After a nap, we caught the bus to Monaco. We started in the port area, admiring the fancy yachts:

Then made our way uphill to Monte Carlo (which, for those of you who are uninformed, like me, is simply the area of Monaco which is home to the famous casino and major shopping):

Since on my previous trip here (10+ years ago), I had only made it to the Old Town section of Monaco, this was my first glimpse of the casino:

We had fun admiring all the fancy cars that drove by while we enjoyed the gorgeous weather and scenery:

We then made the loooooooooong walk (and major uphill hike) to the royal palace and the Old Town:

Since the babies (and the parents, truthfully) had just about had it, we simply took in the views:

Admired the square facing the royal palace:

And called it a day. I found Monaco a little disappointing, to be honest. Beautiful location, ritzy scenery, expensive cars and shops, but not a place I would want to stay or live. That was fine, though; we still had great company and enjoyed getting that little snapshot!