Monaco coat of arms

 This is located on a building opposite from the Palace.

Monaco at night

This is the entrance to the "Moods" night club.

St. Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco (Cathédrale de Monaco)

Monte-Carlo Casino reflection in the Sky Mirror

Sky Mirror, by Anish Kapoor.

 

 

The Concrete Jungle - the REAL one!

Some call New York City the 'Concrete Jungle.' Well, I've been to NYC many times (10, 20? can't remember), and I can say without a doubt that NYC Concrete Jungle can't beat the Monaco Concrete Jungle. Not even close. People literally live on top of other people's heads. Now I have to go to Hong Kong and Singapore to see if those actually can beat Monaco (which I somehow doubt).

See it for yourself:
(This is Monaco)

 

Time for some sea!

There are things I get used to and barely notice them after a while. Or take them for granted. Or whatever. My emotions just get quite neutral then. But every time I see Mediterranean Sea, I never get enough of it. I can stare at it for hours and never get tired of it. Just like I never get tired of blueberries, no matter how much I eat them day after day. :-) Those two things can never get boring for me.

This is what the sea looks like from the Monaco's Jardin Saint-Martin (St. Martin Garden).

A random photo of Monaco

The other side of the Palace

This is what the Prince's Palace looks like from another angle. This part is a private section of the palace.

The Prince's Palace of Monaco

The Monte Carlo Casino might be a widely known iconic symbol of Monaco, but I personally think that the Prince's Palace of Monaco is more significant. Just because it's been there for centuries before the Casino was even projected on paper. In fact, the Prince's Palace of Monaco was founded over 800 years ago (to be specific, in 1191). The Grimaldi family captured it some hundred years later (all right, if you really need to know the date, they did that in 1297). Because Monaco was - and still is - such a small country, the royal family didn't have any other official residences, like, say, the royal family of England does. There was no more room for palaces, not even small ones (and why would a royal family want a small palace in the first place, right?), so the Grimaldis lived in the same palace for 700 years. Quite unusual, isn't it?