Day Two - Palace & Nice

I wanted to wake up early for breakfast that was included in my room but I just could not drag myself out of bed for it. I had a lunch appointment with my colleagues @ 1pm but I decided that I will head to the Palace to witness the daily guard change @ 11.55am sharp.

I left the hotel and headed down the flight of stairs and it was only AFTER I reached the bottom and pull out my camera to take a few pics that I realized I had left the memory card in my laptop. CRAP! There was no way I could have made it back up the flight of stairs and still make it to the palace on time. I decided to just go to the palace without the camera as god knows if I would have another chance to see it. I still have not plans for this coming weekend but I did not want to be "stuck" here bcos I have not seen the guard change.

I made it there with about 10mins to spare and so snapped a few pics. I actually also took a video of the guard change but it is taking forever to load into my lappy. I can't seem to do it via bluetooth and infrared is SLOW!

Here are the pics that I took with my phone camera ...

I wasn't surprised to be greeted by more stairs ....

And then there were more :P Luckily they were not steep.

Really nice buildings opposite from the palace.

I think this is where HSH Princess Grace is buried. Was a little rush on time so did not go in.

The guard at the palace.

Great backdrop view of Monaco.

I had to leave the place and head back to my hotel as my colleague was going to pick me up at 1pm. I gave myself ample time as I knew the stairs were going to be a bitch. Thanks god, with the help of the railings, I made it back in time to head to my room, grab the memory card and by the time I went to the lobby, I was greeted by my colleague. It was then a short drive the a restaurant by the harbor, somewhere between Nice and Monaco.

Unfortunately I did not take pics of the lunch as I really did not want them to look at me weird. Lunch was real yummy and it was the first time I had truffles ... the real ones, not chocolate. They were on this thin crust pizza and I did pick one out to see what the actual taste was without all the cheese masking the taste. It has a very nice nutty flavor to it ... love it.

Lunch was a 2-3hrs affair and I had the delicious lamb and a apple pie dessert, washed down with plenty of wine :D The food was real good and the bill that came at the end showed it. There were 5 adults and 2 kids .. the bill was about eur480. That's like a small LV bag!! Hahaha.

After lunch, my colleague and her bf took me to Nice (in case u are wondering, its pronounced Neece) We went to the old town area to walk around and take in the sites.

This is some government building.

This street is lined with restaurants on both sides.

The boardwalk.

The beach .. the sand is more like pebbles :P

There was this guy playing classical music ... I would love to see him move around with his piano in tow.

I was told the the "men" on top of the pole changes color at nite.

A traditional Ferris Wheel.

Found a couple of fountains ...

It was pretty quiet and all the shops were closed. Its quite common for shops to be closed on Sun here in France and Monaco. I think its great if u are working in retail as u know u will always have at least one weekend off. Not so good for the consumers ... but I do think that the restaurants and pubs stand to gain from this.

We stopped by for a quick drink b4 they drove me back to the hotel. It was a really fun day and I was so stuffed that I was not hungry for the rest of the nite.

Sigh ... its start of the work week tomorrow :(