Did you know that there is one policeman for every 60 residents here. To become a Monégasque you need to be wealthy and be well connected. The Prince's palace and the exotic gardens were unfortunately closed to the CORONA crisis. We had tickets booked to see the Musée Océanographique de Monaco (1910), which has an excellent aquarium and the building itself is quite a catch. We saw giant turtles that were swimming in their own outdoor pool high above the Mediterranean sea. There were hammerheads, seahorses and all manners of tropical fish. Next, we saw the St Nicholas cathedral where Princess Grace of Monaco is buried. It wasn't immediately to us as the name on the grave is written as Gracia Patricia, so we asked.

We were in the mood for trying some Monégasque food, but did not realise that it would be such a mission. Almost everywhere we looked, they only had Italian food. One place we had sat down to eat at told us we couldn't sit there as it was reserved for a larger number, so we left in a huff. Eventually, we found a modest place where they sell Pissaladiere (pizza dough with tomato sauce and onion sometimes with anchovies and olives) and Barbajuan (spinach filled filo pastry). The portions were small so we got a few of each and then had an ice cream around the corner. We certainly felt the presence of the police everywhere, which can even be unnerving at times; especially when you are trying to eat an ice cream without your mask on in when everybody in Monaco needs to wear a mask. The ice cream place didn't have seats, so that was the reason we were eating it standing up somewhere. We happened to witness the changing of the guards by the Palace Guards and took quite a few pictures. Next, we hopped on a tourist train, although it didn't leave straight away as a passenger and his family decided to dissemble an entire push chair and bring it with them on board. We went as far as Monte Carlo and went inside the casino to have a look at what all the fuss is about. The price of entry is 17 Euros, which is not cheap. The first room, which has slot machines, can be accessed for free, and the area around the cloakrooms is beautiful enough, but the most exquisite rooms are beyond room 1, but unfortunately, photography is not allowed; the reason being that there are gamblers gambling there and it's not allowed to do so for their benefit. One redeeming feature of the high admission cost is that you get a drink from the bar (or you can use it on a slot machine), so we sat and soaked up the atmosphere, although we are not into gambling at all. We saw the interior of the Cafe de Paris and were not impressed by the area away from these two buildings. In the 1950's it had been far more beautiful as was the views between Nice and Monaco without all the high rise buildings and developments.

We took the bus home and it was busy, which meant we had to stand with umpteen twists and turns and there was a traffic jam to boot, so we didn't enjoy the return ride nearly as much as the outbound journey.