Interrail Europe 2002

Day Five (Fri 18th) - He’s Electric

We got up fairly early and went down to breakfast, it was a bit of a treat really as it was a full buffet-breakfast layout with loads of food to choose from, consequently we both stuffed our faces. Whilst we were eating, music played in the background and at one point the song ‘Carried away by a moonlight shadow’ came on (Dave Angel’s music from the Fast Show), this provided much humour for the two of us over the course of days. After breakfast we picked up a small day-bag and headed down to the station for the 09:40 train, the scenery along the way was stunning – exactly how you imagine the South of France should look. We arrived in Monaco at about 10am, the station was a very modern building with large lifts up to the main surface, everything seemed to be made out of metal and I managed to get an electric shock from one of the handrails, not a biggie but enough to make me feel my heart skip a beat.

Walking out of Monaco station on a clear sunny day is probably one of the most stunning ways you could exit a train station, the first time you look around it seems obvious that you’re somewhere special. The fact that neither of us had a clue where we were going meant that we just wandered aimlessly, we ended-up walking round the side of the port and up to an amphitheater on the top of a hill (via many steps). From the amphitheater across to the aquarium we had superb views out across the sea and down the coast, possibly one of the most beautiful views of the journey. We had a little look at the aquarium shop before jumping on a mini-train tour of the city, as we didn’t really know where we were or what was left to see we though this would be a good way to ‘browse’ the city. The tour covered some of the Grand Prix track and also passed by the palace where it seemed that the changing of the guard was happening. Once the tour had finished (and deposited us back at the same place) we walked back down the hill down to the bottom of the harbour (the start/finish line of the GP) then up and round the track through the tunnel where we took a few photos, it seemed difficult to imagine Formula One cars hammering down these roads yet the whole place was immensely familiar. Having effectively walked down to the bottom of a hill we had to walk back up so we continued following the circuit up until we got to the hairpin (I had to take a couple more photos) and then the casino.

After having done this small tour of Monaco we had a look at the guidebooks and realised that we’d done most of the things we had aimed to do, the only place we hadn’t really visited properly was the palace but that was on the other side of town now so we decided to head back. Using our combined sense of direction we ambled though the streets noticing shops like Louis Vuitton & Chanel more than the road we were following, somehow we still managed to turn a corner and arrive directly at the station

As we got into the station Barrie noticed that there was a Tourist Info place so he went over to collect some leaflets and noticed a sign offering to stamp your passports for free, so we both went for it – a nice souvenir. Whilst walking down into the station I received another electric shock, enough to make my heart skip a beat again and enough to make me feel queasy for about a half-hour. We arrived back in Nice at about 2pm and tried to reserve tickets for the following day’s trip to Lyon, unfortunately our intended train was full so we chose the 6am train to give us more time in to find accommodation Lyon.

We headed into town via BNP Paribas to cash some cheques, ending up in Virgin where we both bought a couple of CDs before going back to the hotel, following the short-route this time. As we had been travelling for a good few days now we were carrying quite a bit of used clothes, having spotted the laundrette on the previous night this seemed like an ideal time to get some washing done. It’s an odd experience sitting in a laundrette in a foreign country, doing your washing is such an ordinary every-day task that it makes being in a foreign city seem that much more extraordinary, it gave me the sense of knowing that this is happening all over the world right now.

After finishing-up at the laundrette we went back to the hotel to repack our bags and settle-up the bill, we would be leaving at about 5am with everything packed so we preferred to settle-up in the evening. We wandered into town, spent ages finding areas of Nice that we’d not yet seen and ended-up eating in an Indian restaurant. As in the UK Indian food has been adapted around the British palate, the same seems to have happened in France, amongst other modifications many more of the dishes were available with different cheeses. After stuffing ourselves silly we headed back to the hotel, watched a bit of CNN and went to sleep.

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