It’s small and crowded. That’s what I’ll remember. We took a ferry from Nice and arrived around 10:30. We had plotted a course around the city so we could hit all the highlights on foot. We walked 30 minutes from the ferry to the furthest point in the city. The walk was very crowded on sidewalks that were less than 12 inches wide in some places. I was shocked how crowded, congested and noisy the city was. The first stop was at a Japanese Garden. I love everything Japan and I left here with mixed feelings. First of all, I have been to Japanese gardens all over the world and this one from a design standpoint ranks up there with any I have seen outside of Japan. However a key feature to Japanese gardens is the tranquility and peaceful vibe, something that was missing here. The garden is in between several busy roads and to make it even worse there are multiple high rise buildings going up all around the garden so all you can hear is construction and cranes. We headed next to Monaco’s biggest draw, the Casino. Along the way we found several statues that pay tribute to the Grand Prix drivers from the early days of the race. The casino allows you into the lobby and the bar area for free but if you want to get into the gambling area you need to buy an entrance ticket. The best part for me was the supercar parking lane in front of the casino. It was like a Ferrari museum. Next we found Monacos national dish, a fried pastry filled with spinach. We both loved it. We headed next to the Prince’s Palace and enjoyed some views of both the city and the harbors from above. The flag was flying above the palace, meaning the Prince was home so we couldn’t go in the palace. We finished the day at a Monaco McDonalds. More on that and all the McDonalds in Europe in a later blog. Monaco was a nice place to visit for a day but hotels are extremely expensive and the city was a lot more busy and crazy than I expected. Definetley not worth the money to me since it is so small and has so little to offer tourists unless you come on your private yatch looking for a glitzy playground to gamble and shop. Glad I saw it but probably won’t be back.