Was another long day today with us traveling 700kms from Barcelona to Nice but the places we went to last night made it well worth it. But let's get back to the day, we mostly just stopped in at motorway stops yesterday except for our stop in Arles. Arles is the town in France with the SMELLIEST toilets! The stench was unbelievable, I almost brought up my lunch. Also in Arles there is some very pretty city walls and a still used ancient bull ring in the middle if town. We then drove straight to Nice and when we arrived we had an hour to polish ourselves up, slap on something fancy and head out to MONACO! The view of the riviera is breathtaking and all you can muster is a "wow" as your camera keeps on clicking. We then parked our bus in a cave (yes, an actual cave) and proceeded to make our way up 2 escalators, a lift and another elevator to make it to the Asiatic Gardens which we had to stroll through to get to dinner. On the way to dinner we happened to come across the cathedral of San Nicholas. This is the place where all the princes of Monaco are buried and also where they are married. It is a stunning white church and fairly different looking to the ones we have been seeing as comparatively it is fairly new having only been consecrated in 1911. After dinner we grabbed some souvenirs and ambled around the corner to see one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. As we came to the square we were first treated to the sight of the royal palace which has been recently painted for the wedding of Prince Albert and Princess Charlene. It would have looked nicer had it not been painted and also if it wasn't situated next to the absolutely brilliant view. The view itself is hard to explain so I will let the photos do it when I upload them. We then moved on to the part most of us were really looking forward to, the casino in Monte Carlo! Mind you, this isn't the world famous one you see, this was a different one. We got to have a drink and a gamble at this place among the rich and famous (parked out the front was a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, an Aston Martin, two Bentleys, a Maserati and countless Beemers and Mercs) and lo and behold I can cross winning at a Monte Carlo casino of my bucket list! In terms of the high rollers I don't think they would have been shouting cognacs all round, but €25 is nothing to sniff at! The place was littered with young women tarted up to the nines trying to score a husband and dirty old men looking to score a young women tarted up to the nines, the first part I didn't mind but the second bit was quite creepy. Unfortunately no one offered me a million dollars for a night with my wife (to play backgammon I assume) so we trundled off home after breaking even after Sally had a bet and we bought some drinks. But we arrived at our hotel highly satisfied at our evening amongst societies elite. Just an additional comment, there is SO much wealth in Monaco it actually borders on obscene and almost is repulsive, we saw men younger than me driving Ferrari's and women dripping with more jewelry worth more than a small countries GDP, that said it is a fantastic place and I would give anything to live here!!

Alex