Sunday and Monday in Monte Carlo

Sunday was kinda a slow day here in Monte Carlo. It was arrival day for most of the other people on the trip with us. I woke up at 2 am in the morning. I told myself I needed to at least lay in bed until 4 am. Then next thing I knew Tim and Collin were awake. We were all up and about by 6 am. We went to breakfast on the top floor of our hotel. The view was great, but clouds were rolling in. We started the breakfast being able to see in the mountain top and by the time we were done the clouds were covering everything. Then it started raining. We finished up breakfast and headed down to the welcoming event. We had some drinks and got hand massages and a neck massage. We walked throught the city, but everything was closed. So we spent most of the rest of the day in the hotel trying to stay awake so that we could get ourselves on schedule here.

Monday started out in a rush. We had a guided tour of the city and getting all four of us down to breakfast by 8:30 was a little challenging. We were still off schedule, but doing a little better. We took a bus through Monaco and over to the old town were the Prince's palace is. The tour was very informative. Monaco is only one square mile. There are about 30 thousand people that live in that one square mile and only about 3% of them work. The live here because they do not have to pay any taxes. The apartment buildings are 35 stories tall and they have parking garages underground that are four or five stories below ground. There is parking in the mountains too. The tour guide was very informative. We ended the day with a welcoming dinner. It was really nice. They had prize drawings, but we didn't win. They also had dancers and other entertainment. It was a fun evening.