Monaco & Monte Carlo

Monaco & Monte Carlo! You've seen them in films! You've read about them! Grace Kelly died there!

So let's leave it at that. Don't bother going, just rent Casino Royale and drink $800 worth of champagne. I was liberated by leasing a car, and Dana was liberated by burning her bra, so we decided to head "20 minutes up the coast" to one of the most famous tax-free locations outside of Wesley Snipe's estate: Monaco. Snipped from Wikipedia, Monaco is "the world's most densely populated country and second-smallest independent nation; with a population of just 32,410 and an area of 1.96 square kilometers." And I think every human there owns two boats. Don't get my wrong... the place is beautiful, but it just doesn't live up to the hype. Perhaps if they installed a ride where You too can drive off a cliff and into the sea! then it would be worth a visit. We found the traffic appalling and everything very expensive. We didn't even buy a panini there.

Just a few more points here... this might be a great stop for someone who has tons of money and doesn't know were to offload it. If you asked me, my first suggestion might be a soup kitchen, but this tax-free constitutional monarchy is a good second choice. I have also never seen so many tourists sitting around. It seemed to me that they were expected to do nothing, once pushed out of their buses, besides look around in awe. Few were talking, so I guess they were pretending that this was more fun than Euro-Disney, but I think this place is in dire need of some good old fashioned streakers. I'm looking into organizing a tour bus full of them now... email me if you are interested. In the meantime, there are some good photos.