The Monaco Aquarium

Entering the Museum 00:37 (9.3MiB)

We left in the morning with the intention of exploring the medieval town of Eze but while driving past Monaco we realized realized we hadn't visited the aquarium. Ja drove into, and then back out of, the city looking for a parking spot and we walked in. The last part of our hike took us down a huge staircase with 100 steps overlooking a community center and a sports store called 'the declathon'. We stepped inside to look for a lizard stick.

We found a kid's introductory fishing kit that looked like it would work but decided to purchase it on our way back rather than carry it around with us all day. I picked up a small backpack for 15€ to replace the messenger bag I'd been using but the store refused my credit card and I had to have Amanda buy it for me.

From the declathon we walked out onto the rocky promontory that held Monaco's palace, cathedral, and the museum. We breezed by the palace which was an uninteresting rectangular building cordoned off by a metal fence through a tourist bazaar and into the cathedral. They had grave markers for the royal family and pictures from the marriage of Grace Kelly to the prince of Monaco, and an old bone from Saint Devota

We walked through the small park outside the museum filled with different succulents and numerous signs to keep off the grass. One tourist jumped the path and sprinted across and was chased down by a angry caretaker with a whistle. Ja left us at the entrance to the museum to catch up on some work.

The Monaco museum is a huge stone building with marine motifs perched on the side of a sheer cliff a hundred feet above the Mediterranean. Entering through the large front doors you enter the 'cabinet of curiosities', a two story high wall of shelves filled with scientific specimens, old diving equipment, and marine artwork. They had a megalodon jaw in the center of the hall and old bathyospheres in the corner.

From the central hall we could look down into the hall of skeletons on our right filled with the bones of cetaceans and pinnipeds lit with flickering colored lights as they played a light show. Our left held a museum with pictures and artifacts picked up on the prince's travels around the world collecting scientific specimens. Ahead, on the same floor there was a huge crowd with television crews and waiters handing out hors d'ouevres. They had the back room blocked off for a fashion show and skinny women in ridiculous clothing and security guards swarmed together.

The aquarium was accessed by a series of steps that led down into the dark bowels of the building. The collection wasn't as large and extensive as the Monterey bay aquarium but it was still interesting.

00:22 (5.4MiB)

Afterwards we made our way down the cliffs to the rocky beach behind the museum to swim. Ja was already there and as we hung out a group of teenage boys came down the steps shouting and pushing. Then they started throwing rocks at each other, at the ocean, at seagulls, at the sky, and at other rocks. If any boy found himself separated from the group it was the signal for all the others to throw handfuls of rocks at him while he cringed and shouted for them to stop.

When a few boys went into the water and started throwing rocks at the boys remaining on the beach we decided it would be better to find somewhere else to hang out.

We went down the beach to the concrete docks and did a little snorkeling. The dock was protected by a jumble of concrete water breaks covered in sharp coral and a surprising number of tropical fish. I had a hard time diving too deep because I was too buoyant. I spotted a full bottle of beer with the cap still on lodged down between the breakwater blocks. There was enough room to swim in and retrieve it but I didn't want to risk getting cut up by the coral covered rocks.

00:15 (3.9MiB)

00:18 (4.6MiB)

00:37 (9.4MiB)

00:15 (4.0MiB)

After swimming Ja led us on a tour of his lab.

It was getting late so we returned to the declathon to buy the lizard stick. We also looked for a short piece of leader line to make a noose but they only sold thousand foot rolls for 40€. We ended up cutting about a yard off of this spool with a knife.

From the sports store we climbed the 100 steps back to the car and returned to the house in the quiet country for a dinner of beef tongue and salad. Amanda started some bread toasting in the oven but got so distracted by lizard hunting it burned. I think a little burned toast was worth it for this: