Leaving Monaco

Day 14
We woke up early on our last day in Monaco. The plan was to pack up, check out of the hotel, and leave our luggage with the concierge while we spent one last day enjoying Monaco. We had tickets for the overnight train to Paris that left at 7pm. The plan seemed simple enough, until a few days before we were scheduled to leave, when we discovered that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France began in Monaco on our departure day. We were repeatedly assured that it wouldn't be a problem to take a taxi from our hotel to the train station, regardless of the fact that the time trials passed directly in front of our hotel. I (stupidly) took their word for it and thought Mamar was silly for being so concerned. I was just so excited about seeing the Tour de France in person, that I want to bother myself worrying about potential trouble.

We went ahead and left our luggage at the hotel, and hit the streets of Monaco. After a little shopping and a little lunch, we stationed ourselves along the street in front of our hotel and watched the athletes ride by. What an experience! I certainly never expected to be able to witness the Tour de France!





Austin's own Lance Armstrong:



Many of the cycling teams stayed in our hotel. It was neat to see them wandering around the lobby (but less fun to try to fit in the elevator with them and their bikes).



So, after watching for a couple of hours, it was time to catch that taxi from our hotel to the train station. The concierge retrieved our luggage, no problem. The snafu came when we told him we were ready for him to call us a cab. "Oh, no. Impossible. There are no taxis until after the Tour ends tonight," we were told. Ummm, what?! This, after we were repeatedly reassured that it was not going to be an issue? The buses also weren't running along our street, so essentially, we were trapped. After about 30 minutes of standing around with various hotel staff attempting to come up with a solution, they settled on one: all the bellhops would help us get to a bus station. This was no small feat. Have I mentioned how much luggage we had?

Long story short, we were helped along the long walk across intersections, up elevators, and down streets to the bus stop and get to the train station. Whew, we made it. Thankfully, we had planned ahead to get there early. The closer it go to to the end of the Tour, the more packed the station became. It was like a cattle call with hundreds and hundreds of people pushing and shoving (and urinating on the nearby wall). Finally the crowd thinned and our train arrived.

Now, I don't know about you, but my expectations for an overnight sleeper train may have been a little unrealistic. I imagined something out of an old movie...or maybe from Harry Potter. Clean, comfortable, maybe a little old fashioned. Let's just say it didn't quite meet my expectations. The four of us shared a room with two sets of bunk beds. In the middle was a tiny aisle, which was crammed with suitcases. It was hot, humid, dirty, and very uncomfortable. It was a very long night.