French Riviera Day 3, Monaco Part 2

Continued from French Riviera Day 3, Monaco Part 1.

After completing my one lap of Circuit de Monaco, I had to back track the front straight in order to reach my next destination.

This is by Turn 17 next to the Mercedes Sculpture.

Stairs that would take me up Rock of Monaco to Monaco-Ville.

More, of course.

Beautiful view of the harbor from up here.

François Grimaldi. Captured the Rock of Monaco in 1297. The monk frock coat was a Trojan Horse disguise he used to get them to open up the gate. His hand is pulling out a sword. Like a Jedi Knight.

Walking around in Monaco-Ville.

Palais Princier, this is where the Prince of Monaco, Albert II, lives.

Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Monaco-Ville.

Port of Fontvieille, in Fontvieille Monaco.

Walking towards the main reason why I am in Monaco-Ville.

Oceanographic Museum. I’ve been recommended to come here because it contains a world class aquarium in the basement level. I love aquariums, so naturally I had to give it a shot.

That’s not a cheap entry ticket.

Prince Albert II and his new bride Princess Charlene. I don’t know about you, but to me, neither of them look happy in that photo. Tens of thousands of photos taken on their wedding day, this unhappy photo is the one they picked to display? On the other hand, perhaps they looked equally unhappy in all the other photos as well because it’s not a happy marriage to begin with. You can Google it and read all about dysfunctional royal life.

The museum portion.

Things really do arrive in wooden crates.

Biggest lobster I’ve ever seen. The smaller of the two lobsters in the picture would be what I call a normal giant lobster that you see in restaurants.

Creepy looking old school diving equipment.

Hey Moby Dick. Sperm whales only have teeth on the bottom. They are such crazy looking animals.

Eh?

Ah.

Albert I, who founded the Oceanographic Museum.

The aquarium levels are located in the basement of the museum. As far as sheer size of the aquarium measured in gallons of water, I bet it’s probably 1/50 of the size of the aquarium in Atlanta. They definitely went for quality over quantity here, and I enjoyed this aquarium more so than the one in Atlanta. The variety of specimen in this aquarium is just incredible.

I love taking pictures of divers inside aquariums.

I believe this is a box fish. They actually designed a concept car based on the idea of biomimicry because the box fish had an aerodynamic shape while at the same time contained a lot of interior volume.

Upside down jellyfish. That’s really is their common name. They spent the whole time trying to swim into the sand.

Never seen so many clown fish at one place before.

Sea cucumber. Tasty, seriously.

Biggest lion fish I’ve ever seen. It was much bigger than my hand.

Nautilus. Wouldn’t it be cool to have one as a pet?

How many flounders can you spot?

Biggest eel I’ve ever seen. No hand for reference, but it’s about 3 times the size of any other eel I’ve seen in other aquariums. Funny how physically, this is probably one of the smallest aquariums I’ve been to, yet they had some of the biggest specimens that I’ve seen.

The one in the back looks very unhappy.

The camouflage ability of flounders.

Hey, dude.

Dinner?

Hahaha, this comical little thing cracked me up. I didn’t look up the name plate for them, but wish I did. I love the wide set eyes, makes them look retarded.

Fight fight fight!

Again, huge specimens here. The biggest hermit crab I’ve ever seen. It was larger than the size of my hand.

Hahaha, what’s this Sasquatch looking thing walking around? It was so funny looking I pointed and laughed, and the two girls standing at the tank also laughed.