Day 65 – new city day
July 31 (Thu) – to Lyon
- We needed to check out at 11am, but packing went quickly. He “pre-packed” the night before and I hadn’t really been in my bags much.
- We went to Quick for brunch. It’s fast food, but it’s good. He was also very kind to point out that I “didn’t miss much” in Dijon.
- Our train was only supposed to be a couple of hours, but part way in, our train hit a pedestrian (we didn’t feel it, just the sudden braking), so there was a delay, and a lot of train staff, and a lot of police/firefighters, and some of them looking under our train. Apparently, this happens about 900 times a year in Europe.
- At first, they kept delaying us 15 minutes at a time. Then, they said they were looking for a new driver. Then, they canceled everything from a certain stop all the way to our destination (to get the trains back on schedule, we think.)
- We decided it was a good thing that we changed plans, so we didn’t have a connection we needed to make. A couple near us had to get all the way to Marseille, so they were going to have a pretty long day.
- Because of the accident, our train dropped us an hour short of Lyon, at Macon, so we had to catch a different train from there, but we only waited about 20min.
- Once in Lyon, our taxi driver was another who would never make it on Uber. He drove like a bat out of hell. And then he didn’t like it that I opened the trunk to start getting our bags, even though he had already charged us.
- Our hotel was nice. It was older, so the rooms were smaller, but it’s well cared for.
- Exciting! The little convenience store across the street from our hotel was a great find for Cokes (and wine).
- We found Mexican for dinner, Two Amigos, and enjoyed two enormous burritos.
Day 66 – Lyon, France
Aug 1 (Fri) – Musée des Confluences
- After breakfast at Le Bar a Pains, we bought Metro tickets and took a train ride to the south tip of the “confluence” where the two rivers, Rhône and Saône, join into one.
- We were there to visit the Musée des Confluences. It is a very cool building and an even better museum. And, just south of it at the very trip is the “OnlyLyon” letters sign. It was a bit of a hike on a gravel path and in full sun. But at least there were no “members of Iota Gamma” taking up all the space and time. In fact, we had it all to ourselves.
- So, after another short train ride, we ended up at Taco World before taking another train ride back to our hotel for a small siesta.
- Then, we found the (smaller) subway and “marching” band music at a very cute plaza to take us to Hakata Ramen. I got my usual ramen and he got udon. I’m still shocketh he’s eating this stuff. In the whole time I’ve known him, he’s never liked brothy soups, only chili. This time though, there were smokers at dinner …eeeew. I know they can’t smell or taste anything, but don’t they remember how gross that is?
- We stopped for drinks before taking the subway back to our hotel.
Day 67 – Lyon, France
Aug 2 (Sat) – Musee Cinema et Miniature
- I guess we are loving this sleeping in thing. We were up by noon, but just. We walked to Bchef for a burger and a hotdog and got new transportation tickets.
- Our next adventure was the Musee Cinema et Miniature. It was 5 floors of great exhibits. On our way out “through the gift shop,” we met the owner. He has movie connections and knows how to get stuff. He was an absolute delight to talk to. We bought Cokes from them and it was funny to see him struggle with the POS he never uses.
- I also saw a cookie shop and got a dark chocolate chip one.
- Next, we took the funicular up the hill. There are two lines. One was super long to get to the church that overlooks the city, so we skipped that and just went to the amphitheater before heading back down. There, we found a small food truck with cute cafe tables and ladies having picnics among the views of the relic.
- From there, we took the very short funicular/train/subway combo that led back to our hotel. On our way, we finally got a short video of the small carosuel featuring a bad Donald Duck that I don’t think even Disney would sue over, a spinning teacup, and a Jeep that slightly resembled the one from Jurrassic Park!
- After a siesta, we walked over to Restaurant Le Poelon d’Or for amazing French food. I had a creamy mushroom ravioli and he had steak with gratin potatoes.
Day 68 – Lyon, France
Aug 3 (Sun) –
- After a lazy morning, we went to lunch at Zaap Thai.
- We spent part of the day planning our next stop – to the Alsace!
- We found afternoon Cokes from our new bestie at the convenience store. He really started to light up each day when we saw him.
- We found ramen for dinner and spent part of the evening prepacking a little. It was nice to catch up on just sitting down.
