Wednesday 20241002
We are waiting to board our flight to Amsterdam, which leaves at 4:50 pm. We got here with a ride from Detroit Airport Town Cars. I had booked this a couple of days previously and set it to pick us up at home at 1pm, and they were very prompt. I think we will use them again based on this experience. Now it is 2:15 and we have checked in, gotten settled at the gate, and I bought a greek salad to take on the plane so that I know I can get something appropriate to eat for dinner, since often the airplane meals have a lot of things I can’t eat, like rice and pasta. Now we just wait until we can board the plane.
Thursday 20241003
The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. And we had plenty of time to make our connecting flight to Lyon, and I grabbed an apple to eat for breakfast. The flight to Lyon was also uneventful and we got to the Citadines Part Dieu around 11am local time. But we couldn’t get into our room until later so we dropped our bags and went out to find lunch .Restaurants were mostly not open yet, so we found a market and bought a few things. Then we went back to the Citadines to eat our lunch and then wait for our room to be ready. When it was, we figured out the power converter situation and then took a nap for a little over 2 hours. Then we went in search of dinner, but most restaurants opened later and were closed at this time. So we went to the Carrefours supermarket and bought some fruit, vegetables, cheese, and yogurt. Our room comes with a kitchenette with a refrigerator and a microwave, so we can take our meals here. We had considered going back out after shopping to try a Lebanese restaurant, but by the time we got our groceries back I was beat, so had a simple dinner from our purchases before going to bed. So we didn’t do any real sightseeing today, but the main objective was to get here and try to overcome jet lag, and I think we did that reasonably well.
Friday 20241004
Our first full day in Lyon. We had a nice breakfast from the groceries we bought, then it was off to the sightseeing. We walked from the Citadines to the Vieux Lyon (about a half hour), which is the old town. Lyon is sited on the confluence of the Saone and Rhone rivers, and View Lyon is on the Saone just above where the rivers meet. Our first stop was the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral, which is the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon, and is a mix of Roman and Gothic styles. It was a very nice but not spectacular Cathedral. It is in the heart of the Vieux Lyon. From there we took the Funicular up the hill which is otherwise a steep climb. But misunderstanding the directions led us to get on the wrong funicular, which let us off a bit short of the top, so we had a little more of a climb. Our objective was the Basilique Notre Dame, which was in fact spectacular and well worth the visit. We started with the crypt in the lower level, but by the time we got done there Mass was being said in the upper level so we could not sightsee. So we found the restrooms, then got coffee while Cheryl had her lunch. This also gave us a chance to sit for a bit, never a bad thing. By noon we were ready and Mass had gotten out by then, so we went into the upper level, and it was spectacular indeed. Everywhere you looked was something interesting, from frescoes to stained glass to side altars and statutes to carved stone pillars and so on. We’ve seen Cathedrals in Europe that are larger than this Basilica, but it holds its own for interest.
After this we went to Roman Ruins, which are nearby to the Basilica. Lyon was known ot the Romans as Lugdunum, and it was the capital of what they called the Three Gauls, which were Gallia Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania. Paris existed at this time, but it was just another Gallic town. With the fall of the Empire in the west (traditionally dated to 476 AD), life continued for a time as usual, but the Roman buildings in Lugdunum basically became a source of stone for buildings and were mostly lost. But archaeologists and historians have recovered a lot of this history. We went through the museum which showed us a lot of this history and displayed the artifacts that have been recovered, often when foundations are dug for buildings, or when other digging has brought up bits of pottery, statues, and so on. One thing interesting was that as a capital and a major Roman city, Lugdunum was very cosmopolitan, and people came and went from all over the Empire. The European boundaries of the Empire were primarily the Rhine and the Danube, though there was one province, Dacia, that was north of the Danube. That area is now what we call Romania, and that means land of the Romans.
After a bit in the museum we went outside to see the remains of the Amphitheater, which was sensibly enough built into the hillside. There were actually two of them originally, one smaller which is mostly gone now. It didn’t take much time to see the outside ruins, so we then started back to the Citadines. By now we were pretty beat, and the walking directions Google gave us had us going down a long steep staircase, and it took a lot out of us. We sat for a few minutes to rest our legs before continuing the walk back. By the time we reached the hotel our feet definitely needed rest. My Fitbit recorded nearly 18,000 steps by the time we got to our room and sat down, so while that is not a record, I just want to say the two times I recall doing more than that in a day (one was Lucerne, the other the Grand Canyon) I was younger!
After resting for a bit, we went to a Lebanese restaurant called Chateau Beyrouth, where we had a very nice dinner despite a few communication difficulties. Our server did not speak much English, and we did not speak much French, so she ended up calling a coworker who had better English and we ended up mostly getting what we wanted, though it appears she thought that Cheryl was the only one who wanted no bread. But no harm no foul, and we may go back tomorrow. My final step count for the day is 21,042.
Saturday 20241005
Our second, and last, full day in Lyon. We discovered that the Hotel breakfast would in fact work for us, so we ate it here. I woke up with a runny nose and sneezing, so that sucks. But I took some medication and after breakfast we went back out. As we walked my legs were feeling pretty sore after all of that walking yesterday. By the time we get home I will either be in great shape or dead. We headed for Vieux Lyon again, but as we hit the Rhone river we saw a market setup along the river and checked that out. This was mostly fresh produce, meats, and fish. Then we crossed the Rhone, walked to the Saone, and another street market, similar to the first. Then after crossing the Saone, we walked along Rue St. Jean, which is one of the oldest streets in Lyon, and is lined with various shops. One interesting one would take a picture of your Iris and turn it into a piece of art.
After walking the entire length of Rue St. Jean, we went into the Musee Miniature et Cinema, an interesting stop. It was all about films and filmmaking, and the Miniature part refers to the miniature models used in making films. There were costumes, props, and so on for a number of films. There was an exhibit devoted to Asteroid City (2023), that included a brief “making of…” film which gave us a much-needed break to sit down. The Miniatures were fascinating. From a few feet away they were clearly miniatures, but get close up with a camera and they suddenly look real. I guess that is the way it is supposed to work in filmmaking. All in all, a really fascinating oddball place, and worth a stop if you are in Lyon.
After the museum my medications were starting to wear off, so we headed for a pharmacy to see about getting a cold medicine. As it turns out, getting anything like the cold medicines we are used to in the U.S. is difficult. I think the pharmacies will fill your prescriptions, but they are nothing like the CVS I could have used. We found some “cold and flu” products, but they all contained Ibuprofen, which I cannot take because I am on blood thinner medication.
We were back at the Citadines by 1:30, having completed everything on our planned itinerary, and decided to rest for the afternoon before going out to dinner later.We returned to the Chateau de Beyrouth because the food was so good last night, and it was just as good tonight. Then it was back to Citadines for the evening.
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