Turns out there are two rivers in Lyon. Who knew? Obviously not the bus - sorry "coach" - drivers, and the river we were following was the Saone when we should have been following the Rhone. Easy mistake, right? Anyway, they sorted themselves out and away we went to find another bridge. Across we went, turn right and follow the river. Beauty! So after a bit the bus - sorry "coach" - in front does another right and crosses another bridge...?? Mmmmm! When we get to the other side he does another right turn, so now we're heading back the way we came, but on the other side of the river. But don't worry... 'cause when we get to the next bridge he does another right - crosses the river again - does another right and we're all sweet... Albeit a bit confused! Anyway we eventually find the ship - 'cause you're not allowed to call it a boat - and start to board.
First impression of the new craft? The guy playing an accordion to welcome us on board with his little brother standing beside him...
Just in case I forget - this musician is great. He played in the lounge every afternoon for the next week and his choice of music and the volume were perfect. I hope he gets a permanent gig, 'cause he was good.
So, on we go and sort ourselves out, then it's into the lounge for the Captain's Welcome. Some of us got a bit more of a welcome than others...
I tried to get a cuddle from "just call me Captain Danni" but... Cest la vie.
So there were a few surprises during the welcome. Turns out if you've got four gold bars on the sleeve of your jacket you get to be captain. There's another story there but I'll tell you about that later. Next surprise; new Cruise Director. Unfortunately Kate had to leave us but, she left us in Emma's more than capable hands. Next surprise; we're staying in Lyon for a day or two, 'cause the river's too high and we can't get under the bridges. But don't fret - nobody's missing out on anything 'cause we've arranged to do the next day's tours by bus - sorry "coach" - and it means we get to spend an extra night in Lyon. Anyway, it's all good 'cause the boat - sorry "ship" - is full of Aussies on holiday and as long as the bar's stocked who cares?
Now as it turned out, this was the start of what became a pretty hectic week. Looking back, I'm pretty sure the only person who would know where we went and which tours we did over the next seven days would be the Cruise Director and I wouldn't be surprised if she was a bit confused about it all, as well. I know it wasn't quite, but it felt like two different tours each day, every day - and like a good pseudo Aussie tourist I'm never satisfied. If there had been less I'd be complaining of "not enough to do". Anyway, I'm not really going to tell you about the tours yet, except that, the one that scored highest was the "Ghost Walk" at Viviers and there were two that scored the lowest - the day we spent at Rudesheim and the tour we did of the Papal Palace in Avignon.
Anyway, here's some photos of Margurite, the ghost of Viviers...
And here's a photo of Margurite's mum and dad, who were our tour guides for the night....
Not only was this tour fun and interesting, because of the way it was done it's something we'll remember.
So on we sailed and there were lots of other interesting bits that you'll hear about, but eventually we reached Arles, and now comes the tricky bit...
I don't really want to end this post with a negative, 'cause overall, we had a good time and enjoyed ourselves. But, APT, you should know that the ship's staff got the disembarkation all wrong, and left six of your customers with a very poor last impression. The instructions for those staying in Arles - and there were six of us - were to place our bags in the corridor at 09:00 so the porters could move them out onto the dock. Not before 09:00, or they would be mixed up with other luggage going onto Monte Carlo or Barcelona, and then to wait in the lounge until 9:30 when a taxi would arrive to take us to our hotels. So, out went the luggage into the corridor, out went us, into the lounge, and not two minutes later one of the ship's crew came to tell us the taxi was waiting.
So off we go to the taxi (mini van), to discover the luggage is still in the corridor on the ship. There's no staff to be seen anywhere so, back we go, manhandle the suitcases down the stairs to the lobby - which is absolutely deserted - and start to lug it up the gangway, across another vessel we're moored to - up another gangway, to the taxi. Very poor, we thought. Then to add insult to injury, the taxi driver demanded 10€ each for three couples to take us from one side of town to the other - a distance Denise and I walked the next day in less than fifteen minutes.
Sorry APT, but not a nice note to end on.
Anyway, now we've moved on to the next little adventure, which is a few days in Arles and a few days in Orange, but more about that later.
In the meantime here's some photos from some of the tours we did and a few of life on the river.
Bye, now!
No comments:
Post a Comment