| From: "Bron Gondwana" <brong@brong.net> Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 23:55:30 +1100 (EST) |
We had sponge baths at the basin and planned to have a proper wash in Paris. We were annoyed enough at both the dodgy hotels (Lyon is the second biggest city in France, and has no hostel - most other towns looked similarly poorly served in the Europe book the we still had) and the fact that most train lines in France are TGV only, and charge booking fees. On top of that, we still have plenty of Britrail days left, so we could explore the UK where they speak the same language and don't charge for every little incidental excuse quite so frequently. Anyway, caught the metro to the closer train station only to discover that the staff were on strike, and there were no lockers (welcome back out of Switzerland and into paranoia land), only baggage handlers who were of course not there. The baggage handlers existed at the other station, so we left our bags there, booked through to Paris, and headed off to see the views from the top of the hill which looks over Lyon. There's a Funicular which is covered by the Metro ticket (but goes through a tunnel most of the way up the mountain, so no views...). At the top is a really cool church, with gardens which have a fantastic view over the city. It was still a little wet, so we didn't get long to enjoy the view. The church was full of mosaics. Finished Lyon with a quick run through the Textiles and Decorative Arts museum (actually two museums, but on the one ticket and next to each other). Kate really liked it (I was a bit bored by the end) especially the textiles. Again, not much English information available, though one nice lady practiced her English with us, and told us a bit more than we would have found out otherwise. Kate had stayed at a hostel last time which had really good breakfasts and was in our Europe book (and it was central and easy to get to from the train station), so we went there. On the down side, it was very expensive, and Kate had a room full of screaming and unsocialised teenage girls, whereas I had a slightly nicer dorm with only loud snorers and builders who came and smoked under my window at 6:30am, waking me up with the smoke (and noise a bit later as they started work). We didn't get much sleep. |
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