Wednesday July 17

Avignon

Today we decided to go for a day out of Marseilles to see Avignon.  We got up at 7 a.m., had breakfast and headed down to a bus stop close to us.  We want to test the timing of leaving when we have suitcases and have to go early to head for Amsterdam.  We hopped a bus, then the Metro.  Our train left right on time.  We heard a couple of men speaking in English about how the trains in Europe are like clockwork.  They probably cursed us at the end of the day.

On Train

As soon as we got to Avignon we walked straight up the street from the train station to the Papal Palaces.  We had read that you have to get there early.  The lineup wasn't bad, though, and we were in within 15 minutes in spite of not purchasing tickets ahead of time.  We toured the excellent medieval complex.  Then we headed right over to the famous Pont D'Avignon.

Palais Des Papes

 

Sur La Pont D'Avignon

After having a nice lunch we went and rode the Petit Train for the tour around the walled city.  Finally, we took a walk up around the Rocher Des Doms gardens for some great views of the Rhône River,  and walked back through town.  It was incredibly lively today.  You'll see from pictures that there is a theater festival in town.  It's obviously a type of fringe festival, with costumed characters wandering around pressing cards advertising their shows into your hands.  We relaxed for about an hour and a half with a couple of pressions watching the crowds.

Road By Palais

Rhône River from Gardens

Then came the fun.  We got to the train station to see that our train was 40 minutes 'en retard'.  We were early, so thought we'd run back up the street for a couple of gelatos.  On return, we noticed the train was now an hour late.  And then it flashed up an hour and a half.  We noticed that everything originating in Lyon was running later and later.  Nobody had answers for us.  We started to wonder if we would be getting home this evening.  In the end, the train was over two hours late but we made it home.  We took the Metro to the Vieux Port, then walked up and along home.  We're pretty tired, and Megan is fighting some blisters now!  Today's walking distance was 18.62 km!