Sabbatical - 8/24 - Traveling to Lyon
After 12 days, the REI adventure portion of my sabbatical was complete, but I still had more than two weeks to enjoy in Europe. It was time to make the acquaintance of the much vaunted European train system.
First, we were bused back to the Geneva airport. I parted ways with the group (and I should have gotten some email addresses, doh). I exchanged the small number of Swiss Francs I had remaining for Euros. Then I bought a train ticket for Lyon. Having done all of this, I caught the subway from the airport to the main train station in downtown Geneva and hopped on the train.
I ended up taking three long distance passenger trains in Europe: Geneva to Lyon, Lyon to Montpellier, and Montpellier to Barcelona. All of them were on time, fast, clean. comparatively cheap and pleasant. I can see why people want them in the states.
I had booked a cheap hotel near the train station for my two nights in Lyon. I went for a long walk around Lyon and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon. I walked across two rivers to the old part of Lyon and back. Lyon is comparatively flat, which was a nice change after 12 days in the Alps, but my feet were still pretty sore by the end of the walk. I finished one last subpar Louis L'Amour novel and went to bed early. It was glorious.
I did find one fun comestible on this afternoon. I was crashing hard as I pulled into the hotel, so I hit the vending machine, where I more or less randomly selected a Kinder Bueno candy bar, which in the words of Wikipedia, is a hazelnut cream filled wafer with a chocolate covering. Yummy. Even better, I found out I can buy them at the Mediterranean Store in the West Side Market. khiron1416 is probably unhappy reading this because I didn't have some kind of fantastic French chocolate instead :-)
Photos one through six in this set are from August 24.
This article was pre-recorded; I am away from the internet.
First, we were bused back to the Geneva airport. I parted ways with the group (and I should have gotten some email addresses, doh). I exchanged the small number of Swiss Francs I had remaining for Euros. Then I bought a train ticket for Lyon. Having done all of this, I caught the subway from the airport to the main train station in downtown Geneva and hopped on the train.
I ended up taking three long distance passenger trains in Europe: Geneva to Lyon, Lyon to Montpellier, and Montpellier to Barcelona. All of them were on time, fast, clean. comparatively cheap and pleasant. I can see why people want them in the states.
I had booked a cheap hotel near the train station for my two nights in Lyon. I went for a long walk around Lyon and enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon. I walked across two rivers to the old part of Lyon and back. Lyon is comparatively flat, which was a nice change after 12 days in the Alps, but my feet were still pretty sore by the end of the walk. I finished one last subpar Louis L'Amour novel and went to bed early. It was glorious.
I did find one fun comestible on this afternoon. I was crashing hard as I pulled into the hotel, so I hit the vending machine, where I more or less randomly selected a Kinder Bueno candy bar, which in the words of Wikipedia, is a hazelnut cream filled wafer with a chocolate covering. Yummy. Even better, I found out I can buy them at the Mediterranean Store in the West Side Market. khiron1416 is probably unhappy reading this because I didn't have some kind of fantastic French chocolate instead :-)
Photos one through six in this set are from August 24.
This article was pre-recorded; I am away from the internet.