Day Thirty-Three
Lyon
9 September 2007 22:07

Getting up early is not one of my strong suits, but we got up, showered, had breakfast and checked out of our Swiss hotel by 7:30.

We boarded an 8:04 train after wrestling with another set of language difficulties and having to book an overnight train on a day we didn’t ant to (it was fully booked on the day of choice).

The train to Geneva took a couple of hours and I was able to pass time by photographing the heavy fog surrounding us and blocking the view of the mountains and forests.

After a short wait where we couldn’t bu and food as we had no Francs left we hopped on our train to Lyon.  Since a guy the other day hadn’t stamped our Eurail Pass properly we changed a 07 to a 09 and got a free day out of it.

Shortly after a checking in and marvelling that our room was on the sixth floor … above a petrol station we caught a metro to the “old town” of Lyon.  The second Metro train had no driver at the front or back and you could sit right at the front with an incredible view of the underground tunnels and approaching stations.

The Metro station put us right in the middle of market with nice things we couldn’t afford.  We headed down a street laden with restaurants, our stomachs lead the way into an Indian place where we had a three course meal for 16€ each.  It’s been so long since we’ve had Indian we both devoured the lot in no time at all.

Weighed down with food we turned a corner and saw a flight of steps with tourists heading up and down.  So we ascended.  As I rounded a corner the steps continued even higher.  At the top were more steps, more ramps, more steps still.  Finally, we reached the top and the view over the city next to a large white basilica was magnificent.

Back down the long hill and at our hotel we learned that an ancient Roman amphitheater I wanted to visit was back at the top of hill.

The amphitheater dates to 15BC, it used to seat 11,000 people and a 20m wall behind the stage.  It’s still used today but only for a few thousand people.  There is a smaller theatre that was used for music but today a man, woman in an ugly wedding dress and a toilet were being photographed.

We wandered through the city and saw a large plastic tree covered in a flowers, ate some Häagen-Dazs, saw a carousel, a palace, statues and more.

Lyon (and Marseille tomorrow) are a detour from our original plan but that’s the reason our plans have remained open.

Hopefully we’ll be able to catch a TGV fast train tomorrow which ought to be fun.

Tonight, Justine and I decided on Indian take away for dinner. After making our decision — we were going to share a fish punjabi masala — I called the local place. The local Indian restaurant is pretty good, has been featured in The Age Good Food Guide and not too far away.

So, I was surprised when I got a “number not available” type message when I called. Thinking I must have dialled incorrectly I tried again. Same thing. Maybe there was a network problem. I tried my mobile. Nope, definitely not available.

Well, it was a nice night for a drive. We drove to the place only to find it has closed down. This is especially strange since I drive past it every day after work (though never actually look over there, as it’s on the other side of a divided road). This really sucks, it’s hard enough to find a good Indian restaurant; there are two in our area (or were) and we haven’t tried the other one yet. I just know it won’t be any good.

How about Nando’s? It’s not too far. On the way, Justine convinced me we should have another crack at some Krispy Kreme donuts. Besides, it was a nice night for a drive. It, however, is far. We got to Narre Warren and though the line was smaller than our last visits, it still took us 35-45 minutes to finally get to buying some donuts.

My favourite Krispy Kreme donuts are the custard filled and cream filled ones. They didn’t have any of either of them. In fact, about half the varieties I wanted weren’t available. Disappointed, we drove home with an uninspired selection of donuts.

Not before stopping in at Nando’s. And not before stopping in at Safeway to buy some fancy custard to pour over a plain chocolate-covered donut.

At least something tonight lived up to expectations (and it wasn’t the donuts)