Lyon, Day 4

Tuesday, April 9: Today Steven has an interview, I am sure thinking about that and praying for him! Today there was a full breakfast. Most ate that but I had just enough to take my pills. Then we headed out on a Lyon excursion. We went to the Basilica that was built to worship Mary. There is a statue of St. John in the courtyard.  Up on that hill we had a good view of the entire city. We were shown where the social center is, the financial center, and the political center. The view was a bit hazy but lovely just the same. After a walk through the basilica, which featured Murano glass in the stained glass windows, we were back on the bus to the next stop, but there was road work and it was very congested. We lost some of our time there but then eventually we ended up down in the city center where Cheryl and I were yesterday. We walked through a Traboule, a sort of passage way to get from one street to another. After passing through that we found ourselves standing in front of the same shop where we bought Lavender things (and more) yesterday! After this we had 15 minutes of free time. I'm glad we had a more leisurely time here yesterday. We got back on the bus and passed a few things we saw yesterday and then returned to the boat in time for lunch. We set sail along the Saone. We passed a lock and watched that happen. There was a brief introduction to French culture, such as how to act appropriately and how to order beer or wine. Next came the spiel about tomorrow, which made little sense to us but the bottom line is we get on the bus at 8:45 and have the tour of the day.

Around Lyon

Then there was the welcome aboard toast, one glass of champagne or juice each! Then on to dinner. Tonight was different for dinner. No salad bar but just ordering from the menu. Everyone was served a shrimp cocktail and then mushroom broth with some sort of dumpling in it. There were three choices of entrée: 1) beef filet, 2) Bream fish, 3) Mushroom crepes. I skipped all because I was full from the tea we had earlier. I did have the shrimp cocktail, soup, and the baked Alaska for dessert, which was delicious and presented so lovely. Vernae and Cheryl met more travel agents and we sat and talked through dinner. Boy, I could never be a travel agent, what a stressful job! I have enough trouble making my own travel arrangements lately! We talked for some time after the dinner was finished and then finally headed to our cabins. We are traveling pretty quickly along the river. We will be at our next stop by 5a tomorrow.