1st Day and I Am Already Climing Up, Up, Up...!

April 7, 2017--Lyon, France

Wow!  I slept well last night (partially thanks to a melatonin tablet).  After 9 1/2 hours of sleep, I have been feeling mostly fine today!!  Thanks, Dreamliner.

The first place I headed in my explorations of Lyon was the highest point in the city.  It seems that almost any city in Europe has a dramatic high point with a top historic attraction on it.  Here, there are two historic attractions--the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere and a mini-Eiffel Tower that was built by anti-clerical people to have a non-religious building as the highest point in Lyon.  To get there required crossing a bridge then having a slow climb for blocks that then turned into a multi-switchback pathway with a couple of short-cut stairways that took me up with a huff and a puff.  My legs are good for walking after being in mostly-flat San Antonio for half a year, but they and my body lost any skill I had developed in Europe last year for making steep climbs.

The Basilica was interesting with a bright white marble exterior.  It has a Byzantine-style interior with many large, bright, and detailed tile murals.  Lots of gold tiles were used for major features.  From the courtyard to the side, there are great views back across the city.

The tower was rather basic and could use a good cleaning.  It now serves as a TV broadcast tower for the city and region. 

On the way down from the top, I stopped to see the two old side-by-side Roman theaters.  Just like performance centers often do today, they built a large one and a smaller one together.  Did they have to worry back then about what size of theater would be appropriate for a given act to avoid it looking like a small crowd had come?

I spent several more hours back across the river exploring the Old Town--Vieux Lyon.  My guide information says it is the largest Renaissance area in all of Europe after the the city of Venice.  It is filled with old buildings that just for blocks.  In contrast with Venice, the architecture is simpler.  But there are very interesting buildings, small squares, narrow streets, etc.  I wandered up and down the streets, stepped into courtyards, looked into shop windows (especially bakeries), etc.  The main street is Rue St. Jean, but two other interesting ones are Rue du Boeuf, and Rue Juiverie.  There are a number of interesting courtyards and passageways called Traboules off the first two streets, but only a few are now open to tourists because people live in the apartments above.  The latter street consists mostly of mansions that were built by wealthy Jews who were eventually expelled from the city.  The houses passed on to very successful non-Jewish businessmen.

While exploring those streets, I also stopped to see St. Jean Cathedral.  It's more somber than the Basilica on top of the hill, but it has very interesting stained glass windows.  There are a couple of old rose windows made with richly colored pieces of stained glass.   But it has many large stained glass windows that are modern with a light, airy look. 

I stopped at Chez Jules Boulangerie, which the guidebook said was one of the more popular traditional bakeries, to get a sandwich for at late lunch.  It was about a 10-inch baguette with poppy seeds filled with ham, cheeses, lettuce, cucumber, butter, and maybe something else.  It was tasty.  The roof of my mouth is a bit raw, however; really crusty bread tends to do that to me.

I got some bad news when I returned to the apartment.  There was an e-mail from Airbnb saying that the lady in Seville had canceled our reservation.  It was a very nice apartment at a good price.  I knew when I booked it that I would be there during a popular time; already about 40% of the apartments and hotel rooms had been rented.  I thought I would be safe, since the reservation was for 4 days.  But apparently someone wanted to rent the place for a whole week or more.  That's one of the bad things about Airbnb, people get their reservations canceled at the last minute sometimes.  I quickly searched on Airbnb, which said that 85% of their listings in Seville for those dates had already been booked, and there was nothing good remaining that I wanted at the price.  Then I looked for hotels, and 77% of all the hotel listings on Kayak.com (which covers not only kayak.com, but also booking.com, hotels.com, travelocity.com, etc.) were already booked!!  The only acceptable hotel that Kayak showed as the best hotel without being a lot more than the cost of the canceled apartment just happened to be on sale at Travelocity in comparison to everywhere else.  It was still about $70 more over the 4 nights than the apartment, but it was about $50 cheaper than any of the other websites were asking for it.  Only 3 rooms were available, so I booked one quickly.  I just hope no problem develops with this booking.  Seville is now apparently one of the hot spots of Europe for visiting!

Around 21:00, I went out to try to see the City Hall lighted up.  Lyon is known for its creative night lights on buildings.  I didn't take my map, and I soon realized I would get lost if I turned anymore corners.  This part of the city is like a maze.   I turned around and returned to the apartment.  I'll have to go back out tomorrow night with a map.