Lyon Day 1

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Day 5

We wake on the riverboat and get ready for our first breakfast on board. One of my many guilty pleasures is there's bacon here. It's at the buffet station and you can have as much as you wish and this is where I'll eat that smoky, crispy bacon for seven straight days in a row. We've decided that Adrian will be our waiter for the entire trip. The boat has open seating for every meal so we need to be sure we are not late and go directly to one of Adrian's stations. After breakfast we go downstairs to prepare for the first of many walking tours we will take on this river Cruise. We checked the weather in Lyon today and there's a 40% chance it will rain and the sky has dark clouds gathering in the distance. We boarded our buses with our headsets synced to our guides red viking paddle and headed to Fourviere Basilica in the top of the hill. There has been a shrine at Fourviere dedicated tot Our Lady since 1170. Tom and I have been to Lyon once before and we did go up the hill to the see Fourviere, it really is a spectacular basilica built on the prayers of the population below.

In 1816 twelve Marist aspirants, priests and seminarians climbed the hill to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourviere and placed their promise from the Society of Mary (Marists) on the altar of the chapel while Jean-Claude Courveille celebrated Mass. When the city of Lyon was spared in the Franco-Prussian was in 1870 the community committed to build the present Basilica alongside the ancient chapel. The sweeping view of the two rivers and City of Lyon from the basilica is truly amazing.

Within the city of Lyon runs both Le Rhone and La Soane which parallel each other. The city is sort of divided into sections or arrondissements. On the peninsula that lies between the river is the commerce area. There are beautiful parks, plazas and shopping. The section just below the basilica is Vieux Lyon or the ancient section.

We were able to tour some of the oldest spots in Vieux Lyon. We walked through narrow tunnels called traboules that lead from the hill to the river and were used by the silk weavers to safely get their products from their shops to the river for exporting. Lyon is not only known for its variety of foods it is also known for silk. Beautiful silks products are everywhere. You have to be careful to ensure the silk you are purchasing was made in Lyon and not imported from another country. Vieux Lyon was another fascinating place to in which to meander it is full of narrow cobblestone streets and centuries old buildings. The residents bustled over the uneven pavement on foot and it was easy to imagine this was the same scene hundreds of years ago. On market delivery days the trucks that practically scraped the walls of the buildings on both sides line up to make their deliveries and sit with the expectation of having to wait for the four or five trucks in front of them to complete their deliveries so all of them can move in unison out of the Vieux Lyon area. The residents are so used to these trucks that I watched two elderly woman, deep in conversation with a truck inching along behind them as if they didn't notice him at all. I'm sure the truck was hoping these two would press themselves again the stone walls so that he could pass but it was not to be. The women hobbled down the street slowly, deep into conversation while the truck slowly followed behind. A lot of stores have been in the same business for many generations such as the pastry shops that wafted this delicious buttery praline aroma which traveled through the tunnels and into the nearby streets. You needed only to follow your nose to purchase their scrumptious candies and breads.

It began to rain as we were bused back to the Heimdal and we all knew there would be a short walk from where we would exit the bus and where we would board the boat. Not to far but enough opportunity to get pretty wet. As the buses pulled up to the drop off point we were surprised and pleased to see many of the ships crew out standing in the rain holding the big red ships umbrellas for us. They opened and handed one to each person getting off the buses and then as soon as we crossed the gangway to the inside the ship they were there to take them back. Everyone appreciated this grand gesture. One of the many reasons we travel with this company; always service with a smile.

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