Saturday, March 26, 2016

Love Sun, Historic Buildings and Museums? Visit Marseille!

I booked a trip to Marseille solely on the basis of it being affordable, on the Med and I'd heard of it before.  This seemed like a good plan until I kept hearing "why not Nice?" or several other options from the French, so I was a little dubious before I arrived.  I was glad I knew ahead that the train stopped at a small secondary station just 2 Metro rides from my hotel as the conductor was deeply concerned because he thought I didn't understand where I was being dropped off, "Blancard.  You understand?"  The city was a ghost town at 6 AM, but I snapped a few shots.
  

The guy at the hotel tried to tell me the price quoted at booking was for 1 night, not 2 (which is true per the notice on my door, but was NOT what my reservation showed) and sent me to the wrong building 6 blocks away after I stuck to the reservation amount (it's possible it wasn't intentional).  My "garden view" is more like a roof and a couple trees, but it's cool.  I have a small studio flat rather than a hotel here too.  Most of the hotels have a great view, but aren't by the primary activities centered around the port or the Metro.  The flat is small, but in a great location!
 

Speaking of the Old (Vieux) Port, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day:
After walking the area a bit, I bought a 48 hour pass from the tourist office and caught the tourist train to the top of the big hill to see Notre Dame de la Garde.  Below are a few shots showing it towering above the city - after all the walking for trains and in the morning, I just didn't feel like climbing to the top! 
While there is plenty more to share, I slept so poorly that my Fitbit didn't even register it as sleeping, so I had to manually enter the hours and this is what it came up with - pink being awake & light blue restless:

So, I will leave you with this lovely photo of the tourist train (included in the 31 Euro pass) and pick up with the views from Notre Dame and more tomorrow. 

No comments:

Post a Comment