Our train to Geneva doesn't depart until 5:30 pm so we sleep in and spend a morning in Lyon. First off, I think this hotel has maybe the most comfortable pillow I've experienced yet on this trip. I slept very well indeed. We check our luggage with concierge desk at our hotel since room checkout is well before our train trip and then head out for a morning on the town.
Dawn saw a museum dedicated to the French Resistance during WWII that she wants to visit. We grab two daily metro passes (we’re metro pros now) and head off to find the museum. I had read some reviews of the museum that it does not to a great job of accommodating non-French speaking visitors. They must have taken that criticism to heart because that was not the case when we visited. In fact, this museum did one better than the normal audio guide wand things. They offered to handout either a paper notebook with a translation of the exhibits’ text in English (which is what Dawn opted for) or a fancy Android tablet with a custom app on it. I obviously opted for the tablet… and predictably there were some tech support issues getting everything running smoothly (I think the third tablet worked). Still, I was excited to be on the cutting edge of museum info innovation.
The museum itself was actually pretty small but we spent more than two hours in it. The subject matter was expectedly chilling. It told an interesting perspective of the lead up and subsequent German occupation of France through first-person accounts and artifacts. I wasn't very familiar with this particular facet of history surrounding the war, so I learned at lot. The museum is well executed and powerful.
We hop on the metro again and head back towards our hotel. The hotel is right next to a big indoor food market called Les Halles de Lyon. Everything we've read says it’s definitely worth checking out for fresh seafood, meats, cheeses, and everything else edible and French. We swung by last night and it looked closed. This morning it’s technically open...but pretty much every shop is closed. Today is actually a holiday in France celebrating the end of hostilities in WWII (which is why the museum we saw this morning is closed all holidays except this one). With the market a bust we find a small cafe and grab some lunch. I get a sausage with mustard plate. Now, I’m a big fan of sausage in all it’s wonderful forms. When I cut into my sausage it exploded in a pinata of textures and I made a conscious decision to not look at it for too long and to absolutely avoid trying to identify individual parts. I’m not sure this sausage was ground so much as left over parts were crammed into a casing and cooked. That being said, it was very tasty...but the variation of textures with every bite was a bit disconcerting.
After the cafe we didn't have too much longer to bum around town so we decided to go back to our hotel and just hangout in their well appointed lobby until we needed to get our luggage back and head to the train station for our last train ride of the trip. A couple of hours later we were walking around Geneva. We found our hotel and damn, I think the N’vY (that’s name of our hotel) can give the W as run for it’s money when it comes to hotel swankyness. Dawn tells me I like to book hotels that can be mistaken for a nightclub. She might be right in this instance. There is dance music playing all throughout the lobby. The halls are well… just look at the halls.
Our room is pretty swank too.
For dinner we opt to eat at the hotel bar. They have a tapas special that includes 3 tapas and a cocktail that we order. Actually our plan is to order one of the tapas special and split it and order two of the cocktails... but there are some communication issues. The tapas come out and they are very good but also very tiny. It’s not a big deal because we weren't that hungry anyway. We decide maybe a few more tiny tapas and we’ll be good. This time we order off this other tapas menu on the table. These tapas come out and they’re huge. That’s right, it’s another night on this vacation where I’m staring at a plate with a variety of cured meats. Also, I try to order an additional cocktail but that also gets communication mangled and I get another cocktail and 3 tiny little tapas again. Over all the food was very good, but if I spoke a bit more French I’m sure we could have spent half as much in the bar. Oh well, live and learn.
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