Four City Tour with PM2AM, Interlaken-Lyon-Mont Blanc-Geneva Posted on: 12th October 2016 :: Photo Credits: Silva, Prayaag, Alap, Pabitra, Manish ::
Continued from: Interlaken (Switzerland)
Day : 1
Location: Lyon (France)
The journey from Interlaken to Lyon took about 4.30 hrs and we checked-in our hotel in Lyon at 4 PM. Everyone was hungry and a bit tired from the journey. Unfortunately, our 3-bedroom in the hotel was very small and the attached toilet/bathroom was also tiny. It felt like a ship’s cabin! After eating some sandwiches and relaxing for a while, we were re-energized to explore this third largest city in France.
Two rivers Rhône and Saône pass through Lyon and meet at a point in the southern part of Lyon. The bridges across both rivers add to the beauty of the town.
We walked across both the rivers and climbed up a hill towards our first spot, the ‘Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière’: a hilltop church and religious art museum. On the way to the Basilica, there was a Museum of Archaeology called ‘Musée de la Civilisation Gallo -Romaine’. It had a huge open-air theater in which Gallo-Roman-era objects including vases, gravestones, mosaics, statues, coins, and ceramics were put on display.
The topmost point on the hill offered a breathtaking panorama of the Lyon city.
By the time evening rolled in, clouds had covered the sky and it started drizzling. The ringing of huge bells in the background made the atmosphere electric. The Basilica itself was very elegantly built!
As the rain subsided, we decided to climb down the hill and roam through the city. The twilight was gone and the city was being lit up in golden lights.
Enjoying the view, we walked along the river for a while. On the way, we stopped at a local food shop and bought our dinner. FC Barcelona’s match was being streamed in the shop but we had to miss it because the food was only available as take-away. So we had our dinner near the ‘Flower Tree’!
The food was delicious! (and as this was our first ‘proper’ meal of the day, it tasted heavenly!) But the quantity was not sufficient to satiate our full-blown hunger. It was already past 9 PM and most of the shops in this part of the city were closed, so we decided to leave for our hotel and look for open food places along the way. After walking through ‘Lyon ki Galiyaan’ for more than an hour and finding most of the restaurants closed or beyond our budget, we finally stumbled upon a kebab shop, which was about to close. Luckily we were able to grab some falafel before the owner closed the shop and then got back to the hotel around 11 PM.