Hi All,
Raining again.
Day bus to Marseille, France. 8hr bus trip in the rain and cold. Just a short stop over before heading to Nice and probably into Italy. Arrived at the bus station to be met by a team of police who individual escorted passengers and their luggage off the bus and then proceeded to search everyone luggage. We were escorted off the bus together and our backpacks were retrieved from the bus but the police obviously saw us as no threat and basically couldn’t be bothered to dig through our packs.picture this we are at the bus station with no map, no tourist information , heavy rain and only an address. Damn our usual strategy didn’t work. Tried to get a taxi but they wanted to charge 20 euro for a 5 minute trip but at least we worked out the right direction when talking so headed off and luckily found a map in heavy rain. Soaking wet. Found hostel which was unmarked then found that they weren
Later did some back of the envelope planning for Italy.
Woke to heavy rain again and a runny nose. Went to the bus station to book a bus to Aix en provence for a day trip. The bus station was actually down the road but we found it without too much trouble and were on our way in minutes. Expensive trip for 25 minutes. Arrived in rain and found the information centre finding that our gortex jackets were absorbing rain and it was quite cool. Vanessa thinks that I have SAG. Seasonally affected grumpiness. Why? Probably as rainy days make me feel miserable when I am out standing in the rain getting wet and cold rather than being inside being warm. We walked the Paul Cessane marked trail in the rain before heading off to find a supermarket for lunch in the rain. We had lunch and the rain stopped so we wandered around the town again in higher spirits. Quite a pretty and impressive town with lots of fountains and classic French buildings. Plenty of designer label shops as well.
Found an outdoor shop and got some resealing for our gortex coats after some minor communication problems with the French speaking assistant.
Found an art exhibition that would have been interesting but it hadn’t started yet could have been potentially interesting see posts for exhibition in pictures for Marseille.
Headed back to Marseille and the rain started again and got very heavy. We found their version of the arc d triumph and then followed the road into town and down to the harbour. The rain eased and we wandered around a bit more. Found that goods are more expensive in the supermarket here than in Spain but one oddity was that camembert was cheaper than buying cheese spread. Wandered a bit more before coming to an old cathedral in need of some TLC before heading back to the hostel.
Needed a bit more time here but then we probably will say that of most places we visit over the next few months. Would have liked to visit the island fortress that inspired the book ‘the count of monte cristo’ but just ran out of time. Guess we just have to decide which cities are worth the extra time from now on.
Off to Nice tomorrow.
Bye.
David and Vanessa
’t expecting us and then found that our room didn’t exist so we were in dorm but luckily it was empty. So it all worked out in the end. Nice enough hostess and had some of our Barcelona pasta for dinner.
