Couple of pics and observations about Turin.
Most of the Gelaterias are open to the pedestrians by a window to the street.
Example of a typical Turin street being very narrow and three story buildings.
OBSERVATIONS:
- Subways stations and the trains themselves are graffiti free.
- Absence of gypsy pickpockets at the train stations. Maybe the Police kicked them out during the Games?
- Much of Turin is organized by a grid system much like North American cities. Apparently, courtesy of the ancient Romans who founded the city.
- Very difficult to find the balance between being a tourist and a competitive athlete. You must always be aware of your responsibilities to your team.
Two fresh, juicy and delicious peaches for breakfast and a beautiful banana. Barely got my suitcase closed given it is larger now with two bottles of wine. Barely closed my backpack as well. Left the apartment around 9 am and walked to the nearby taxi stand. Taxi waiting and his meter begins at 3.50 Euro. Short ride to Porta Susa train station and with tip 9 Euro cost. Worth the cost as it is stress free and I know I will be there on time. Plus, lugging the heavy suitcase and backpack around subway stations isn't always a great idea. My train departs at 10:15 am and I have first class tickets all the way to Marseilles. For two of the legs, I know my car number and seat number. Of course, I need to find my car number. The Porta Susa train station is very new, very clean and lots of display monitors. Track 3 is where I need to wait. Found a seat and called Donal to advise that my tournament was over. Emailed the team as well.
I need to find car #3 and seat #31. The monitor indicates zones for cars 2 and then car 4 so I presume car 3 is in between. Put luggage in storage area and try to find seat 31 which is not easy as the seat numbers follow no order whatsoever. Phew, found the seat which is single and facing the opposite direction. This is not a fast speed train. Cloudy skies that look like rain will be coming as we race through the countryside. Hills off to the side, trees, greenery and of course red tiled roofs. Mostly farming land. Relatively quiet on the rails. We travel into the Italian Alps and through a number of tunnels and no longer the stifling heat of Turin.
As we enter into France I can see the vineyards. Even an occasional castle on a hill. Overcast skies again. Arrive at my stop at Chambery Challes les Eaux at 13:10, therefore, missed my connection to Lyon. Found the ticket counter marked "Accueil" and the agent understood english and my challenge. Took a while, but received my new tickets for the next two connections and a new itinerary. Plus, changes to my first class seat assignment on the final leg. Very small train station. My French is very basic "un peu". Bought a pain de chocolate for 1.25 Euro. Need some sugar as I am fading. My train to Lyon departs at 2:02 pm on Track D. Decide to risk the train station's toilet. Weird in that you can't get into the toilets until someone exits the door. No toilet seat and we'll leave your imagination for the rest. Get to platform D and a light rain is beginning to fall. This 'train' has three cars and no engine. It is driven by overhead electrical wires. First class does not have assigned seating. This time though I am facing the direction of the train. Very cloudy here. Lots of greenery, rolling hills and village after village.
About 1 hour and 15 minutes to Lyon Part-Dieu station. Tunnels in this stage as well. Doing sudokus. Many of the other passengers are napping. Lightly raining in Bourgon-Jallieu. Light rain continues in this large plain. No mountains any more. As we race towards Lyon it is more industrialized and urban. Train arrives on time in Lyon but my train to Marseilles St. Charles is "retard" 30 minutes. Very large and busy station given the size of the city. 15:36 departure time and at 15:40 no new time announced or new track number. Lana arrives at 18:15 at Marseilles airport so hoping my train is not too delayed. Eventually track is listed on Departures monitor and head up the escalator to tracks outside but covered from the rain. I believe I locate car 3 and my seat number is 41 against the window single seat. Before I get on the train I check with a fellow passenger to verify it is the right train. Train pulls out at 15:58 so 22 minutes late. Fortunately, I reacted timely to the listing as it didn't wait long nor was a new departure time listed. On each of the trains the english translation occurs at the end of the announcement. The travel time should put me into Marseilles at 17:40 in Marseilles. No wifi on the trains. Hearing French spoken is easier for me that Italian. Rolling hills, lots of trees, farms and low hanging clouds. As we travel across the countryside no longer raining and more flat. Stop at Avignon (Provence) where it is overcast. Tunnels before we arrive in the port city of Marseilles.
Out to the taxi stand quickly. My driver doesn't speak english, but another driver helped to interpret where I needed to go as it needs to be Marseilles airport Arrivals for the Lufthansa flights. About 30 long minutes speeding on the freeway to get to the airport. 50 Euros so not cheap, but it is a long distance and time is of the essence. Overcast skies. Free 1/2 hour wifi at the airport. Burger King franchise super busy in Hall 1 Arrivals. Wired the French are so accepting of fast food? 26 degrees in Marignane which is where the Marseilles airport is located. Lana's flight from Frankfurt is delayed and she texts me on arrival. It is now 19:15 and still waiting. Rental car pickup will be our first task. Greet Lana at arrivals and pretty emotional as we haven't seen each other since July 30th. Get our Toyota rental car 5 speed hatchback 4 door in spot #44. Took us a while to figure out how to drop the back seats and then 15 minutes to figure out the GPS. I had printed off the directions to our place in Provence using Google Maps. Light rain departing from the airport. Take a wrong turn and go in the opposite direction but get turned around and head onto the A7 freeway. Lots of lightning strikes in the distance and rain on the car. As we near our destination very hard rain and numerous lightning strikes close by the car. The night skies are lighting up. Freeway driving for the most part and then close to the town many country roads. We follow the GPS and the end destination is NOT evident. Yikes! Got lost, but found the correct road and a sign for Le Mas de Grès and hooray we have arrived at 9 pm in the pouring rain.
FROM LANA--START OF MY HOLIDAY:
Leaving for vacation without Randy was definitely a strange feeling!! Was worried that something would happen to our well laid plans to meet up in Marseille as you never know what can happen when you're travelling.
My flight from Vancouver to Frankfurt was marked by my luck of the draw to have selected a seat which didn't recline. This meant 9+ hours sitting straight up. Now usually I can contort myself into some kind of sleeping position either by laying my head on the tray table or resting my head to one side and ignoring the inevitable kink that occurs after an hour but no such luck this time. I think I managed to close my eyes and rest for about 10 minutes total. Upon arriving in Frankfurt, I made a beeline to the Lufthansa lounge--at last, I could close my eyes and rest my head against a chair in the lounge to fall asleep. Not the brightest idea I've had though--after a good 90 minutes, I awoke to find the outline of the chair cushion seam firmly imbedded into my forehead!! Looking worse for wear now, I attempted to "rub" the seam indent from my face. This only served to make the indentation bright red and therefore even MORE noticeable. Sighhh--I must have looked a sight getting on the plane to Marseille. After a 30 minute torrential rain delay, Frankfurt airport re-opened the runway and we were finally able to depart.
I was hoping that Randy would be on the other side of the arrival gate and thank goodness my darling husband was standing right in front as soon as I approached the door!!! Couldn't wait to start our holiday now--all was good.
We arrived at our beautiful hotel room at La Mas Des Gres to find that it had one minor problem--it was already occupied. A minor inconvenience though as the room was occupied by a family of seven, yes, seven HUGE daddy long leg spiders!! Two in the bathroom and 5 in the bedroom. We noticed that the largest one managed to crawl across the ceiling (over top of our bed) during the night. Before we went to bed, we found a 4 inch long grasshopper-like-insect on our curtains. We decided against opening any windows during our stay!!!
RANDY again....
Our accommodations are known in Provence as Chambres d'Hote. The manager Francois runs out to greet us and bring in a bag. A good welcome. Lana pretty jet lagged. What a storm! Taken upstairs to level two to our room #4. Do some unpacking and figure out our small and cozy room. We are downstairs to dine at 9:30 pm. Finish around 11 pm. Yup, its European dining time. Fantastic dinner. When we reserved our room we ensured this included breakfast and dinner, per the recommendations of our friends Maryanne and Werner.
Menu Board
Our white wine in a plastic bag with ice
Aioli and vegetable platter
Fish with escargot and hard-boiled eggs
Cantaloupe soup and cantaloupe sorbet
We started with an aperitif Muscat de Beaumes Venise and I ordered a white wine from a local winery. We ate inside given the rain. Everything was delicious and fresh and well presented. Lana took pictures of everything. Very memorable. Back to our room around 11 pm. Lana sent me photos via email and then we need to turn the lights out. To bed before 12 midnight, but only after I chase some insects out of the room. In particular one insect was at least 4" long and I had no idea what it was. I used kleenex to wrap it and then throw it out the window. The ugliest and biggest insect I have ever trapped in kleenex! :-)
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