Daylight saving ended last night and so we got an extra hour of sleep. It was a mild cloudy morning (16C). There was no rain on the forecast - just wind.
Our outing this morning was a guided tour of Lyon starting at 9am. Suzy made sure she was one of the first to leave the ship and get to the bus so we could sit on the front seat to get the best view and to be able to take photos out the front window of the bus.
The first destination was the basilica at the top of the hill. Along the way, we passed some Roman ruins - one was a set of tombs and the other was an open air theatre.
Although navigating the narrow streets was a challenge for the bus driver, he managed to get there without any scratches on the bus. We've seen this several times of this holiday. The drivers are very impressive.
Because it was a Sunday, it was probably more crowded than usual at the basilica. They divided us into two groups - each with a separate guide. I think we did well because our guide was easier to understand than the other guide.
The basilica is called the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourviere. It was so large that it wasn't possible to get all of it in a single photo.
Our guide took us first to an area next to the basilica that gave us an extraordinary panoramic view of the city of Lyon way below. As we all took photos, he described various buildings and points of interest.
For example, he pointed out several buildings, structures and swimming pool that were constructed decades ago in the unsuccessful attempt to host the Olympics at various times.
The forecast for today was "windy" and they were not wrong. It was very windy up there at the top of the hill.
Next he took us back to the front of the basilica to describe more about its features and history. After that, we had about twenty minutes of free time to explore inside and outside the building. It is a very impressive buildings inside and outside.
The bus then took us back down the hill to the old town. with our guide providing interesting information along the way about the buildings, bridges and river.
Our guided tour of the old town started outside the courthouse which is a grand building with lots of tall stone columns. He told us that this is where they tried one of worst Nazi war criminals, the Butcher of Lyon.
Like so many other towns, we walked along narrow cobblestone streets lined with houses and shops. Our guide stopped at a couple of shops in particular - a patisserie and a silk shop.
He also showed us something I'd never seen before: a traboule. This is a passageway in a building that provides access to apartments. There is usually a large wooden door at the entrance. It's like walking through a secret tunnel. Usually the traboule goes all the way through the building to the next parallel street.
Some apartments have access at ground level from the traboule but usually there are three or four levels of apartments. Part of the way along the traboule, there would be a small courtyard and the apartments have windows overlooking the courtyard.
The final destination of the guided tour was the Saint John Cathedral next to a large plaza. We had about 20 minutes of free time to look inside the cathedral or explore the surrounding streets before meeting back in front of the courthouse for the bus trip back to the ship. We reached the ship at about 12 noon.
At 6:30pm, Danielle gave the last port talk during which they introduced all the crew so we could clap and thank them for their great work on the cruise. The captain was missing because he'd already left the ship.
We enjoyed yet another excellent dinner and good company.
I was very tired and we in bed at about 10pm.
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