After two early starts we were due a bit of a lie in... plus today wasn't as hectic an itinerary as the last couple. We were out just before the cleaner came through -which made leaving the hostel a bit of a last minute panic. But we had our standard Avignon breakfast of croissants and jambon (ham) rolls so that cheered us on the way to the rail station. The train didn't do the
'change platforms at the last minute' trick that had almost left us stranded in Nimes, so we made it to Arles reasonably easily. There's a two hour wait before the next leg of our amazing race -so we spend it exploring the sights of Arles. Turns out that one hour would have been ample as Arles is very small and doesn't have the omph of some of the surrounding French cities. For example the arena and the theatre do not compare to Nimes or Ora
nge, so the highlight of any visit would have to be the garden that van Gogh painted in the hospital where he lived. Perhaps if we were huge art lovers we'd have enjoyed more of the exhibits around the town, however the actual highlight HAD to be the 1L tub of strawberry ice cream we had for lunch! Road side stalls are OK, but 1L for 3 euro cools you down way better than 2 scoops for 3 euro! The bus featured a father son combination (luckily the 10 year old was collecting money while the dad drove) that took us to one of the historic landmarks of the area -Chateau des Baux de Provence. Built in the middle ages as a fortress, it is now a kickass ruined castle with a quaint village to browse through. There were fencing demonstrations, trebuchet firing, ridiculous views, the obligatory audio guide (which we have had at every major monument so far) and cold air mist machines! We didn't have endless time there -because of the timing of the bus departures... but we had a real taste of the place and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon exploring the ruins. Castles are very very cool after all! Just a
quick comment about public transport in Provence by the way... we knew it was going to be bad -but it's not just bad -it's also randomly expensive as well! Some short bus or train rides are 1 or 2 euro... while others are more like 7 or 8! We can't expect the timing to be as Swiss as the Swiss, but it's frustrating when a bus is scheduled to arrive at 6:35pm at a train station -and the train is scheduled to leave at 6:32pm! During the wait to the next train (7:55pm) we realised that we didn't have our room key. After turning out the bag and even checking a rubbish
bin to see if it was in our breakfast rubbish (don't freak out Mum, the bin had a clear plastic bag, so we could easily see it was clean) all to no avail. Needless to say we had a very stressful couple of hours as we imagined worst case scenarios of stolen passports and all of our photos. We shouldn't have worried, turns out the key was left in the hotel courtyard in our haste to leave, so it was found and returned to reception! This honesty was probably because we aren't at a Busabout hostel so there no Aussies here Janine *winks*. We calmed our nerves with a well earned kebab and malibu drink... and met some other cool hostellers on their travels.
'change platforms at the last minute' trick that had almost left us stranded in Nimes, so we made it to Arles reasonably easily. There's a two hour wait before the next leg of our amazing race -so we spend it exploring the sights of Arles. Turns out that one hour would have been ample as Arles is very small and doesn't have the omph of some of the surrounding French cities. For example the arena and the theatre do not compare to Nimes or Ora
nge, so the highlight of any visit would have to be the garden that van Gogh painted in the hospital where he lived. Perhaps if we were huge art lovers we'd have enjoyed more of the exhibits around the town, however the actual highlight HAD to be the 1L tub of strawberry ice cream we had for lunch! Road side stalls are OK, but 1L for 3 euro cools you down way better than 2 scoops for 3 euro! The bus featured a father son combination (luckily the 10 year old was collecting money while the dad drove) that took us to one of the historic landmarks of the area -Chateau des Baux de Provence. Built in the middle ages as a fortress, it is now a kickass ruined castle with a quaint village to browse through. There were fencing demonstrations, trebuchet firing, ridiculous views, the obligatory audio guide (which we have had at every major monument so far) and cold air mist machines! We didn't have endless time there -because of the timing of the bus departures... but we had a real taste of the place and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon exploring the ruins. Castles are very very cool after all! Just a 
quick comment about public transport in Provence by the way... we knew it was going to be bad -but it's not just bad -it's also randomly expensive as well! Some short bus or train rides are 1 or 2 euro... while others are more like 7 or 8! We can't expect the timing to be as Swiss as the Swiss, but it's frustrating when a bus is scheduled to arrive at 6:35pm at a train station -and the train is scheduled to leave at 6:32pm! During the wait to the next train (7:55pm) we realised that we didn't have our room key. After turning out the bag and even checking a rubbish
bin to see if it was in our breakfast rubbish (don't freak out Mum, the bin had a clear plastic bag, so we could easily see it was clean) all to no avail. Needless to say we had a very stressful couple of hours as we imagined worst case scenarios of stolen passports and all of our photos. We shouldn't have worried, turns out the key was left in the hotel courtyard in our haste to leave, so it was found and returned to reception! This honesty was probably because we aren't at a Busabout hostel so there no Aussies here Janine *winks*. We calmed our nerves with a well earned kebab and malibu drink... and met some other cool hostellers on their travels.
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Mmmm- icecream!
ReplyDeleteRelieved you had the big tub of ice cream and not the scoops guys !!!!
ReplyDeleteHaha -very good point Dad! For those that don't know, John's been interviewed recently on the potential of bacterial growth in ice cream scoop water buckets :o) So eating a whole tub could actually be healtier too?
ReplyDelete