The port in Marseille, is about 15km away from their city centre so the cruise line was busy selling bus transfer tickets at $16.USD and we are in port until 10:30pm so lotsa time to enjoy this popular Southern France area.
My excursion tour bus met us at the ship and we were 20 people on this 4 hour tour and our tiny French guide struggled with his English translation many times but his knowledge of the area was good, so off we were to a city 30km north of Marseille called Aix Provence.
Aix en Provence has the title of 'City of a Thousand Fountains' and 'Village of Art and Water'...in reality there is only 20 noteable fountains and each is unique and as we heard the story for most of them...after a while they kinda don't chime too much any more?
The fountain that often is shown in photo's of France is surrounded by a popular traffic roundabout and this pic is attached...this large and lovely fountain is called the 'Fountain of the Rotunde' and built in 1860 with a diameter of 32 meters and water flows in all directions, all of which is very significant in the story that each fountain tells. The smaller notable Mossy Fountain of 1743 is along the busy market and covered in green...the water temp is strangely always 93 degrees F, and the Romans believed its water had healing properties?
This beautiful city of Aix is definitely a university town, and the busy centre with it's historic fountains and old mansions was heavily populated with young people strolling thru the narrow streets containing unique local shops and was well represented by many high end European designer stores.
The many old mansions that we're once enjoyed by wealthy families and set back well from the stone streets were closed from entry by iron gates and each one shrouded in scaffolding and under pain staking exterior restorations....so that was very special to stare at them thru a closed gate as the guide explained the historical sentiments of their unique design.
The main walking areas in historical Aix was busy with an open market and local vendors that displayed everything from flowers to fresh fresh fruit and veggies, and plenty of designer hand bags, shoes and women's clothing, and lotsa genuine fake items of the same!
As Aix was typical of most historic Italian City centres I had previously visited, thus French city left me with nothing extraordinary. Their local university is known for its political science expertise and attracts many students from outside France, it's a short distance from Marseilles and there you have it all if you need more?
Our tour ended back at the ship and after my first on board lunch I was ready to head to for the rest of the day and evening in Marseilles and the second largest city in France...hopefully you know the name of the largest city?
I wanted to test my directionally challenged self and use the city transit and metro to get to the heart of the historic sea front of busy Marseille. The walk from the ship dock to the bus stop was almost 2km and the sun was warm and I had a lunch to burn off anyhow. I met a young gal at the bus stop hoping to clarify as the bus routing maps were in French and confusing...however she understood no English and this was very consistent with most every local I met!
As I waited for the bus no. 35 a foursome of tourists arrived from a shuttle to the same bus stop and they were also on the Noordam and one of the four was from Ottawa and spoke great English amongst Polish to her family touring from Warsaw with her. We got to know each other well and figured the bus thing out together and for only 2Euro your pass entitles you to metro and all transit and expires after an hour. Changing buses and getting to the underground Metro was a real trick and thankfully I had a young gal rescue us and we followed her as she was also heading to the Port au Vieux...whew!
I enjoyed the transit/metro experience as it gives you a good feel for the locals and of course they know I am a tourist along with many others. Once we made it to the centre of Marseilles we hopped onto Bus no. 60 which took us on the same ticket to the steep incline atop of the mountain where the prominent church of Notre Dame stood with its large golden statue of Mary and child could be seen from most anywhere.
The Notre Dame was amazing like most hustoric churches in Italy and France, but the view from its perfect peak was incredible and I could quickly see now large the city of Marseilles was as it never ended except to the sea side of course....kinda reminded me a bit of the expansive Paris city view from the Eiffel without any seaside view.
There are many newer museums in Marseilles and the one I walked to explained the history of France and Europe from past to current...it was an amazing modern structure on the sea and I was so pleased it closed to the public 10 minutes after my arrival...aaargh!
So now I was determined to find a city hop-on/hop-off bus to get the hour audio of the historic centre, and learned that they stopped running tours at 5:30, now it was past 6:30, my timings again was not too cool?
Seeing as I had til 10:00pm to relax and take an impromptu night tour for the first time at port....it became a self guided adventure with tons of walking and getting back to the port at night via the metro was a wee bit stressful?
The evening stroll found me at a very busy cafe which a friend told me had good and fast free wifi, so I found a quiet corner and was left alone to download a selection of blog pics and catch up on my personal e-mail...sadly I learned my special maternal grandmother quietly passed away earlier on this Thursday, at 101 years young! :-(
God bless you Gram J...you are finally home!!
Strangely the money I was determined to save by avoiding the jammed ship shuttles, and the que in Marseilles that was almost an hour long, was look'n pretty good at 9:45pm! With no English speaking help available for walking directions from the Metro to the port...I was reminded of kidding a couple friends in the que earlier, and how the last laugh will be on me when we meet again!
Apparently there are 4 ports here, and they all close to public walking access about 8:00pm? The pedestrian sidewalk comes to a chain link gate that was closed and the attendant spoke no English...I had visions of flying to Barcelona at great expense to catch the departed ship and then I was frantic for a taxi. The driver understood a tiny bit of English and hoped he knew where I needed to go and it was a long drive as we had to bypass the closed areas to reach the Noordam. Looking at his meter tick away in Euro and recognizing nothing under the large full moon...I decided that these last moment self adventure tours in cities I have never been, where the language barrier is huge, and the deadline has significant consequence, is not for me cause this 5 week trip was inpired to heal from distress, and not feed it! LOL
I got some nice night pics of the ship in port for the first time, and heard the security attendant radio his colleague saying there are waiting for only 6 more...mostly crew on a day leave.
Final note to self...don't expect any great selection of gourmet food when you decide to have a late on board dinner at 10:30...the choices on the Lido deck include only pizza and spaghetti with tomato sauce, however that worked for me just fine, as I could take a deep breath while hearing the ship make itself ready to sail out of the port of Marseilles, and with me on board!
Friday the 16th is our last full day at sea as we sail to our last port of call, which is also going to be loaded with history and culture...the exciting city of Barcelona Spain.
Our last full sea day on board will include various activities and our last formal dining night, there will be a grande finale of entertainment in the Vista after dinner...for me it's relaxing blog time and re-connecting with the many new faces as it seems you always meet more often once you've met the first time?
Good time to get back into a book or a good movie...the sun is warm and the sea rolling a bit and 11 days on a solo cruise with interesting ports is about right and will be happy to get my land legs and into a very different routine whist in Turkey for the next 18 days.
Excited about our last port of call in Barcelona as we have all day and night to enjoy, while we will disembark for good on Sunday AM. For me it's a 31/2 hour flight to Istanbul, and still gotta get a good transfer arranged from the port to the Barcelona airport.
Hope to blog on my interesting Vespa city tour of Barcelona and some good local Spanish food, and gotta compare coffee...so far Italy is the Coffee King!
Not sure when my next available internet access will be to publish my blog...but please stand by as the best is still yet to come! :-)
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