Exit Spain - Enter France 11-9/11-10 25

We began the day early by Sevilla standards, 7:05, with a taxi to the train station. The streets were deserted and we made the trip in 5 minutes. Which left us with over an hour to wait in the station for our track to be announced. When it was announced we got in line for ticket validation and security, no problems.  Our tickets said we were in coach 22 and gave us seat numbers. However, when we got to the platform the coaches were numbered from 12 down to 1 and there was panic on the platform. Not just us either, I finally got a conductor and she informed me that we needed to be on coach 2.

So we made our way to that coach and got on. We made our way to our seat numbers and they were in a section called the Executive salon. We had requested seats with a window, and while there were windows each one was obstructed by a seat. Our area had 6 seats facing each other! I thought the ticket seller had played a joke on us!  We were resigned to missing any views of the country side when the conductor came through and got agitated. She informed us that we were in the wrong car, we turned right when we should have turned left. So we went across the vestibule and there were our seats right next to a large window. My apologies to our ticket agent for slandering him 😂

It took us about 14 hours to travel across Spain and arrive at Marseille.  The trip across Spain from Sevilla to Barcelona took the better part of 6 hours but it was worth every moment.  The terrain showed us large cross section of the country, from arid deserty areas that looked like Colorado all the way to the tropical Mediterranean we associate with southern Spain. We had an 90 minute layover in Barcelona, but because if we left the ‘secure’ area of the station we would have to go through the scanners again we opted to stay in the station.  Plus they would not let us past

security until the track was announced which only takes place about 20 minutes before departure. Not being really familiar with the station was another determining factor.  Luckily we left Barcelona while the sun was still shining so we had a couple hours to see our approach to the Pyrenees mountains. We passed into France in the dark and traveled down the Rhône river valley to Marseille in the dark.  We arrived around 9:30pm and who should meet us at the station but JR Henneman!  She is the director of the Petrie Institute of the Denver Art Museum and is attending a French sponsored series of museum related symposium in Paris, Marseille, and Aix en Provence.  We were aware that she was over here but it was only 

at the last moment that we realized her stay might coincide with ours, if only for a night.  Since our hotel was a 3 minute walk from the train station we hosted her for a fun little evening of champagne tasting.  The bar in our hotel is an honor system affair, one picks out what they want to drink and then reports to the desk what they consumed, very civilized. So we had a merry couple hours talking about what things each of us had encountered since arriving in Europe.  Her husband, Tom, was flabbergasted to see us together swilling Champagne.  Our hotel, Alex Hotel, is a great place to stay in Marseille.

Still we had to travel over to Nice today, but we couldn’t pick the key to our apartment until after 3:00pm so we lingered at the hotel until after 11:00am and then caught a local train to Nice. We had a really nice encounter with the two conductors for the train. As they checked our passes the man cautioned us to be very alert to the presence of pickpockets and petty thieves that will steal luggage of the unwary.  His companion was a very pretty young woman who when we said we were from the U.S. gushed about how much she loved New York City and how she was going to be 

traveling there soon. They were really cute.  The trip over to Nice by train travels right along the coast for many miles so we were treated to engaging views for quite a while. Our apartment is going to be excellent for our base of operations. It is located in an area we are very familiar with so getting around will be a breeze.

Also we’ve decided that for our five day gap between stays, we’ll be going to Amsterdam to visit the newly remodeled Reichsmuseum. That means a little time spent in the next couple days planning and putting reservations in place.   

When we got to the apartment we saw a market across the street where we have shopped many times. So we picked up some provisions and had a nice little late lunch right in the apartment.  Best tomatoes of the trip so far, also wonderful French cheeses.