Starting off my blogging activity with my Lyon Trip. A completely non-technical blog!
My selection of Lyon was rather bizarre to say. I wanted a long term schengen visa and the best bet is to goto France embassy. So I had to goto some place in France. I was not too keen on going to Paris as it would be an expensive affair. I did a websearch of cheap flights to other destinations in france and thus I landed up with Lyon tickets. After getting the tickets did I look up on the net and found that it was a student city. Did some enquiries with friends and they did tell it was a good choice. I then booked hostel accommodation as well, went for visa stamping and they gave a 3month visa. All said and done was ready to travel for the trip on 1st May early morning from gatwick.
Day1:
On 1st early in the morning headed to gatwick, parked my car in the long stay car park. Was almost the last person to checkin. Landed on time at Lyon. The first sight of the Lyon airport was not very great to say. So my doubts about Lyon that it could go sour were raised. Then headed to the city by airport bus and it entered the city in the new part. Felt OK so far. Then checked into the hostel and asked the hostel receptionist suggestions to visit places and she gave a good travel plan on the map. Religiously followed the travel route and boy we were not surprised. Checked the Roman theatres, Fourvière Church. After checking out the church and the view from there, I must say all my doubts about choosing Lyon vanished. Then travelled through all the bylanes through old Lyon (Vieux Lyon) and then went to Place des Terreaux, Opera place and finally Bellecour Place before returning to the hostel. Place des Terreaux, Opera place and Bellecour Place were very pleasant to be in. Not overcroweded but the feel was really great.
After a break of couple of hours, headed to Place des Terreaux for dinner. Had "Salad Lyonnise" and boy that was awesome. Then headed for Opera place where there was a latino music concert. The concert was great and then after stroll on the riverside headed back to the hostel. The night view of Fourviere Church and Vieux Lyon was amazing.
Day2:
Wanted to goto a place outside Lyon to get a feel of surroundings and we were adviced to goto Perouges a medieval village 35 kms away from Lyon. This gave us the taste of train transportation in France. We went to Perouges and checked out the place in 1 hour and returned back to the station only to realize that due to engineering works the frequency of the trains is bad. So that was crucial 3 hours lost in the day. After returning to Lyon, we headed to Opera place again to see if something exciting was happening like th previous night - unfortunately No. Then went back to Vieux Lyon, went into an irish pub and watched the big Real Madrid vs Barcelona match. The pub had some english speaking people, met different nationality people out there and talked a lot about football and made lots of predictions about champions league final. Then headed back to the hostel for the night.
Day3:
Headed off to the park in Lyon which also doubles up as a zoo. It was a great place to go. Underestimated its value in our plans and hence allocated far too less time for it. But its a must visit which I did not miss anyways. Next walked through all the bylanes and stairs to get different views of Lyon from heights and finally ended up at Bellecour place. Then headed back to hostel to pack the bags and goto part-dieu, the city centre to catch the bus back to airport. The city centre is lively but most of the shops were closed due to it being Sunday evening. Then caught the bus back to airport bringing my trip to an end. Things I missed - travelling on bicycle. Everyone in Lyon uses a bicycle.
In conclusion, It was a great trip worth every penny. It gives you a young feeling end of the day :). Some comparisions: All people in Lyon are very fit - I could just count 6 people who were fat (besides me ;))- on the contrary you can count the numbers on your fingers - the number of non-fat people here in UK :D. The weather was sunny and pleasant there in Lyon unlike the cloudy, dull weather out here in UK.
The pictures of the trip can be found at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gkarandeep/Lyon?feat=directlink
