Vieux Lyon

(Blog for Friday) Marna here... Another day when we're up and out of the house at the crack of 12:15pm or so. Anne calls us a Herd of Turtles - or a Terd of Hurtles... Maybe we're just getting prepared for daylight savings time prematurely. That could be a problem when we fly out of Geneva Switzerland on Monday since we currently don't know when Switzerland recognizes daylight savings time. We'll probably be an hour late for our flight... ohwell.

On to Vieux Lyon - which means Old Lyon. Taina and Yasmine had their last day of school before their break next week so Kris and the 7 Turtles started out at the beautiful Basilica in Vieux Lyon. We were all doing our best to stay reasonably quiet until Doug let out a gigantic sneeze which rattled the stained glass. We all giggled quite a bit. The Basilica is one of the most beautiful I've seen. Amazing tile work all over the walls and ceiling depicting various scenes. The stained glass was amazing as well.

From there, we headed down a meandering garden path WAY down the hill into another section of Vieux Lyon. This was more dangerous than it should have been for mom since she was wearing her rock and roll sandals which tip her forward anyway. Not so good on a steep decline. We saw many cute cafes and storefronts. We stopped for hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) and meringue - yum. Filled the turtles up with lots of sugar so we would move a little more quickly.

We next walked to the St. Jean Cathedral which has an amazing Astronomical clock. We were there on the half hour - so we didn't get to hear the major show at the top of the hour - but the half hour was cool nevertheless.

We took the Funicular (tram - again, on a steep incline) up the hill to the Roman Amphitheatre. It's in exceptional shape - although they have done some reconstruction as they currently hold concerts and plays there throughout the summer in Lyon. It would be amazing to watch a performance sitting on the stone steps of the amphitheatre. We climbed all of the steps to the top and looked back down the hill onto the entire city of Lyon - it was a spectacular view.

We had a WONDERFUL dinner of melted cheese on roasted potatoes with various local meats. SO GOOD! We're all going to look on E-Bay to try to buy this very cool cheese melting, potato roasting appliance. Unfortunately, Matthew has become the third victim of whatever it is that is afflicting the Jerebek-Kinney's and has come down with Strep throat - which he promptly gave to Sue. (Did we mention in the last blog that Ellen had tonsillitis? She's feeling much better...) Luckily, Taina and Yasmine's doctor was very accommodating and saw Matthew Friday night and gave him a prescription for some anti-biotics. I think we all should have probably gone along and gotten that same prescription with the way things are going. Hopefully Mom, Doug and I will make it out of Europe without having to see any more doctors.