Day 6 -- Bordeaux

Tuesday, 12 September 2023. 

Slept late -- still struggling to adjust. Got reservations for hotels in the next two cities -- Lille and Toulouse. [The swipe keyboard decided that when my fingers traced out "hotels", it saw "girls" instead. I'm glad I caught that before publishing.] Walked to the tram stop and bought a 24-hour "rugby" pass. When I got on the tram and scanned the card in what seems to be an honor system scanner, it didn't like it. Looking closer, I saw that the 24 hours in question are not right now, but are during the next set of matches here in Bordeaux. Oops. I've never seen any conductors checking tram tickets, so I'll just buy the right ticket at the next stop.

Arrived at the main train station -- Gare Saint-Jean. They have ticketing kiosks, which I've found to be a much easier way to buy long-distance train tickets than the Eurail website. I got the tickets for Bordeaux-Lille for tomorrow. And then it said there were no seats available for Lille-Toulouse on Friday. Well, not being able to get to Toulouse is certainly gonna suck. 🙁 I walked away and started to look up translations that might help me if I could find a ticketing counter with an agent. Maybe they would have access to more seats -- kinda like the kiosks seem to have more seats available then the website does. I decided to try a kiosk one more time before trying to talk to someone, and it had a seat available! Yay! I don't know if I did something wrong on the previous attempt or if a seat became available in the ten minutes I spent worrying. (I went ahead and got a ticket for the next train leg -- Toulouse to Nice on Saturday -- while I was at the kiosk.)

I bought the right 24-hour tram pass next and took the tram to the stop near the science museum. Walked back a bit to try a pizza place that I noticed yesterday. Pizza Cosy on Quai de Bacalan. I ordered in French. Well, not complete sentences, but using the names on the menu. The cashier switched to English right away. I'm not sure what gave it away. The pizza was fabulous. Sadly, they won't be open tomorrow before I have to leave town.

Then I walked on to the science museum. They were only open for another 90 minutes, but the clerk said that would be enough time to see one of the exhibitions. I chose the one on the brain. It was a nice little exhibit with a lot of focus on how different animals have different types of brain development. 

Next, the highlight of the afternoon. I got to watch the bridge open up. The Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas is the largest vertical lift bridge in Europe.  It opened up to let a cruise ship depart. I was hoping I could stay on the bridge to get a close look, but the security guy did not like that idea. (Maybe if I had brought a safety vest and a hardhat.)

It took about nine minutes for the bridge to open. The part that moves weights 2500 tons.

Before

After

The Azamara Journey passing through

I watched them lower the bridge after the ship had passed through, then went back to the pizza place for a small container of ice cream to enjoy on the nice 4.8-mile walk back to the hotel.

Tomorrow: travel to Lille.

...doug