Day 28 -- Geneva to Lyon

Wednesday, 04 October 2023

Woke up, still not feeling great from the head cold. Picked up some antihistamine tablets from a pharmacy on my way to the train station. The pharmacist was a really nice guy. Took the train from Geneva to Lyon. I tried to get some photos of the countryside from the train, but the glare from the window and the movement blur made it so that none of them look like much. Here's the least-bad one.

Foothills of the Alps

I spent most of my Swiss francs before leaving Geneva but still had about ten francs in coins left. I found an exchange kiosk at the train station in Lyon, but they won't exchange Swiss coins -- only bills. The only foreign coins they will exchange are British. 

Once in Lyon, I took the Metro to the station nearest my hotel. It was about a 20-minute walk, which is pretty typical for the hotels I choose. But it was warm, and I already wasn't feeling great, and there was a big hill at the end. I was really glad to finally get to the hotel. It was a nice little place. Very compact. I sent a photo to Sue and she says it looks like a dorm room.

Bunk beds!

Justin reached out and wanted to meet up for dinner. We met at the Malting Pot -- a brewpub across from the train station. I had the Deyang -- a Mapo Tofu dish. It was good, but I forgot to get a photo.

While walking back through the plaza between the restaurant and the Metro station, I saw what I thought was a ground squirrel. But it might have been my first rat sighting of the trip. [Editor's note: I saw it before reaching the restaurant, not after. But I couldn't figure out a classy way to have that be the last thing I mentioned before telling you what I had for dinner, so I decided to pretend that it was after dinner.]

On the way back to the hotel, I took a slightly different walking path from the Metro station. It didn't avoid the final large hill, but it did avoid a bit of elevation by skipping some small intermediate hills. Still exhausting. Between the traveling and the head cold, I didn't have anything left in the tank.

...doug