Dreams do come true THREAD 3 **COMPLETE 8/14** About This Page:

[chezp]

This is the third thread of this report. The first thread can be found here and the second thread can be found here.

[chezp]

Sunday 3 June – part one: fancy seeing you here!

Fortunately, we didn’t have to be up too early today, as our tour only met at 8.00, so we got up and went to Topsiders’ Buffet for breakfast before heading down to Rockin’ Bar D to meet for the Marseilles City Tour. There, we quickly found Chris and Carolyn and got ourselves on the same bus as them again. It’s funny how we shared so many tours together.

As we got off the ship, we saw a set of souvenir shops were set up on the quay, a really nice touch.



It’s quite a drive from the port into the centre of Marseilles, probably about 15 minutes and you know when you’ve got to the heart of the city. It’s called Vieux Port (old port) and today it’s a lovely harbour and a daily fish market, which we saw as we drove past. It really reminded me of where I work and gave me a lot of hope, as apparently Marseilles was in real problems and very deprived, with a very bad reputation for many years until the 1990’s and today it’s stunning.




On the way into Marseilles

The City Hall






The daily fish market





We carried on driving past the harbour and round to the other side, where we saw the fort of St. Nicholas, which was built in 1660 on the orders of Louis XIV.



Next: will we ever make it up this hill?

[DopeyGirl]

Originally Posted by chezp

The guy in the uniform's waving at you, I guess. Either that or he's signaling the paparazzi for "No pictures, please!"

Great update and lovely pics!!! More please!

[mattnkatsmum]

More great photos.

I've never been to Marseilles and I'm loking forward to hearing your views.

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of Marseilles Cheryl

[figment52]

Cheryl - slightly OT

are you and your family safe from the flooding? You are one of several I think of every time I hear a report on the rains across the pond.

Sandy

[chezp]

Originally Posted by figment52

Cheryl - slightly OT

are you and your family safe from the flooding? You are one of several I think of every time I hear a report on the rains across the pond.

Sandy

Sandy, we're fine. The flooding has really affected the Midlands and west of London and fortunately we're south of London. My parents are in the north west of England and are also unscathed. It has been truly terrible for those affected though.

[DyanKJ130]

Beautiful, Cheryl!!! (Glad you, Mark & your parents are safe from the floods) More please

[chezp]

Sunday 3 June – part two: will we ever make it up this hill?

We carried on driving and then made a quick stop, so we could get some photos of the war memorial there and the view out to Chateau d’If, an island castle in the bay of Marseilles. It was used as a prison from 1540 until World War I and famous inmates include Alexander Dumas’ fictional Count of Monte Cristo, the legendary Man in the Iron Mask.











The sights as we drove along

Our first close up glimpse of the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica

We headed up towards Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica, which sits on a hill overlooking Marseilles. It’s an impressive sight, even as you drive into the city. A fort was built on this site in 1477, which took nearly 70 years to complete, and originally there was a chapel as part of the fort. The church itself dates from 1853 and was built in the Romaneque Byzantine style that is familiar in much of eastern Europe.

We were told by our guide Dominique that we were visiting at the right time, as it had literally only just undergone a massive renovation and had been re-opened to the public a few weeks ago. One word of warning though – there are 170 steps to climb up to get to the church and it’s hard work. In fairness, Disney do make that very clear in their information, in fact we couldn’t fault any of their information about any shore excursion. They were all extremely accurate, but it’s worth keeping that in mind.

Getting up to the church was a struggle for our bus driver as well, as Mass has just finished and there were lots of cars coming the other way on a steep and winding road that wasn’t designed to fit buses and cars on the same part. We had some close calls and the clutch was stinking by the time we got off the bus. We all concluded that it would need to visit a garage pretty soon.




Next: naughty, but nice!

[Colexis Mom]

What great pictures Cheryl More please

[disneydani]

Wow...170 steps....you definitely deserve double portions at dinner tonight!

Thanks for more beautiful pics!

danielle

[Patti Kalal]

I am enjoying seeing what we missed on our excursions. We seem to have done different tours than you at each port (possibly because I traveled with a 7 year old and a husband who also needs "entertaining." We toured Arles and an olive oil mill where we had a wonderful lunch in the historic old mill building. Your TR gives me ideas of what to see if we should ever return again. Thank you.
Patti

[Jillybean]

What a gorgeous city! I flew out of there once, but didn't see any of the sights you saw!

Jill

[mrsmac2001]

Another great update!

[DyanKJ130]

What a beautiful day, Cheryl!! I'm curious about the 'naughty, but nice" More please