A bright, sunny , brisk ( 47 degrees) morning  greeted us after a good night sleep. We are ready to explore!  Since we cannot board our ship until 3 PM I had suggested a short one hour boat sightseeing ride on the nearby Saone River that flows through the downtown area of Lyon as a quick overview of the city. Our ship will stay in the city overnight and tomorrow we will be given a city tour of Lyon so I did not want to duplicate the activity.

Lyon is surprisingly large. It is the third largest city in France with a population of 522,000. It is noted for its universities with over 200,000 students (the second largest student population in France) and is noted for its software industry with a specific interest in video gaming. In ancient times Lyon was the capital of the Gauls during the Roman Empire era (5th century BCE-5 th century CE). Trivia: we used to use BC and AD to designate time. These days it is more common to use BCE(Before Common Era) and CE(Common Era).

Our hotel location required a cab ride to the city center where the scenic boat ride was located on the Saône (pronounced “Sone” River, which is smaller than the Rhône River where our river cruise will commence. So Lyon is blessed to have two separate rivers which meet near the city center. It was a pleasant one hour, narrated tour to see the city from the prospective of the river.

As the tour ended at 12:15 PM we decided to grab a quick lunch before returning to the hotel, and we found ourselves in an idyllic small restaurant that made crepes on a small side street, thanks to google maps.  It was a classic French bistro that we all enjoyed.

I learned that Lyon did have Uber so I called one up using the app rather than calling for a cab to take us back to our hotel. It was significantly less expensive and I was delighted to find our driver was a young college student who spoke marvelous English so we learned a bit about the city and university life as we returned to the hotel.

Because of my status with Marriott we were allowed to have a late 2:30 PM checkout which simplified our lives. The hotel had arranged for us to be picked up and we were promptly taken to our ship, AMAKristina, docked on the Rhône River near the downtown area. Checkin was quick and efficient and we were soon in our rooms where we unpacked and stored our clothes before setting out to explore our new surroundings. I was surprised at how long and modern the ship is.

At 6PM we gathered in the lounge for the mandatory safety briefing followed by meeting some of the ship’s  staff. Drinks are reasonable priced-my Hendricks gin and tonic was 8 Euros and soft drinks are free. There was a quick briefing about tomorrow’s activities before we were excused to head to the dining room for a 7 PM dinner.

There were no other activities this evening so we all retired to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep.