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Leaving Cinque Terre, Italy
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I was very sad to leave Cinque Terre, knowing that there were hikes we did not get to do and views we did not get to see. But that’s part of the reality of traveling with children, especially young children. Sometimes you just have to slow down the pace and do what it takes to make them happy travelers. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s easy for me to get too task oriented on a trip like this and not take time to slow down and enjoy things at a more leisurely pace. So having children along is a good way to force me to do that.
Of all the places we’ve been on this trip – and they have all been wonderful – I think Cinque Terre is the place I most want to return to. Knowing what I know now, I would try to go around late April or early May and focus on the hiking without the swimming.
After breakfast at the hotel and some last minute souvenir shopping (there is never enough time for the shopping – even Maddie was into it!), we packed up and headed up the hill to the edge of town where the car was parked. Getting McIntyre to pull his suitcase was getting a little challenging at this point, but he had to do it because all the rest of us had our hands full. (Although we prided ourselves on how light we packed earlier in the trip, we have now gotten weighed down by souvenirs, food, etc.). But McIntyre did indeed make it up the hill with his suitcase, although there was of course the requisite whining to go along with it.
At this point, we knew the next two days would be our longest travel days of the trip (it’s 10+ hours by car from Cinque Terre to Paris) so Maddie just set up a video in the back seat and off we went. A mere 6 hours later we were in Lyon, our stopover in route to Paris. After getting through the numerous tunnels leaving the Italian Riviera, we finally reached France. We drove through some beautiful mountains on our way to Lyon and encountered a little bit of rain. Gradually as we drove, the haziness in the air cleared, along with the humidity.
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| Another AutoGrill on the way to Lyon |
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| Now that is a slice of pizza |
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| Somewhere in France |
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| Another tollbooth in France |
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| On the road in France |
We found our way to our hotel in Lyon, a sort of business travelers’ hotel, according to Jim. Purposely, Jim had booked a hotel that was not far off the freeway, since our itinerary didn’t really afford us any time to explore Lyon anyway. But it was very, very nice, with an actual bedroom with an actual door for mom and dad. The lady at the reception desk at the hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner, which we found with no problem, but parking was another issue. As we wandered around looking for a place to park, Jim whipped into a parking place on the street.
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| The Citroen C5 |
And as we were figuring out whether or not we had to pay to park, we noticed a Subway Sandwich shop practically in front of us.
Hoping to save a little money and satisfy Maddie’s craving for a turkey sandwich (we were all kind of over bread and cheese and pizza at this point), we decided to eat there. Although it didn’t taste exactly like it does in the US (more mayo and less oil and vinegar than we are accustomed to), it was really good. The best part for me was the fountain drinks with actual, real, honest-to-goodness ice. I’ve really missed ice. I knew it would be in short supply based on my previous travels, but I still missed it nonetheless. The best part for Jim was being able to buy a beer at Subway. A terrible beer, he said. But a beer at Subway was such a novelty that he couldn’t pass it up. Oh, and as an omen of things to come (in Paris) a meal for the four of us at Subway was more than 30 Euros, around $37-$38.
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Subway in Lyon, France
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