Thursday, April 18, 2024

City Pass Day 2

Today we are using up our second day of the City pass we bought.  Before we get going we walk to the Capucin Market to get groceries and pastries for breakfast.

We start off by taking the tram to Musee Mer Marine. We arrived not realizing we were 15 minutes before opening time, but this turned out to be great because we went for a little walk and discovered the bunkers that the submarines were held in during WWII from the water side. This is where we saw the Lumiere/Van Gogh show yesterday. We had read that the Germans tried to blow the bunkers up as they were retrieving but there was 10 Meters of cement on top and they were so well built they could not blow them up. It is an amazing piece of history to still have these bunkers here.

Now back to the Mer Marine Museum. We both really enjoyed this museum. Lots of history from naval heritage from here as well as all over the world. We spent a couple of hours here.

A little rain as we were ready to leave so just hung out for about 10 minutes and then decided we needed to hit the road. Right after we left it basically stopped. We were walking to our next museum when we came across the Halles des Bacalan, which is like a really nice food court in a nice hall with many options for meals. We both decided on a curry dish which was good, and probably means supper is not necessary except for some snacks.

Next off we are at the La Cite du Vin museum. I said I wasn't going to do this museum, but we were right here, and the visit included a free glass of wine, so I am in. The museum should take 3-4 hours to discover all kinds of things from wines around the world, we only had 2 hours and it was plenty for me after the wine museum yesterday. The free glass of wine is on the 8th floor which gives you some really nice views of the city.

Next off we grab the tram back to old town to climb the 231 steps of the Tour Pey-Berland tower. Lots and lots of steps that weren't very even, but we survived and we did get some great views of the city.

Time to go back to the apartment for about an hour rest and then we are off on a city boat tour. The boat tour was about 1.5 hours and very interesting. We had a good guide, and by now we know most of the monuments that we see from the boat. It was interesting to see pictures of what a mess this city was even from the 1990's, anyone that was here in the 90's and came back now would not even recognize it.

Boat trip over and we are done for the day. Our City pass has well paid for itself, we certainly kept busy for the last 2 day. The pass also included transportation within the city.

Steps 18,000 or 11.5KM

At the Capucin Market

Lots of seafood choices but expensive



At the mer marine museum

Got there 20 minutes early, so went for a walk


The back of the submarine bunker from yesterday Lumiere show



This artist used famous painting that make these


The marine history from before pre Egyptian times to now


Map of what Bordeaux looked like in Roman times






At the temporary exhibit




A Monet at the permanent seascape painting exhibit


Lunch at a halle/market place near the cite des vins



Diagram of exhibits at Cite des vins


A video of the major wine countries.  Okanagan was in there


Most of the major wine grapes


Our free glass of wine at the panorama


Wendy had claret


View from the panorama


A UFO


Les halles where we had lunch



They have thousands of wine from all over the world. even Ice Wine from Canada



At the top of the bell tower next to the Cathedral






On our river boat trip




This is a lift bridge. Up to 50 meter so the cruise ships can dock in downtown


The Cite des Vins museum


More industrial downstream. Warships being salvaged.


The small ferry boat to cross the river


We got a free glass of wine each with a caneles as well


Shorelines are public. You can lease a piece for 99 years to build a fishing shack but no sleeping overnight permited


The lift bridge again. See the spiral staircase, would not want to go up to fix something



Back downtown


The basilica near our place. Working on the bell tower


The Paris Olympics promotion


The stone bridge


Happy hour below our place





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