Provence, France

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Our trip to Arles included a lot of trains and unfortunately we missed one of them.  We took the Golden Pass panoramic train from Zweisimmen  to Montreux.  We had six minutes to change trains in Montreux but caught behind some people moving very slow.    We got to Geneva and then the train we took to Lyon got very delayed as there was some people on the train that got hauled off at one stop.  At one point we thought we were going to get stuck in Lyon for the night but we managed to catch another train to Avignon and with some help from some locals made our way to another traiin station to catch the train to Arles.  Unfortunately, we got to Arles at 9:50  pm instead of 5 pm.  Luckily we got there before 10 pm as the hotel reception closed at this time.

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The Golden Pass train ride was beautiful.  The train was set up like a living room couch so it was very comfy - except for our backpacks at our feet.  We rode through the alps and many ski areas.  Taryn would like to come back here in the winter.

Arles is an ancient roman city that is also known for some of Van Gogh's famous paintings.  We visited the roman amphitheater - it is not as grand as the one in Rome except that is still in tact.  They hold bull games on Wednesday but unfortunately we were gone before they started.  They also have an old roman theatre that they now use to hold concerts.  There are a  lot of art exhibitions held in many of the old ruins - we went through a few.

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On Wednesday morning we went to the market.  It was a huge market that included all kinds of seafood, meat, fruits & veggies, cheese, bakery goods, clothing and jewelery.  Janelle figured that we were getting close enough to the end of our trip to do a little shopping, in fact we had to buy another bag to carry some of the purchases.  We really have not had time to shop until now so she really enjoyed the market.