Day 59, Thursday, October 26, 2023
Nîmes is a pretty city. It the most Roman city outside of Italy, and it was the regional capital during the Roman Empire. Today it has a population of about 150,000.
On our way to the center of town I peek inside this open window and I am surprised to see a boxing ring!
I love this door knocker and it even looks a bit ‘Halloweenish’.
We turn the corner and there it is. The Amphitheater of Nîmes, or the Arènes de Nîmes. It held over 20,000 spectators and is the best preserved Roman Amphitheater in the World. It is so well preserved because it has been in constant use since it was built. In the 6th century it was turned into a fortress, and in the 14th century it was filled with houses, workshops and warehouses. In 1809 this was all demolished and work was done to restore it to its original state.
Today, the amphitheater hosts bullfights, concerts and sporting events. It host many cultural and festive shows all summer long. We will come back and visit the interior another day…today we are just strolling.
Today it is also offering shelter for this homeless person. 
The Maison Carrée is a very well preserved white limestone Roman temple that is about 2,000 years old.
Here is another view of the the Maison Carrée from the street opposite to it. It is impressive. Both the Amphitheater and the Maison Carée are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In the 1700’s canals were built to supply a better source of drinking water and to power textile mills. These mills made ‘serge de Nimes’ or as we know it today ‘denim’ (‘de’ or ‘from’ Nimes)! Today it is a beautiful park with exotic plants, statues and walkways.
We walk along the canals and find some Pétanque players. This is a popular pastime everywhere in France, although we have only seen one female player. It is more common to see elderly men playing when we are out and about in the afternoon. We noticed this extraordinarily tall man on his bicycle which Bob says is the tallest bike he has ever seen. The men around him barely come up to his armpits!
A Pétanque game in progress, with observers and critics! The players are incredibly skilled and can knock an opponent’s ball out of the game with one throw. 
On the way home we pass St. Paul Church and go inside. I really liked the sculpture right by the entrance and the dome is beautiful.
One more view of the amphitheater on the way home. This is only a couple blocks from our Airbnb.
As we were waiting to cross the road two vehicles with fully armed military drive by. There were four soldiers in each vehicle and they were scanning the surroundings as they drive by. The sign on the side of their cars says Vigipirate Operation Sentinelle. They are part of the 10,000 soldiers that are currently active in this operation to defend and protect the French. As France is currently on high alert the Vigipirate Security Alert System has been at its highest ‘Emergency Attack’ level since October 15th. This means that our bags are searched when we enter tourist sites, museums and other places where there are lots of people. We stay aware of our surroundings and we certainly avoid anything that looks like a protest, or large gathering of people. So not to worry, we are safe.
discover that we can climb the bell tower for just 2.5 euros! I’m not wanting to do it today but I hope we can get back another day. We have climbed a lot of bell towers on our other trips, but so far not a one this time.
Once we are inside the cave there are even more stairs…
The displays here shows some pictures of cave exploration…not for me..it looks cold, wet and exhausting and rather frightening as well. In all, 42 kilometres of galleries have been mapped by speleologists but there are still more areas that have not yet been explored.
And there is another lake, twenty metres above the river! Mind boggling! Lake Superior (Upper Lake), is crystal clear and an incredible aqua colour. The round tan shaped formations on the right hand of the photo form a dam that holds the water in this lake.
“A remarkable stalagmite lies above the lake. It is nicknamed the Pile d’Assiettes (Pile of Plates) because of its surprising resemblance to stacked-up china. It is a typical high-roof stalagmite formed when such a structure exceeds several tens of metres in height. Drops of water fall to the ground at great speed and explode, depositing limestone in circles and giving rise to very flattened formations.” ~ 
I am quite relieved that we do not have to climb these steps!
One last photo in the cave.
that continues through the beginnings of gardens.
The chateau was turned into a hospital and the gallery was filled with beds.
The walls below are as thick as these walkways.
.Checking out the view…
…and here is the view. The tide is already starting to go out and more beach is visible.
This is the same ‘island’ that we saw earlier…
When we arrived the water was almost up to the white part of this lighthouse..
It is a small museum but there are lots of interesting items.
Did I mention it was hot? and the steps are winding and narrow, and it was hot! There are 284 steps up to the top, and I am quite pleased that I only have to stop twice to catch my breath. Climbing 74 steps up to our apartment every day is starting to pay off. There are twelve major roads that all converge here in a roundabout (traffic circle) with twelve lanes of traffic. The right of way is the opposite to back home. The traffic in the roundabout must yield to incoming traffic! It seems crazy to us, but somehow it works. In this photo 3 lanes of traffic are trying to merge into one to exit the roundabout!
We spend an hour or so admiring the view, and then we climb down those 284 steps, stopping for a moment at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier…
…and then we walk to the Eiffel Tower. On the way we see this memorial and realize that this is where Princess Diana died in a car crash 26 years ago.
When I was here nine years ago, it was possible to walk around under the tower and there was a wonderful view across the river to the Jardins du Trocadero. You are now allowed to go to the top of the tower but we will wait to do that when we return to Paris and the weather is a bit cooler. There are quite a few heavily armed policemen walking about. The one in the middle is carrying a machine gun!
We find a spot to relax in the shade only to discover that we no longer have any internet on our cell phone! We have had so many internet problems this trip! We are picking up our rental car tomorrow and we definitely need GPS so we use my little paper map book to find a store for the SIM card we bought at the airport. They do register our SIM for us, which is helpful but they also tell us that their internet has been down and may not be repaired until tomorrow. We head to the Orange store and get a second SIM for our second cell phone and then discover that our first connection now works just fine. The price for a month of internet has jumped from the €10 a month that we paid before Covid to €40! Sure hope that is the end of all the internet issues. We are hot and tired, and catch a bus home . We walked almost 16,000 steps today, in +34° weather! And it is going to be +30 for another week!
Many of the buildings in this neighbourhood are old and in need of repair but the murals do brighten up the neighbourhood.
Bob tells me to look inside this little blue van…
It is set up as a little dining room! It is kind of cute, except I look in the front seat and it is dirty and cluttered with junk. Not very appetizing, 
There are many shops and workshops tucked into the buildings on narrow streets, sometimes even in the basements, like this bike shop. I think my bike riding daughter will appreciate the sentiment of the sign above this door.
This is probably one of the most colourful doors I have ever seen.
The buildings here have very interesting architectural details.
Seems every city we have ever been in has an Astoria Hotel!
Loved the room at the top of this white building. Imagine living there.
The Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial was funded by the late American actor Tony Curtis in memory of his Hungarian-born father. The names of 30,000 Holocaust victims are engraved on the leaves of the metal tree. The tree resembles an upside down menorah and is located on top of the mass graves of thousands of murdered Jews.
The tree is located behind The Dohány Street Synagogue which is also known as the Great Synagogue. It seats 3,000 people and is the largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest in the world. We didn’t have time to go inside because we want to go to a thermal bath today.
One more interesting building on our way back to our apartment. The top doesn’t seem to belong to the bottom.
The Széchenyi Spa Bath in Budapest
This pools for lane swimming, not for us today.
We like this pool as it is warmer than the first one. 
Inside there are fifteen more pools. This is one of the warmer ones and the only one that has comfy lounge chairs, so we stay here for a while. I sit beside Bob, in the corner and do some drawings of the bathers. Budapest didn’t have any life drawing classes, or at least none that I could find, so this will do instead. 
The building is magnificent but it is starting to show its age here and there. I think it might need a renovation before too long. This is a great place for people watching, and we do come in all shapes and sizes!
By the time we go back outside it is dark, and the steam is rising from the pools. We were thinking of taking a boat ride on the Danube tonight but we decide to stay and enjoy more time here.
There are more people now than when we first arrived, and most of them are much younger than us. We see a few other grey-haired ‘oldies’ but we are few and far between. We spent more than five hours enjoying the baths, and we both feel nice and relaxed.
I laugh watching these two guys. They are dressed the same, stand the same and both are smoking and looking at their cellphones. They even both take a drag on their cigarettes at the same time!
Budapest has very pretty manhole covers.
Bob tells me we are going to the top of that hill across the Danube River on the Buda side of the city. I am quite happy to hear there is a bus that will take us most of the way.
The metro stations in Budapest are very deep underground. They were built so that they could be used as bomb shelters. I wonder what would happen if a bomb fell above a station full of people. How would they get out…would they be trapped by all the rubble? Then I decide that they could walk down the tracks and maybe get out at another spot. Bob says I think too much!
We are on top of Gelléert Hill and it was only a short climb from the bus stop. There are great views of Budapest looking to the East…
and the West.
Bob called me over to watch an older man operating a shell game near here. He had a cardboard box and three shells, and people bet on which shell a pea was under after they were shuffled. We were astounded that he was able to convince people to bet 400 or 500 euros. 
It is getting windy so we start down the hill. We are walking down…
through a park with lots of trees…
and a couple playgrounds. This one takes advantage of the hillside. We tried this slide too.
This cross is about halfway down the hillside and marks the location of the Cave Church directly below it.
This statue of St. Stephen is near the entrance to the Cave Church.
For more information and photos about this curious church check
A bit further down the hill we peek inside the Gellért Hotel…
which houses one of Budapest’s thermal bath houses. It looks very fancy.
Here is a view of the cave entrance from the street below… 
and the Liberty Statue at the top of the hill.
We walked back across the bridge to the Pest side of the river…
and visit the Indoor market. 
I thought these kohlrabi were huge but the radishes were enormous, about the size of an egg! I’ve never seen radishes that big! We have supper here but unfortunately the food wasn’t really all that great. 
On our walk back home we pass through the Christmas Market and I notice these teapots. I would have loved to have bought one but worried about getting it home in one piece.
These necklaces are made with seed beads! Imagine how long it would take to make each one.
trudymason.com 