Had a Spanish-style brekky at a corner cafe (tostada with tomate and aceite, some orange juice, and a hot drink).
We'd thought we'd make the most of our time, before getting the plane in the arvo, to do some last-minute shopping. However, we hadn't counted on Spain being... well, Spain. We got to Puerta del Sol, then Plaza Mayor and they were uncharacteristically empty! Craziness. What's more, all the shops were shut. Being NZers, we were kinda thinking that by 9.30am, the shops in the capital city could be open. But no. So, we had a bit of a cruise while we waited for them to wake up. ;p
Dad had been determined to get to some kind of museum before leaving Madrid, but the queues for the Prado and Reina Sofia were, quite frankly, horrendous! They certainly didn't allow for people with a plane to catch in the afternoon. So, instead, he checked out the Archaeological Museum: no queues whatsoever, and he was still entertained for the hour or so that he had! Mum and I tried to go shopping, but we seemed to be in the wrong district.
After that, it was all go: back to the hostal, grab our bags, get back on the metro, get the Airport Express bus, and... hurry up and wait. It was almost exactly like this:
First time I'd travelled with Ryanair, and can't say it was an experience I'm too willing to repeat. Admittedly, it was over the Christmas period, but we did nothing but wait! We waited in an enormous queue to check in. Surprisingly, we got through security reasonably fast after that - probably because their work was fairly staggered, due to the enormous queue. Then, we got to wait in another enormous queue to get on the plane. Mum and Dad were particularly unimpressed.
Anyway, we eventually made it to Marseille. Hooray! Ryanair applauded themselves for another on-time flight.
We were still reasonably far out of Marseille so, to get from the airport to the centre of Marseille, we hopped onto the shuttle, which took us straight to the SNCF train station in the centre. From there, it was a quick taxi ride to our hotel in the Vieux Port. Luckily for us, the taxi driver was a chatty dude, who gave me a few tips on where to get a good meal, and the pick-up point for the tourist train.
Following his advice, we found a little Vietnamese restaurant and, as a digestif after our meal, went for a wander around the port.
 |
| Thanks 'Voce di Rutali in Corsica' for the picture... |
0 comments:
Post a Comment