Arles

 


The Viking Hermod was underway from Avignon to Arles when we woke up this morning. We both had a good sleep, and were ready for breakfast by 7:30am. It was lovely to eat breakfast and watch the riverbank slipping by. We arrived in Arles just after 9am, and disembarked through the Ama Kristina that we were docked beside. It's a lovely morning, mainly clear skies and about 13C. About 3 days ago the Mistral wind was blowing, winds up 90km. I'm glad we missed that!

For our included walking tour of Arles this morning, we were separated into groups of around 30 people. We had an excellent guide for our 3 hour tour focusing on Roman Arles and Vincent Van Gogh. It's about a 15 minute walk along the river to get to the downtown area. There are many places that Van Gogh painted, and often there will be a copy of the painting at that spot.

It's a very pretty small town with lots of winding streets full of restaurants, shops and hotels. Tourism is the main industry here. The Roman Arena (a mini Colosseum) is very well preserved, and they still have events here. The main one is "The Course Camarguaise" a type of Bull fight in which the bull isn't killed. The object is to remove ribbons that are tied to the bull's horns. As you can imagine it takes a lot of training and a lot of skill and stamina. There is also the ruins of a Roman theatre. Many other structures from Roman times were demolished to build the town walls. There are many lovely well kept buildings from the 12th century and later, so considered modern here! We also visited sites associated with Van Gogh like the yellow cafe and the hospital.

It's much warmer as we walk back to the ship for lunch. On the way back we stopped to buy wine as Viking doesn't mind how much personal alcohol you bring on board. It's even okay to take into the lounge! We had a lovely relaxed lunch on board, I checked emails and did a bit of work, then I walked back into town for about 1 1/2 hours. Then back to the ship, a shower and time for a bit of a read and relax. There was a Captains toast, then a talk about the next days events before dinner,

Another good dinner with great conversations and good food and wine. We didn't finish until after 9pm. At that time we are approaching a bridge/loch that looks too small for us, but I guess we will fit!

I will catch up with emails and my blog and then head to bed.








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