Sunday, July 9, 2006

GRIANGHRAF AN LAE: LILLE


Our day started badly. We got up early, made it to the Metro, changed trains at Chatelet, and made it to Gare du Nord in plenty of time for our 7:58 train to Brugges, Belgium. Unfortunately, the train left without us because our clocks were set to Reykjavik time. Vladimir had warned us that there was a one hour time difference between Rekjavik and Paris but like parents everywhere we took no notice of the child.
All was not lost. We were able to take a later train but with a 90 minute layover in Lille. And to our pleasant surprise, Lille was a lovely place to walk around for 90 minutes. We got to see the Palais des Beaux Arts, the Hotel de Ville, the Porte de Paris, and the Grand Place at the center of the city. We didn’t have time to explore the old city and the cathedral but we took a ride back to the train station on one of Lille’s two metro lines. We would definitely come back to spend more time exploring Lille on a future trip, perhaps on the way to Amsterdam.
On the way back through Lille we ran into World Cup Fever. Huge crowds were gathered around giant TV screens right in the plaza in front of the train station, blocking access. We had to wind our way around secret passageways to get into the train station. But we did, and got on the train in time. By the roars of the crowd, it seems that France was winning 100 – 0.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey mairtin
Aimee here, I love all your postings so far especially the golden circle by Vlad! Mam was wondering if you can let us know the arrival times for your flight into Dublin so we can see if we can pick you up. Email me at work Aimee.McGill@agriculture.gov.ie I don't have an address here for you in work

Anonymous said...

Good call on the World Cup final result. Who said the Americans know nothing bout football!!!!!