We left Marseille by train to arrive in Arles. Denise and I walked from our hotel to the train station while Ken, Anne and Dale shuttled our luggage. Marsaille is a tough place, with lots of graffiti. We were therefore surprised to walk by a beautiful carousel in the middle of a commercial area. The walk was fairly flat until we reached the stairs to the train. There were lots of stairs and we were grateful we didn’t need to haul our suitcases up them. We explored the train station until we were able to board our train. The main focus of the souvenir shops was the olive oil soap, available in as many scents as you might imagine. We boarded our train almost 20 minutes late only to find we had no engine and no electricity on board. This meant some confusion about where to sit because the seat numbers were electronic. When the engine finally arrived and powered things up, we moved to our assigned seats, which meant of course moving all our luggage to the opposite side of the car. The scenario for our journey shifted from villages to ocean views and we arrived in Arles after 45 minutes. It took us a bit to figure out if we should get off the train because the station was so underwhelming. We noticed that there were signs saying Arles, but the train was so long that our car, the first after the engine, stopped quite a distance from the building and had what seemed to be a dirt trail leading back to the station building. We did finally get off and trudged into the building only to learn that there is a major retrofit planned. This made us feel better and we set off to find our boat. The five minute walk ended at the river and our ship was there to welcome us. Our group of twenty one were finally all in one place now that we were at the ship. After a welcome drink and light lunch, we let jet lag win and we had a nap for a few hours.

We participated in the orientation to boat safety and the crew and then had a delicious meal. Now it is time for relaxing and perhaps, if we find ourselves awake at 3am, we might watch the Oilers game. Tomorrow is a market day in Arles and we are going to explore it all morning. The afternoon will be spent touring the town, including the Roman amphitheatre shown here as the sun set on this day.