Day 31 - Thursday 12th October - Cruise

In Mâcon this morning, yet another picturesque little town. Usual morning routine except this morning we woke to several white swans floating along outside our balcony when we opened the curtains. We were pleased that the bus for our chosen trip wasn't leaving til 9am.  We were going to visit Cluny Abbey or what was left of it. Our guide was Agnes and again a brilliant guide. We stopped on the road to take photos of a medieval castle on top of a hill which was just beautiful. Soon we were in Cluny and walking along more cobblestones. (Note to self: don't injure your feet ever again whilst traveling in Europe). Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery whose construction was completed in the mid 12 th century and for 500 years it was the world's largest religious building until St Peter's Basilica was built. Then the Abbey was almost completely destroyed in the French Revolution and sold off in lots for the building materials. Only two of its towers part of the right transept and a few wall sections remain. Our guide gave us details of the history as we went through it and when we were inside the right transept Agnes told us that it was built to the size it was for the acoustics and asked us to imagine 400 monks singing gregorian chants in there and what it would have sounded like. She then sang a bit of an aria in a glorious voice which sounded just amazing in that space, so the voices of 400 monks would have been beautiful but rather deafening I think. Another wonderful excursion. There are also 18th century buildings and cloisters which are used as a tertiary education centre and accommodation for very bright engineering students. In their first year they wear grey lab coats, in their 2nd year they add coloured bands on the bottom of these coats and have letters & symbols in these bands and pictures of knights on the back of their coats. We saw some of these students wandering around looking a little like Harry Potter look-alikes with their coats flying out behind them. After our tour we again went through the gift shop where I bought a few little things for our littleies and then had a stroll through the cobbled streets. Then back on the bus and back to the ship. We sailed off in glorious sunshine in the afternoon for Lyon past more breathtaking scenery, villages, the odd castle and vineyards. Another lovely dinner with lots more delicious wine and lovely company. We've met some lovely people, mostly non-Australians. Lots of Canadians on board and English. We've met two lovely Canadian couples, Wayne & Pat celebrating their 50th anniversary & Bill & Nelly, that we've dined with a few times and John  a lovely Welsh widower travelling on his own. After dinner down to the lounge again and watched as we cruised into Lyon for a spectacular view of this lovely city lit up at night. Got some great photos of the Basilica of Notre Dame of Lyon up on Fourvière Hill. Then off to bed as we've got our first early start.