It was a busy morning as this was the day that we switched from the Delling ship to the Heimdal. The captain explained that this was necessitated by something having to do with scheduling the locks but I suspect the real reason was that without the switch, the cruises would be out of sync indefinitely as passengers are assigned to particular ships long in advance. We had to be completely packed up with the suitcases outside our door by 7am - a lot of people were not too happy with this. (We would discover later that Amy forgot her candy in one drawer and I forgot my underwear in another drawer). It was quite a process for the crew to get all the luggage out of this ship and onto trucks to be transferred to the Heimdal. It was quite a scene to see a "bucket brigade" passing the suitcases up the stairs and outside. Even the executive chef, captain and hotel manager were tossing suitcases. We were sorry to leave some of the dining room staff we had come to know and enjoy.
The first tour was a historic coal-powered steam train ride along the steep Ardeche valley. There was an interesting conflict on the bus ride up - our large tour bus started across a single-lane bridge at the same time as an RV was coming in the opposite direction. Both drivers pulled up "nose-to-nose" and started gesturing at each other to back up. The RV driver eventually got out and came over to the bus where he had a rather heated exchange with our driver. Eventually the RV driver got back in and backed up across the bridge along with all the other cars behind him. Behind us were 3 other tour buses which completely blocked the road onto the bridge.
The train route was quite an engineering feat in the late 1800s, clinging to the mountain side and through tunnels. We rode in open cars that provided an excellent view of the river gorge. At our stop, the train engine is rotated by hand on a turntable for the return trip.
Ardeche steam train
At the return from the train, the bus took us to the Heimdal which was docked in Vienne and we found our luggage already in the room. We had lunch before heading out on a walking tour of Vienne.
Vienne is one of the oldest cities in France. The Gaul tribe from Hungary had settled here around 400BC. While trading with the Romans in the 1st century BC, Caesar Augustus liked the wine from Vienne so much that he decided that this should be a major city and during the Roman era, it had a population of 30,000, nearly the same as today. There are well-preserved remains of the temple to Augustus, an amphitheater an odeon.
Temple of Augustus Caesar
We took a trolley to the top of Mont Pipot which has commanding views of the city and river below. While we were coming down, France won the soccer/football match over Ireland. Cars started driving by waving flags out the windows and honking the horns continuously. At one square, two cars were driving around the fountain in the center at high speed with tires squealing. We were afraid they would flip over. One guy was leaning out a 2nd story window singing La Marseillaise as loud as he could (our tour guide said he got an 'A' for enthusiasm but didn't actually know the right words).
In the evening there was a music trivia contest with music mostly from the 60s and 70s. People were able to dance to the music and it was great to see this crowd of gray and white-haired people tearing up the dance floor, dancing to the Beach Boys, Chubby Checker, Tony Bennett and others.
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