I woke up Saturday in Switzerland knowing that I was checking out that day, but not yet sure where I was going. I knew I wanted to continue south, either to Lake Como or Cinque Terre in Italy or to southern France, most likely Nice. I had tried to do some research into train tickets online, but it wasn't very easy, and by the time I got back from my hike and ate some food, it was late and I was exhausted, so I just went to sleep.
Waking up not knowing where I would spend the night made me a little anxious. Below is more info than you wanted as to how I ended up deciding on Montpellier, France. Feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don't care...First, I ruled out Lake Como, because I was already short on time for seeing Spain and France, and it looked like it would probably be similar to Interlaken, except not as pretty, with smaller mountains. So then I figured I'd go to Cinque Terre (five coastal towns on the Mediterranean coast of Italy that are linked by coastal trails and supposed to be beautiful), but then I saw on wikitravel that several of the coastal trails were closed due to mudslides and such. So I scrapped that idea. That left the south of France, so I went to the train station planning to investigate the cost to get to a few locations in southern France, thinking Nice would be the closest and cheapest destination, and allow me to get there in time to watch the Clemson football game later that night. Well it turns out the trains to Nice through Milan (the most direct route) were full, so I would have to go through Geneva and Lyon, which would involve getting to the French coast and then going east, the opposite direction of where I eventually wanted to go -- southwest, towards Spain. I looked at train times and costs to a few locations in France and ultimately decided that Montpellier seemed like a less touristy classic French city on the way to Barcelona, with a cheap hotel/hostel that had a communal computer for watching the Clemson game, which would start about an hour after I got there. Done; let's go to Montpellier.
Me: "One ticket to Montpellier, please. Oh and is it okay if I pay for it partially in cash (I wanted to get rid of the rest of my swiss franks) and the rest with a credit card"
Tkt Agent: "sure no problem"
So I handed over about $60 in Swiss Francs. Then I went to grab my debit card out of my bag. Small problem: it wasn't there. Ugh, you have to be kidding me! I frantically searched my entire bag and all my pockets while people waited and stared. It wasn't anywhere. I started to think about where it could be and decided that I almost surely lost it in Murren the day before either when I bought a train ticket with my card at the kiosk or on the train taking off or putting on my fleece with it in an open pocket. They said they could hold my ticket to Montpellier for me while I went back to my hostel to double check it wasn't there. So I ran back to the hostel, rechecked the room, rechecked my main pack with all my clothes, and I definitely didn't have it. After my passport and ipad, this was probably the one thing I could least afford to lose. It's my only ATM card and only way of getting cash, and I only have one other credit card, which I hadn't used in 8 months and might not work. Ugh, how do I keep managing to lose stuff.
Back at the hostel, I was running out of time before my train left, so I frantically called Citibank to cancel my card and find out about options for sending a new one to Europe (and got a customer service rep who was clueless, so I had to hang up on on him, but he deserved it). Then I called Chase (the bank for my one other credit card) and informed them that even though I hadn't used the card much, I was in Europe, about to buy a train ticket, and I absolutely needed that transaction to go through without a problem and to not block any upcoming transactions. They seemed to understand this much, but said there was currently no way to get a cash advance using that card, and then I ran out the door, hoping I wasn't going to miss my train.
I got back to the station with a little time to spare, was able to purchase the ticket they were holding for me, and got on my train 4 minutes prior to departure. While the swiss trains were the same standard trains I was used to from train travel elsewhere in Europe, when I got to France, I guess I ended up on the TGV high-speed train to get from Lyon to southern France, and it was a little crazy as we zoomed through the countryside at ~200 mph (~300km/h).
I got to Montpellier around 8 and found that my hotel was quite a seedy looking place in a very seedy part of town, but all was okay, because they had a computer available with a good internet connection that would allow me to watch the Clemson-GT game and some of the other college football action from Saturday, which I proceeded to spend the next 4-5 hours doing.
Day 259 - Sunday, October 7
I was only planning to spend two nights in Montpellier before moving on to Barcelona. So Sunday was the only full day I had to see the city. Like many other cities in Europe, much of the city was closed on Sunday and the streets, squares, etc., were largely empty. A few photos as I explored:
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
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| From France - Montpellier |
Day 260 - Monday, October 8
I hopped on a bus from Montpellier around midday to Barcelona, and for the first half of the trip from Montpellier to the border, the vast and neverending vineyards was overwhelming. Virtually every time I looked out the window it was grape vines in all directions for as far as I could see. Pretty neat.
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