Lyon River Cruise: Cruise Day 7 (End of Trip)

Wednesday, May 28: LYS > YUL > ORD

The schedule indicated an arrival in Lyon around 4am, and I had hoped to do my morning walk along the city streets. However, when I got up just after 6am, it was very obvious that we hadn’t reached the city yet. In fact, the boat pulled into a small dock south of the city to restock on supplies before finally continuing on to our final destination. We had to have our bags packed and ready outside of our cabins by 8:30am for the crew to organize them according to follow-on plans (e.g. additional travel or taxi service).

Unfortunately, our final breakfast was a bit low on some items, including scrambled eggs, so we made due with other options and grabbed some mini toast crackers for later. We had to vacate our cabins by 9am but didn’t need to leave the boat until 11am, so Mr. E, M, and I got Mr. E’s mom, aunt, and uncle settled in the Lounge Bar and then headed into the city for some final walking and exploring. We lingered over coffee at Starbucks and then took our last stroll around the city before returning to the boat to meet up with the family and catch our respective taxis to the train station (M, Mr. E’s mom, aunt, and uncle for return to Paris) and the airport (Mr. E and me).

Our return trip was on Air Canada, and we had paid for extra-space seats in the economy section, so we had a two-fer together for our flight to Montreal. I definitely learned that it’s worth paying more for some sort of business class seats given my ongoing issues with the left side of my back and leg, as it was quite challenging for me to get comfortable in the smaller seats without the ability to really stretch out. I watched a few really great movies (The Killer, Tarla, and most of The American Society of Magical Negroes) and started but didn’t finish one movie that wasn’t so great (Inside).

We had smooth passage through customs and immigration in Montreal and took advantage of access to the Mont Blanc lounge for lunch, knowing that we wouldn’t have many options on our flight to Chicago. We arrived a little early at O’Hare, just after 8pm, and grabbed a taxi home to Evanston and the kitties, making it back to our apartment by around 9pm. This gave us time to unpack and get settled before wrapping up the evening. Mr. E had gotten his second wind so stayed up for cocktails and TV, but I went to bed and enjoyed returning to the night-time snuggles and nesting with Louis XIV.

Overall, a really great trip and wonderful to spend time with family! We learned that we prefer a larger riverboat with some additional public space, which is good to know for any future plans. This boat had only two decks, primarily because it had to go under so many bridges on the Rhone River, and it only had the Lounge Bar and sundeck as general gathering spots. The boat we were on in Bordeaux had three decks and included another salon area, so it was easier to spread out and have some different spaces during the free time on board. Mr. E’s mom seems interested in one of the Portugal river cruises, also offered by CrosiEurope, so we may have to consider adding that to our plans within the next year or so.