Our Rhone River Adventure Begins!

  We flew out of Orlando at 9:30 pm and connected in Amsterdam on our way to Marseille.  We took advantage of an airfare promotion through Avalon and I have to admit I usually don't go for those kind of offers because it tends to limit your ability to choose your flights and I am always afraid of having too many connections. Avalon's air deal was really good because they let me look over all the possible flights for that offer and choose the one I wanted.  I was very happy to find we could take advantage of the promotion and have just the one connection. 
 After our last flight to Europe where we were delayed getting out of Orlando and missed our connection in Newark and had to change our plans I was very happy that our first leg at least got us to Europe.   Our flights went smoothly and we arrived in Marseille without any problems.  We arrived the day prior to our cruise which is important on a trip like this in case of any flight delays and also to deal with the jetlag.   I added our hotel and airport transfers to our cruise reservation so it was all one seamless package which it totally worth it.  I know I maybe could have booked a less expensive hotel and set up our own transportation from the airport but having it all as part of the package means you really do not have to think at all after getting off your long overnight flight where you most likely didn't get much sleep.   We simply got our luggage and rolled through immigration and there on the other side was an Avalon rep holding a sign ready to take our bags and lead us to the van.   We were the only ones arriving at the time so it was our own private van. 
 ​In about 30 minutes we pulled up to our hotel and I have to say it was a WOW moment as the hotel was beyond what I was expecting.    It was a large impressive old building from the 18th century and to me it looked like a palace.   I was very happy I chose to go with the cruise package hotel since I probably never would have booked this hotel on my own.   Even though we were tired we figured best to just push through and go see some of Marseille now since we do not have a lot of time tomorrow before we have to head to the ship.  We found some great pizza and gelato and then headed up to the church on top of a hill that looked down over the city.   It wasn't an easy walk but we made it to the top just in time for a beautiful sunset.  It was the perfect start to our French Adventure!