On our last day in Vevey, Stacey and I had planned to visit Collection d’Arts Brut in Lausanne, but poor Stacey woke up with acute pain in her neck and upper back and decided to head off to the local hospital. She was transferred to Montreux and spent the next 6 hours being stuffed around, not dissimilar to Queensland hospitals except they charged like a wounded bull and she still didn’t get to see a physio which is what she really needs.
After getting our washing done, (best dryer yet!), Kiryn and I headed off to the Games Museum which is located in an old castle on the banks of the lake in Vevey. After wandering through rooms filled with ancient games and an extremely impressive collection of chess sets, we sat down at a table to play what we thought what memory. After drawing a couple of dozen cards and not getting a single pair, I re-read the rules (in French) to ascertain the pairs just had to be related in some way! We soon gave up and headed to another table to play Mr Jack- a very strange game, which we got the hang of after reading pages of rules-and of course, Kiryn won!
We walked along the lake’s edge back to Riviera Lodge and headed straight out to the Montreux Christmas markets where we met a very traumatised Stacey. It started spitting as we were walking up towards the station and was a downpour by the time we got to the open-air markets. Lorelle and Kiryn braved the elements to ride on the ferris wheel and ended up soaking wet. After a couple of plates of tartiflette, we decided to head for home and dry off our clothes.
Of course I had to drink the rest of the red wine, as I don’t want to carry it tomorrow. It’s amazing how quickly a bottle of red goes when two are drinking it but how hard it is to drink it on your own!
Off to Barcelona today, yes, Barcelona, Spain! We are going to hop, well, not literally, right across France and land in Barcelona Franca Station. Stacey and I decided to stop off in Lausanne to visit the Musee d’Arts Brut, the collection of paintings done by psychiatric patients, eccentrics and incarcerated criminals. We were supposed to get back to Geneva to catch the 2.41pm train to Barcelona. However, that train was fully booked so Lorelle managed to work out an alternate route using regional trains so we had to be back by 1.28pm! So it was going to be tough!
Step 1: Get off train with luggage in Lausanne. No problems there.
Step 2: Find luggage lockers. Yep, easy- right in front of us.
Step 3: Pay for lockers. Oh oh- large lockers were 9 Swiss francs and I only had six! Stacey had spent every last razoo of her money on the hospital and medications for her back yesterday. And we had limited time to see the art so we started to beg, yes beg. Well, Stacey did- I just looked sad. She asked a couple of girls who said no, sorry. She was even willing to give away her “pain de raisin” in exchange for 3 Swiss francs! They walked away and we thought we are just not going to be able to get to see the art after all our efforts when one of the girls came running back with 5 Swiss francs! Our plight had been successful. We were jubilant. I couldn’t thank the girl enough, in French of course. I even said, “Je t’aime!” to show my gratitude. She probably thought I was a complete nutter. Oh and I forgot to mention, Stacey was wearing the neck brace the doctor had given her yesterday and was easy to pity. My generosity in giving all my spare change to beggars over the past few weeks had been repaid. That’s what I call karma.
After depositing most of our luggage in the locker, (my backpack wouldn’t fit so we put in in the trolley bag Stacey had bought for her backpack as she can’t carry it on her back) we headed off in the direction of the Museum. I was wearing Keeley’s boots for the very first time so was hoping it wasn’t a long walk. Stacey rechecked the map she had and realized the Musee was not even on the map- there was only an arrow pointing to its location so we jumped on a bus heading that way, ascertained from a fellow passenger that we were, indeed, heading in the right direction, and were deposited right in front of the Collection d’Arts Brut! It happened to be the first Saturday of the month when entry to see the art works is free! Very fortunate as we were penniless- actually we had 2 Swiss francs but that wouldn’t have been enough to get us both in.
Well, was all this drama getting there worth it? Definitely! I was expecting to see crazy art done by crazy people, but a lot of it was better than the classical artists and much better than most modern art! There were small collections of each artist with the story of their lives in French and English- most led very sad, lonely lives- many suffering the death of one or both parents in childhood- and were institutionalized and classified as insane. Maybe it was the institutionalization that sparked their creative flair, but if they were alive today, they’d be walking the streets like you and me.
There were many forms of art on display. Not only paintings but creations in shells, wood, stone, anything that was available to them. One artist improvised brushes made with her own hair! Oh, and many of them were female! Absolutely the best art gallery I have ever visited!
We rushed back to the bus stop and caught the next bus back to the station, and caught the train to Geneva to meet up with the others. Stacey decided to go home to Nantes to recuperate (and to see her own physio) so we parted ways at Lyon, us heading to Avignon and Stacey directly to Nantes.
Lorelle had worked out a route with connecting trains in Avignon and Montpellier to get us to Barcelona that night. However, it was not to be as the train from Lyon to Avignon was 10 minutes late to start off with and only managed to get later. By the time we arrived in Avignon we had 8 minutes to catch the train to Montpellier which sounds easy except the bloody train to Montpellier left from a different station 4 kilometres away. We grabbed a cab and would have made it but for the fact we got 2 very long red lights! The train had just departed.
We had no choice but to wait for the next train to Montpellier, which of course, arrived in too late to catch the connecting train to Barcelona so we had to find somewhere to spend the night apart from the platform on the station! Kiryn headed out to check out the 3 hotels whose signs we could see from the station, and settled on the third one, The Royal Hotel, which had a room for 4 for 124 euro, and a very pretty little room it was too. Decorated with blue walls with white trimmings, a separate bedroom area as well as lounge/dining and bathroom with BATH, it was all we needed for a good night’s sleep.
Kiryn and I headed out to locate food as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast in Vevey and were all a bit peckish. We found the most popular takeaway joint in town and I ordered a chicken roll and chips and coke for Elizabeth and me. What a huge meal! I had managed to buy a lovely bottle of red for 18 euro from a restaurant on the town square, which was buzzing with Christmas markets- a beautiful little town all fairy-lit for Christmas! We decided we’d get up early to catch the 7.27am train directly to Barcelona, the earliest train we’ve caught yet. Luckily we were only 5 minutes walk from the station. It was so early there was nothing open from which to grab a bite to eat so we hopped on the train hungry.
We arrived in Barcelona just after midday and hopped on the Metro to Liceu, completely exhausted. My hip was out, probably from humping my suitcase down that broken escalator in Montpellier station last night , and I just wanted to lay down on the floor and give it a good balling, but the receptionist had other ideas. I couldn’t remember how much the rooms were, even though I had checked last night, and asked could I come down later and pay. Apparently, this was not the done thing at the Hotel Adagio.
The hotel was only a stone’s throw from Barcelona Franca, which was the station we had planned to arrive at, but actually came into Barcelona Sants. These towns with 2 major train stations can be quite confusing, especially when one’s train plans are changed.
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