Marseille

Wednesday morning we woke up in Marseille, France. We decided to bite the bullet and buy bus tickets into town from the cruise. The tickets were only $15 each and we got to use our onboard credit for them. Score! 

We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room, chatting with a nice couple from England. It turns out they get to see Scandal there and the lady was a huge fan of the show. Luckily, we actually love that show so we could keep up this time. Sorry, Nashville! They started talking to us because an older woman seated next to us left her empty pillbox behind accidentally. Jackson turned it into the waiter, telling him that he'd taken all the pills first. This "joke" was lost in translation and the waiter was so angry all of the sudden. I had to quickly let him know that Jackson's sense of humor takes getting used to, but that he did not really swallow this woman's pills. This lead the British guy next to us to roar in laughter and decide he had to chat with us. It turns out the British adore bad humor. Who knew? ;)

Worst cottage cheese ever.

 Once Jackson finished upsetting the waitstaff, we headed for the bus into town. We met a nice daughter, mother, grandmother trio from California by way of Missouri and enjoyed chatting with them. We all ended up on the same silly little train up to the city's main attraction: Norte Dame de la Garde. It was a beautiful cathedral up on the hill just outside of town. Marseille is France's second largest city, behind Paris, of course. We toured the church quickly (it was quite small compared to the one in Barcelona) and then headed back into the city to hit its Hard Rock Cafe to get my Mom another pin. The HRC is always good for an awesome bathroom and fast wifi so we never mind looking them up. They also tend to be in cool parts of town so we find areas we otherwise wouldn't. Everyone wins. We really enjoyed the city. We had the best macaron ever from a little bakery. It was filled with ice cream. Amazing. We thought about eating in town, but the food on the boat was free so we headed back.

Getting on the dorky train

Train selfie

Views from the church 

Petefish.

The cathedral was kind of ornate ;) 

A view of the cathedral from town

Hard Rock!

There was once a gelato in this photo... 

Views from the ship

A gorgeous area!

We grabbed a late lunch, hit the pool and then hit the gym. It was just too nice of a place to avoid like most people did. Ha! We had a free dinner at the Steakhouse that night, again as a part of the package Susan booked. Hooray! We dressed up and met the girls for yet another feast. 

Date night repeat 

The best food I've ever eaten

Grace had a hollow leg and ate her whole veal chop. I had the lobster AND the crab appetizer this time, skipping the soup and salad because you only live once.  We all ate like royalty and then had amazing desserts. 

FEAST!

Susan with her dessert

I had the sampler and Jackson had lemon pie

The girls sharing the dessert sampler

Again, we took laps around the boat after dinner to aid in digestion before settling into our stateroom for the night. It was a good day! 

Trying to walk off dinner

Cutest boy on the boat!