Bye Bye Viking

Sunday saw the end of our cruise. The last two evening meals honoured the staff. First the Captains dinner and the last night the Chef's dinner. Both were, of course superb. We were sorry to leave some of the people we befriended on the cruise including Frank and Laura (pictured below). We broke bread with them almost every night and will miss sharing time with them but do wish them Bon voyage as they board the next leg of the France voyage on Viking.
We departed the boat in Chalon sur Saône. It was cold (maybe up to 4 celcius), overcast, raining,grey. Very dismal weather and we stayed in a very dismal hotel and ate very dismal meals in comparison to the ships meals but one bright spot was being seated in a restaurant for lunch right beside one of our Viking passengers, the man from Cuba and his wife from Thailand (sorry, am a bit embarrassed I don't know their names) but we had a great chat over lunch.
The next morning we picked up our car (we had to order the taxi to the rental office the day before-no hailing cabs in Chalon sur Saône ) and headed north to Champagne. We visited the Huge outlet mall here and believe it or not bought nothing but kir cassis, a refreshment we discovered on the cruise. So tonight we are exploring routes to take tomorrow which will wind us through champagne country and will tour some local wineries and pick up a bottle or two of bubbly to sip in the evening. Oh yeah, the weather has greatly improved as has our spirits!