Now it’s time for a little bit about Montpellier. As you know, I didn’t want to do anything but switch trains in Montpellier, but that hope died almost as soon as I arrived. Between what I had learned at the train station and the bus sales office, I was going to have to spend the next thirty hours in Montpellier and I had to make the best of it. (Note: The pictures in this entry were taken from my little tour of Montpellier and may or may not correspond with the paragraphs to which they are closest. I’m sure you can handle any confusion that may cause.)
The first thing I had to do was get a hotel room for the night. The first hotel I stopped in was a Holiday Inn and I asked if it had any single rooms for the night. The guy at reception told me that it did, but that the rooms were 110 euros a night. He pointed me in the direction of cheaper hotels and I went into the first one I said that had a “Free WiFi” sign on the door. The rooms here were only 48 euros a night and I decided that would do. I forget the name of the hotel, but the hotel was pretty forgettable anyway. I went up to the room and discovered that the toilet didn’t have a seat. I hadn’t seen that in a hotel before, but at least it flushed and was sufficiently clean, so I didn’t argue. I also learned the next morning that the walls were incredibly thin as the couple next to me enjoyed a little them time and displayed little modesty in doing it. Whatever. The bed was comfortable enough and I slept well.
In the morning, I left my backpack at the hotel because I still had ten hours to kill, but I brought my other bag with me because it held my computer and I was a little nervous about leaving it in the baggage room at the hotel.
The day was beautiful, but I was carrying a load and had no idea what to do. The hotel’s location was fantastic, however, as it was close to the train station and to the central square in the old part of the city. (I later learned that the square is shaped like an oval and that it is one of the largest pedestrian squares in all of Europe, or so I was told.) There was also a mall nearby, so I went to that to kill some time. I also spent some time in a McDonald’s because it had free wifi and a bathroom. It also had a CBO – chicken, bacon and onions – that was actually quite tasty. Do we have those in the U.S.? I don’t go to McDonald’s there often enough to know.
Since the day was so beautiful, I decided to sit out in the park and write some blog entries. While I was sitting in the park, I noticed a little, white, toy-like train go by full of tourists. On the side of the train, I read that it was a 40-minute tour of Monpellier that cost only six euros. I also saw that it left from Comedie Place, which I recognized as a place that was just around the corner from where I was sitting. I needed to kill some time and this seemed like a good way to kill it.
The little tourist train was actually pretty interesting and well-worth the six euro price of admission. We went all around the old city of Montpellier and learned some of the history and saw all of the landmarks. The post office was really nice. No, seriously, it was. There also was an Arc de Triomphe, patterned after the famous one in Paris and not a hell of a lot smaller than the original. One interesting tidbit was that I picked up was that Magnolia trees were named after a guy from Montpellier named Magnol. At least that’s what they said. I always blame my misinformation on them.
Okay, that’s about all I have for Montpellier. I wasn’t there long and I was there against my will, so my bitterness probably prevented me from enjoying it as much as I could have. From here, you can go back and read my last post about leaving Montpellier and then read the next one about my next day in Valencia.
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