Day #9 in St. Brieuc – Mont St. Michel og St. Malo
[Photos taken on Monday 17 July 2017, posted 31 December 2017 4 January 2018. I can see daylight!]
Our only “proper” tourist day had us visiting the medieval-ish sort-of-island fortress of Mont St. Michel, and the old town of St. Malo. This also happened to be the warmest day of our stay, which made for an especially sweaty day. (85 images total!)
Family photo in front of Mont St. Michel, as we were leaving, and the younger two were completely out of energy!
When we arrived in the morning there were long lines for the buses that take you over the bridge that connects Mont St. Michel to the mainland.
The kids spotted this horse drawn carriage, and the shorter carriage line, and insisted we take that instead of the bus.
The bus line moved fast, but the horse carriage line slowly, as there were few carriages, but many buses. When we counted how many of us would make it onto the next carriage, we were a few seats short, so Holla, Óli and I decided to walk the 40 minute walk. We still ended up beating the horse-drawn people!
Hrefna by Óli.
Photos taken as we approached, but saw now sign of the others.
Finnur, Óli’s mom, and all the kids finally arrive!
Emma contemplates the horses.
Ok, time to get this show on the road!
It took about three seconds for us to split up. Thank goodness for phones!
One reason for the splitting up…
Munchkin!
The first ice cream of the day…
The site basically has you walking up the hill, but on the way there are lots of pretty houses.
Took a shortcut through a small church…
The cemetery.
Looking up.
Looking down and out.
A large portion of the day was eaten by the kids whining for drinks and ice cream. I think this was taken while Finnur was in one line or another to buy water.
To escape the direct scorching sun, we bought tickets to some museum. They had things from medieval times.
A fancy lockable chest.
The museum exit.
Hrefna by Finnur.
Our museum pass let us in to two or three mini-museums. This was the most impressive part of yet another one.
Walking about with Bjarki. He was probably asking for ice cream, and sulking at the repeated no-s.
No falling!
The stairways up to the main abbey.
Ticket line into the abbey at the top of the hill.
Smart tourists would have already bought tickets online…
Notice anything unusual?
Up at the top, overlooking the bridge that leads to the mainland.
Looking back down again.
Walking onwards, we found four glass cases such as this one with models showing how the hill/island got covered in buildings.
Behind me is the main entrance to the abbey. In front is a spectacular view, and a deadly fall.
The abbey entrance.
Every flat top needs funky art. Bjarki was not impressed with any of it, and was only calmed down by handing him a phone to catch pokemon.
Anna calmly walking to fetch a jumping Emma.
No climbing the walls! Why?!?!
Inside the abbey.
Anna.
More inside the abbey.
See anything unusual?
Back out on the flat top again, we ran into Holla, Óli and their gang.
They took a family photo of us!
A funky sphere down below.
No falling!!
A garden up on top was being renovated.
Anna and Finnur hunting Pokemon. My phone kept having gps/connectivity issues.
The things in the ceiling.
Anna by some art.
We started making our way out, which involved walking through somewhat random walkways. Emma got to hold the camera, and photographed the insides of yet another random walkway/stairwell.
The stairwell in question.
Hello there big wheel.
We stopped to eat some bread we had in our bag, as Bjarki was close to just lying down on the ground and refusing to move anymore. Afterwards, we finally made it to the exit!
By the weird sphere.
Meandering along the abbey walls.
We were up there!
Going slowly, and hunting more pokemon.
Bjarki took to amusing himself with attempting to stop the stopwatch on interesting number combinations.
Greenery.
FINALLY it was time for ice-cream (again)!
A nice rest for weary legs. The tv had bikers doing balancing tricks.
Quite far down.
Bjarki resting with a lollypop.
Bjarki from Finnur’s point of view.
Family photo of Holla and Óli’s gang.
Finnur by Óli.
Despite the kids protesting, we opted to take a bus back to the parking lot.
Bjarki out by the parking lots.
Our dinner stop was the touristy old downtown of St. Malo. It has a large harbor.
The houses by the harbor are behind a fortress wall.
One of the gates into town.
It took a while to find a restaurant that was a) open and b) would take our big group. One place told us to come back in 20 minutes, but when we returned, they realized how many we were and told us to go find some other place! (also, we may have had too many kids)
We ended up at a pizza place, which thankfully had good pizzas!
Smiling through the hunger.
After the pizza, we went and got ice-cream, again!
We discovered a long row of restaurants along one fortress wall!
We left the town as the evening breeze was picking up. I stayed with the younger kids by this carousel while the others walked a bit further.
Spot the redheads!
Anna by Finnur.
Happy after a successful touristing day.
Óli wants one of these…
Boat for sale!
Walking to the car.
The trip back to St. Brieuc went well, except we needed to make a rest-stop, where Bjarki struck a pose!
