First Day in Reims

Today. It was a good day overall. Same format as the last post.
1. My shower wasn’t working so I got dressed and went to breakfast at about 9:45. It was crowded! I scoped out a table that looked empty as I was preparing my tea (man I got used to tea quickly!) and it was, so despite the stuff on it, I put down my cup and started moving things out of my way. Boy did that get the waiters moving! They quickly cleared the table and got it reset for me. It was great.
a. Note to self: go for breakfast earlier tomorrow.
2. Left the hotel at about 10:30 and walked up to the Cathedral where my camera ran out of battery. I decided to go ahead and get some souvenirs and batteries. Went into the Cathedral, looked around, went to Tourist Information, got a full-day bus ticket, and (of course) got lost on the way to the bus stop.
3. I kept walking and consulting my bus map and finally found the stop I wanted. But for whatever reason this particular bus wasn’t running today. So after waiting awhile before I realized it wasn’t coming, I decided to just walk. My destination was the Taittinger cellars because, really, how could I come to the Champagne region and not do something Champagne-y? And, naturally, by the time I got there they had closed for lunch.
4. At this point I decided to walk back to my hotel to get my batteries. Long story short, the two huge packs of batteries I brought are only suitable for low power items. No wonder they were so cheap! :)
5. Got back to Taittinger with the last pair of Energizers in my camera (yes, this was my third pair of new batteries today). And yay! I arrived about 5 minutes before the last English tour. A pretty cool tour, too. Followed by a tasting. Awesome.
6. After Taittinger I went to the Basilique St-Remi and its accompanying museum. The organ was playing in the church, although I got the impression that it was more for tuning or something than for visitors’ pleasure. The museum was free (with my student ID) but not the best one I’ve ever been to. Very poorly laid out. It used to be an abbey and it’s a beautiful building but it does not lend itself to being a museum. It had some cool stuff but not my favorite museum ever. I did like the recreations of dresses that the women in the Romanov family wore over time.
7. That’s all I’ve done so far today. I’ll dinner in a bit and go to bed pretty early so I can get up tomorrow. Since my train doesn’t leave until early evening I’m planning on seeing a couple more museums. Then it’s off to Offenburg!