[Summer in Grenoble] Marseille - Day 2: Notre-Dame de la Garde, the Basilica on the Hill

June 14th, 2015

After hanging out in the Marseille Vieux Port in the morning,

my friends and I made our ways to the Marseille Tourism Office.

We got some booklets, maps

and most importantly, this.
Marseille City Pass, which allowed us to use all sorts of public transportations, and go to many tourist attractions without any extra cost.

After taking all that we needed, we headed here.

This is where we took the shuttle train/bus to Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica.

There was a long line, but we could just go to the front of the line thanks to our Marseille City Pass.
They just needed to scan our city pass, and we didn't need to buy tickets separately.

Anyway, off we were on the way to the basilica on the hill.

I was taking some pictures on the way, because it took a few minutes.

And then, we arrived at the hill, where the basilica was located.

We didn't even went past the front gate, but we could already see Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica.

When I turned around, I could already see this nice landscape of Marseille.
Got me pumped about what I'll be seeing when I actually get all the way up to the basilica.

 so we walked up the stairs, past the gate.

and finally arrived at Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica.

Haha, I just could not stop myself from pushing the shutter button.

Of course there is a seagull.
It's a city that touches the Mediterranean Sea!

 well, it was time to start exploring the basilica

there were many other tourists who were also taking pictures and appreciating the view.

The scenery was fantastic, but Notre-Dame de la Garde itself was beautifully build too.

and now, picture time!!

The view from Notre-Dame de la Garde was very nice and enchanting, but in a different way than that from the top of the Bastille at Grenoble.
Probably because of the sea.

For those of you who are fans of 'Ligue 1' (French Professional Football League), here's something interesting.
The stadium in the distance was actually the home stadium of 'Olimpique de Marseille,' known as 'Stade Velodrome.'

Likewise, you could see pretty much the overall view of Marseille.

Time to go inside the basilica.

Very nice interior architecture.

The ceilings of churches and basilicas never ceases to amaze me.

and there were numerous paintings hung up on the walls.

There was this place, where worship candles were.

There also seemed to be another room where they have their religious ceremonies.
This one was locked, unlike the other one that was open to the public.

After taking some pictures of the worship candles,
my friends and I went down to a gift shop.

and then, after a little rest, we took the next shuttle train/bus or whatever that is to the Vieux Port area.