Travel Blog: Strasbourg, a Quick Stop in France...

or Germany, or France, or Germany, or France.....This part of Europe, Alsace-Lorraine, has changed ownership between Germany and France after every war in the last two hundred years. It has changed hands so many times over the years, it's a wonder that the people here have any idea who they are. At the moment, and for the foreseeable future, they're French. But they also speak German.

This morning we headed from our docking point in Kehl, Germany to visit Strasbourg, France. The Alsace area has gone back and forth so many times that it actually has a completely different identity from either Germany OR France, so we were looking forward to seeing just how a historical melding of these two cultures would manifest itself.

It was only a short drive from the French side of Kehl, which is a suburb, to the old town of Strasbourg itself. First, we were driven through the 'European District', which only means that it is related to the European Union, or European Federation, business. Strasbourg, because of its history, has been chosen as the seat of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

The headquarters of the Council of Europe

After our bus tour finished, we were dropped off for our walking tour through the old part of the town. It is very picturesque in Petit France, the oldest part of town, and has an architecture that melds old German and old French.

One of the most impressive buildings was the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Not only is it a beautiful building on the outside, the stained glass is gorgeous and one of the most interesting features is an astronomical clock.

Front of the cathedral from the bus

The astronomical clock

Just one of the stained glass panels

Some of the exterior ornamentation

Of course, we can't forget the French food! In Alsace, due to its history, the cuisine is more a combination of German and French. There are patisseries and small restaurants everywhere, like these:

This restaurant in the Gutenberg Square is where
we had our lunch

We had time for lunch on our own before meeting up for the trip back. Of course you want to know what we ate:

This plate -FOR TWO- included 2 kinds of sausage,
2 kinds of pork belly (one smoked, the other not), some
pork roast, Alsatian Sauerkraut and boiled potatoes

Upon our return to Kehl, we still had some free time in the afternoon so we decided we needed to walk off that lunch, so we strolled a bit farther along the river.

The pedestrian/bike bridge. Larry is standing in the middle of the bridge
with one foot in Germany and the other in France (the Inspire is
docked in Germany).

We found a park with a childrens' area and a nice pond. The park turned out to be much larger than we had thought, with sports fields and a good sized swimming pool. There was also a tower built around a huge White Pine tree trunk. The top of the tower was at 51 metres, and we climbed about 25 of them before Monica's vertigo kicked in and we had to go back to ground.

Before leaving Kehl-Strasbourg we were treated to a local folklore show with a small band and dancers. The music was very reminiscent of the parties that Monica's parents used to have, and while the dances were rather 'pedestrian', the dancers were very entertaining.