Day 36 - A day in Strasbourg - Planned Spontaneity

July 26, 2018

Day 36 - A day in Strasbourg

We see the sights and learn a lot

We took the bus and tram into the old town. The day was really hot but we did a boat tour among other things. I will post a bunch of pictures but I'm not sure if I will get labels on them.

We learned a lot about Strasbourg and the Alsace and the number of times it has changed hands between the French and the Germans. It is a beautiful thriving city with an important university and a lot going for it in the place that it now has in the EU

Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg. A mixture of romanesque and Gothic architecture. Concidered an excellent example of Gothic architecture. It was under construction from 1176-1439 (wikipedia). This is also where the world's first documented Christmas tree was set up in 1539.

The suspended organ was built in 1385. The mechanism has been updated.

Most of the stain glass windows date back to the 14th century with a few new ones from the 20th century post WW2.

A good place to step into on a really hot tiring day. We opted for sandwiches and cool drinks.

This string quartet was really good! Wish all buskers had this kind of talent.

This is something we haven't seen in Europe before. A place to fill your water bottles. And boy was it popular!

We went on a boat tour on one of these. They were "air conditioned" but it couldn't keep up and it was pretty hot. They did provide head sets so you could get an informative audio tour of the city.

The lineup for the boat was about 50 feet from where everybody was trying to stay in the shade.

The history of this area is complex and it is easy to see the impact of the area changing hands between Germany and France so many times. There is evidence of both cultures and many of the people we spoke were comfortable in both languages. There did seem to be fewer people who spoke English so Erika fumbled along in German. The public transit was great and easy to use. Restaurants near the main square were very expensive but we found a great bakery/sandwich bar right by the tram line. The prices were good and the food excellent.

We were impressed with the fountain for drinking water in the main square. Finding fresh water is a real issue when cycling in Europe and in these hot temperatures water is very important. It would be nice if all European cities had such water sources available. It would also be nice if they were placed periodically along the cycle trails. While I am at it, I would sure like to see the occasional public toilet on the trails!

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