October 10-19 2016
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Why did we go to Strasbourg? Well, we had
never visited the Northeastern part of France and anyone we talked to
about Strasbourg had nothing but rave reviews. They were spot on. We
spent nine nights in Strasbourg, touring the city and taking day trips
to some of the towns on the Alsace Wine Route.
We still have more towns to visit on
the Alsace side and never made it just across the border to the German
side.
Ray and I took the train on Oct 10 to Strasbourg
and stayed in a one bedroom apartment between the train station and town
for 9 nights. I bought a 3 day Strasbourg pass online which included
free or half-price admission for several museums and a half day bike
rental. The apartment was convenient and comfortable. We bought food at
a local small grocery store for breakfast and a salad supper. Our main
meal was lunch at a restaurant offering Menu du Jour. We sampled all the
local delicacies and found the food uniformly excellent.
We spent a lot of time in the Cathedral snapping
photos of the stained glass window, carved pulpit, side chapels and
decorated ceiling. The famous astronomical clock was fascinating. A
movie told us about the history and illustrated several of the carved
and painted decoration. At noon, the cock crowed and the figures made
their rounds, much like the Glockenspeil in Munich. It was very well
done. Next to the clock was one of my favourite sculptures in the
church. The Angel Pillar has 12 sculptures, supposedly climbing the
pillar to reach the Christ figure perched on the top. Another reason to
visit the cathedral is to climb the 300 steps to a terrace under the
bell tower to get the view of the city from the roof of the cathedral.
Visitors several centuries ago carved their names and place of birth on
the sides of the terrace walls.
The Palais Rohan, next to the Cathedral now
houses three museums. We toured the interesting history museum to learn
about the difficulties of living on the border with warring
principalities. As a result, Strasbourg has had its language and
allegiance changed between France and Germany multiple times over the
centuries.
Petite France, with its many half-timbered
buildings, most decorated with overflowing flower baskets, made an
interesting walk along the canal, part of the River L’Ill. We took a
boat tour on the River, and rented bikes for an afternoon to go farther
north where the EU Parliament, Council of Europe and Human Rights
buildings are found.
Our last night in Strasbourg we had a treat.
Earlier in the week we saw a poster advertising the last in a series of
classical concerts. Mozart’s Requiem was to be performed in a church
near our apartment by National Opera orchestra and choir plus four
soloists. We had general seating tickets, still expensive, but well
worth the money. We found great seats on the side right near the front
with perfect acoustics and upfront views of the musicians.
Read about our visit to the
Alsace Wine Region
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