A Day In Strasbourg France!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

We arrived at our tour bus at 6:30am ready for our departure. Excited...Yes! Awake...Not quite.

Luckily, we had a stop on our two and a half hour ride for some espresso. A short bus ride and a shot of espresso later, we had arrived in France and were headed to Strasbourg. On the bus ride setting the tone for the rest of the trip was the beautiful landscapes and quaint countryside living along with fields of hops and many other crops. Crossing the international boundary was uneventful, which unfortunately meant, no passport stamps. (Unless you call Me(Tiffany) using the bathroom on the tour bus which strategically was just underneath our new friend Giles - lucky me- in which I had all the room of a midget closet, locked the door, pulled down my pants and oops! a bus took a bump and I fell forward knocking the bathroom door open and luckily caught myself before I took a face plant but unluckily not before flashing half the bus! Well I must have screamed, "Crap!" pretty loud because Giles asked David "I hope she's alright" shortly after my embarrassing moment) Well back to the real story....

Our tour began with a drive around the city and a tour guide who  was all too eager to give you historically relevant and irrelevant facts. (Did you know Germans don't eat corn? Now we know they don't and Why you may ask? Because that is what the animals eat) Sounds good to me...back to our story. Our first stop was at the European Council building which was interesting because each one of the EU countries donated to the construction of the building by some type of material. Our walking tour involved trying to hear our guide babble on about everything and then running after her to catch up.  Mind you that this woman has to be in her seventies and has all of the energy of a five year old or perhaps a really energetic senior that has just escaped from a home. We passed a charming flea market with all sorts of cool furniture and canals and made our way to a farmers market. The stalls were filled with fresh fruits, cheeses, meats, flowers and fish. Everything looked incredible. Our tour next headed to a very large cathedral, where, due to our guide's rambling and 30+ min bathroom break, we missed our tour and had to wait for the next one, as the cathedral closed for 90 minutes. To pass the time, we were lead in circles of the town, essentially killing time. We looked around another ornate church and then we made our break for it. Along with our new friends Carrie and Giles, we ditched the group and went on exploring on our own. (The most important factor of this is we did hear the group would be meeting in front of the farmers market at four o'clock for our boat tour) We were pretty hungry and went looking for a brasserie for lunch. We found a nice little place and sat outside. It was along the street so we could eat and people watch. Our lunch was delicious and our first authentic french meal. We had foie gras smoked duck and salmon salad, french onion soup, onion pie, escargot and local wines and beers. The meal was delicious. We topped it off with Gelato and continued exploring on our own, before meeting back up with the group for a boat tour around the canals. After more exploration and seeing the cathedral. ( Note: not just any cathedral...this was THE Cathedral - It was where the famous Louis XV and Marie Leszczynski were married.) We had missed earlier in the day, we stopped at another cafe for drinks. Relaxing with our new friends, Tiffany enjoyed a local Pinot Grigio and I had a local beer. Our boat tour of the city took us through the canals and locks and gave us a very cool view of Strasbourg. The picturesque french building with willows so big their limbs were touching the water as if they needed to cool off. Surrounded by the colorful buildings and german and french architecture the canals were like something from a beautiful daydream. And speaking of dream...the weather was a perfect 80 something degrees! A little hot at times but nothing a cool drink couldn't fix. Our boat tour was a relaxing way to end our day exploring Strasbourg. Ending our trip, we stopped by a french bakery and picked up a baguette, pastry and strawberry meringue. (The meringue was just as pretty and big as the top to a strawberry ice cream cone. Overall we enjoyed Strasbourg and look forward to exploring the rest of France in the near future.

Talk to you soon,

David, Tiffany & Oliver

It was that hot...(oh, this is our new buddy Giles btw)

What Oliver has in store for him in the near future....

Lunch...

 This was us taking "special" touristy pics....