15 May 2017
Strasbourg Sights

against a light blue sky, the spires and red stone tracery of the cathedral make a delicate contrast Cathedral detail

Our travels with our son Bryan and his wife Donna centered on Alsace, that beautiful once German but now so French region with its own wine grapes, and close to the lovely Vosges mountains. We began by taking the high speed train from Frankfurt to Strasbourg, the seat of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, as well as the location of the Ecole Normale d'Administration, where French President Emmanuel Teams in tandem driving three wheeled bicycles depart the starting line Start of charity raceMacron (as well as numerous other presidents, ministers, and captains of French industry) studied. For tourists, Strasbourg is the site of a beautiful and large Gothic cathedral, carved in the dark native stone, and dominating the city skyline. Our hotel was half a block away, and none of us could stop staring up at its magnificent spires whenever we got out on the streets.

Our first morning coincided with a charity-sponsored tandem bicycle race which used the cathedral A bridge overlooks the buildings of old Strasbourg tannery district on the River Ill The River Ill plaza as starting and ending point. We enjoyed walking the nearby neighborhoods, seeing a fine carousel and a statue of Gutenberg (got us thinking about the effect of movable type and the printing press on the Protestant Reformation).

We took two sightseeing trips: a little train carried us around the Island which is the historic district, and a river cruise showed us the magnificent buildings holding today's government and financial Trucks maneuver with inches to spare in the narrow streets of an Alsace town. Narrow streets elements. Strasbourg is such a well-known tourist attraction that English is commonly understood, but different enough to make us aware that we were in fact in France.

We were eager to see the countryside, and took full advantage of having a car, plus Donna's excellent, unflappable driving; she had no problem maneuvering along narrow passageways and following The dark grey exterior of the mostly underground defensive fortification looks uninviting against a background of green trees Maginot line unfamiliar traffic signs.

So, soon we were on our way out of town. Strasbourg, located just about on the German border, has been handed back and forth between France and Germany and has been at the crosshairs of military actions more than once. Before the declaration of World War II, France built bunkers along the Maginot Line; we Houses with dormers and white stucco against half-timbered walls line both sides of this street. Picturesque town stopped at Fort Schoenenbourg where visitors can walk through tunnels and see the equipment and furnishings for the soldiers.

Hundreds of years before the World Wars, the rulers of the various kingdoms in Germany were defending Looking up from below, the sides of the red stone castle stretch up to the sky Haut Koenigsbourg their territories by building castles, so we went to see one. Haut Koenigsbourg Castle has been largely reconstructed in the early twentieth century since its original construction at the end of the twelfth century. It has been a king's quarters, a robber's retreat, and now is an unparalleled place to clamber around, climbing stone steps, leaning out windows over precipices, pretending to be royalty. Just looking at the outside, the walls and outcrops and gunports, is magical. We have to admit that after taking a short walk, we left the exploration of the castle heights to the younger generation, although we thoroughly enjoyed sitting still and observing the passing parade.