Note: Sorry about the lack of updates as of late. As far as we can tell, Paris is a good ten years behind the rest of the world when it comes to wireless internet. For example, they still have "internet cafes," which, for those younger than the age of 20, is where hackers went in the 1980s to use their 1000 free hours of AOL. More updates to come as internet becomes available. (Preview post for Paris: Tweens hang out in coffee shops just like in America!)
Also, even though this post will say it was posted by Jacob, it was actually posted by Karina. Good job, Karina!
We left Gimmelwald and the Alps on a rainy Monday morning. The journey to Strasbourg was a long one. About half of the journey was getting down the mountain.
9:00 am: Cable Car to Murren
Walk 10 minutes to train station (in the rain with one teensy umbrella)
Train to some other small alp town
Another cable car to Lauterbrunnen
Train to Interlaken Ost
Train to Basel
(1 hour break in Basel--we walked around for a bit)
Train to Strasbourg
3:30 arrive in Strasbourg
Arrival in a new place (and new country w/ a different currency) is a bit overwhelming. Where is the atm? Where are we going? Where can we find a map? Do you speak English? Where are we? And how do we get to where we want to be?
Eventually, we answer all those questions. And then we end up at our hotel. In this case, the Hotel Esplanade. We had a private room with a bathroom (for the first time!!) in the university area. After taking a break, we headed out to explore the old city center around the cathedral area. We were navigating from a free map we received at the train station. Since it was free, it was missing street names and streets. So of course, on our way we got a bit lost and ended up wandering through the university area and cheaper 1970s developments. But it was actually really fun to see where young people live and to see what a university in France is like. It’s not unlike the U campus.
At dusk, we made it to the city center and it was absolutely beautiful. Deep, electric blue sky, warm glowing lights inside adorable wood-beam buildings constructed centuries ago. Cobblestone streets and plazas, bustling restaurants with patios filled, crepe restaurants, pubs, and tourist shops.
We strolled around for a while, and ended up grabbing a drink at a place called “12 apostles.” Jacob had read about it online while looking for good beer places.
It was a lovely bar, really more of beer café. It was the kind of place that serves beer in the glass in which it was meant to be served. We sat out on the street and surveyed the wide assortment of beers on tap from a menu which more closely resembled a magazine. Rather than a simple list of beers, it looked like a directory of little ads for each beer, hand written with descriptions. It was really neat, and I think more menus should be like that.
I’ve always heard that Europeans don’t get drunk, instead drinking moderately more regularly. Apparently that rule doesn’t apply to college kids. As we sipped our beers, a table full of young, drunk, unruly college aged kids was producing quite a din. It was kind of a spectacle to watch, and we also enjoyed watching their tipsy peers stroll by. Strasbourg, surprisingly, has quite a night-life.
Day 2 in Strasbourg we slept in a bit and I worked. Eventually we got out to check out St. Paul’s church—a beautiful neo-gothic church not far from the center of Strasbourg.
After that, we headed back to the cathedral to tour the inside. If was gorgeous and contained a stunning depiction of the crucifixion, as well as a really incredible astronomical clock, which was essentially a GIANT biblical cuckoo clock. At 1 o’clock, some of the figures at the top rotated to depict a different biblical story. It was very neat!!
For lunch we ate at a tasty doner place (more on that in our next picnic post). After lunch we headed over to St. Thomas’s church, which I believe was built in the 1200s. Absolutely amazing—and yet so routine for the thousands of Strasbourg citizens who stroll by every day.
Next we headed over to an area called “Petite France.” It was mostly more of the same—adorable buildings on cobblestone paths, a river, and flowers—yet somehow this area managed to be even more adorable than the rest of Strasbourg.
That’s what was so neat about Strasbourg. It seems most European cities have their adorable parts and their not so adorable parts. Strasbourg, on the other hand, seems to be consistently adorable. As we explored the city, I found myself wanting to turn down every street because I didn’t want to miss out on some beautiful scene that was surely waiting just around the bend. And the fact that people actually, live, work, dine, and study in the picturesque old parts of town (which in any other city would be confined to the tourist spots), made it all the more enjoyable.
I’d definitely recommend Strasbourg to anyone. We loved it!
Click here to see all our Strasbourg photos.
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