Day 7 - Rainy Strasbourg

Exploring Strasbourg, the New Town, the Cathedral, the old town and Petite France. Strasbourg, like Colmar, is in the Alsace region of France. We have been learning alot about its history and the many times its has changed back and forth between French and German sovereignty.

We took off on a bus for a tour around Strasbourg before starting our walk in the old town. Strasbourg is a center for the European Union and the parliament building is here. We drove by the parliament building where all votes of the European Parliament are taken.

This pair of swans hung out by the boat looking for a hand out this morning. As soon as we opened our balcony window they swam over to us…. We did not oblige…

The Russian Orthodox Church was very distinctive. In France there is separation of church and state except in Alsace. Alsace was not a part of France when the separation of church and state was ratified. To this day church and state are not superset in Alsace. In fact all priests, ministers, and rabbis receive a salary from the state.

Then it was on to the new town built by the Germans to mimic Berlin.

This sculpture is meant to represent the Roman aqueducts and a face looking towards the future with another face on the other side looking to the past.

This sculpture is of a mother holding her two dying sons, one is a French soldier and one a German soldier. Alsace’s Germanic and French histories are fraught with horrendous times when brothers were conscripted into armies and sometimes even had to fight on opposite sides of the war.

Strasbourg and Alsace is known for their storks. At one time the storks were endangered and they only had a few pair. The area began building nests for the storks, making the area good for storks and now they have great numbers of them again. This road in Strasbourg is lined with stork nests high in the trees. Stork nests are huge and can weigh as much as a ton. You can see some storks and their nests high in the trees in the middle and to the left.

The French legend about the storks goes like this. As you know, Storks bring the babies. If a couple wants a baby they just have to put a sugar cube on their window sill. Then 9 months later the stork will bring them a baby. If they want a girl baby they put two sugar cubes on the window sill, because girls are sweeter than boys. However, sometimes the stork plays a trick and brings twin boys instead of a girl. Also, before the 9 months is up if the couple changes their mind and they no longer want a baby they put butter on the window sill so that the stork will slip and the baby will be delivered to the neighbors instead….

Strasbourg has a lot of beautiful spring flower gardens

On our way to the cathedral

Lots of delicious pastries to drool over.

Our first glimpse of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg. This cathedral is the sixth tallest cathedral on the world. Building began in 1000 AD and was not completed until the 14th century. At that time it was the tallest building in the world.

The cathedral started out as a Romanesque design but over time as the renaissance began they switched it to a gothic design with large arched windows and flying buttresses.

One of the highlights of the cathedral was seeing the astronomical clock. We were lucky enough to be there when it struck 10:00.

The clock always tells the exact date. We were there on April 9th. It has calculated leap years forward for thousands of years to keep the dates correct. The calendar also calculates floating holidays like Easter accurately. The clock has to be wound every Monday morning with a mechanism inside the clockworks.

At 10:00 the angel on the left rang its bell twice and the angel on the right turned over its hourglass several times.

As we walked along several shops were providing samples of their wares, cheese, cookies and sausages at different shops. At this cheese shop notice the painted ceiling through the window. This 12th century ceiling was discovered recently when the shop was being revovated.

This is the largest Protestant church in France it was built in the Romanesque style. It recently had its sandstone exterior cleaned so as the guide said it now looks brand new…

This statue outside the church commemorates Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his many humanitarian works.

Now we were headed for petite France. In its day it was the very worst part of the city. This was where the poor who couldn’t afford stone houses lived. This area housed mainly fisherman and tanners. The rivers stunk with the blood and refuse from the tanners works. Now it is a very sought after location for its beautiful half timbered architecture. You can tell which houses were built for tanners as they had porches just under the roof for drying the leather skins.

Five rivers meet in petite France. While we were there this bridge swung open to the side to let a boat through.

Gutenberg Platz where we met our guide to walk back to the bus.

On the back of the monument there is a relief of Gutenberg’s press. The guide pointed out that it looks very much like a grape press used in this region and that Gutenberg used what was around him in designing his printing press.

Then it was back to the boat for a talk on the history of Alsace. What a turbulent time from French to German and back to French many times. In 250 years they their sovereignty changed 5 times and with it all the turmoil one might expect.

This evening the entertainment was a very talented violinist, she was great!

Tomorrow it is on to Speyer in Germany and a tour of Heidelberg and its castle. Hopefully no rain tomorrow!