My husband K was up at 6:30. I got up at 7, feeling closer to my usual self. Our daughter arrived at 7:30 and we went to breakfast. I checked the weather app and found it was 58°.
The server brought rolls, spreads, and fruit for the table and then took our orders. To still be careful about food, I chose yogurt with granola and fruit, which was on a back serving table. I was surprised when two small lidded jars were brought to the table by daughter, who was also picking up her pastries and potatoes.
K ordered what he would have had at home-oatmeal.
J and I finished before K. So, we left to get washed up. On the way, we stopped at the reception desk to get the small color-coded cards for our tour. These seemed to replace the stickers that we always got on Holland America excursions.
K was back at the cabin at 8:20. We finished packing up the backpack for the day and made sure we had our Whispers for the tour.
When J arrived, we went up to the lounge to await the call for our tour. We were in a part that I hadn't seen that first day. It was to the left of the reception. It looked like a library with a wall of books and a fake fireplace. Here we could sit away from other passengers and not wear our Covid masks. We'd be wearing them soon enough on the bus.
As we headed to the bus, I got this cool shot, where the crane seems to be holding the steeple.
We were on the bus at 8:57 for the gentle version of "The Gem of the Alsace" Tour. It was 66°, which was probably fine for those who'd chosen the day's bike tour. (That tour struck us as nuts, because it covered a lot of ground. So, what did you really get to see? Could you even photograph anything?)
The bus was on the road. As per usual, the history started first. Straßburg (Strasbourg in French, but I'm not playing that, sorry) was founded in 12 BC by the Romans. Elsaß was German for hundred of years. In 1681, it became French and was called Alsace. In 1870-71, the Franco-Prussian War took place. The North German Confederation ( which would become the German Empire) won and most of the area was German again as Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen (Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine). It went back to France after World War I. As the German III book I taught from said, a lot of "hin und quer".You can see Germanic and French influences in everything.
In 2017, Straßburg was named capital of the Grand Est prefecture, which is made of the four areas of Alsace, Champagne, Ardenne, and Lorraine.
We eventually found out that our guide was actually originally from Germany and Jewish, which explained his deep knowledge of Jewish life here and references to various Jewish sites. He told us that Jews had long been important in the area, but not the city center.
Fun fact: my favorite German author and arguably Germany's greatest author, Goethe, studied for a year and a half here.
The bus drove us along the Parc de l'Orangerie to see some of the famous residents of the area, the storks. Storks are a big deal in Elsaß, just as they are anywhere they roost in Germany.
As we reached the corner of Boulevard de l'Orangerie and Rue Gottfried, we saw this really cool house.
Straßburg is the site of the European Union's Court of Human Rights, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe. We drove past the home of that last one, which is the Palais de l'Europe, at 9:23.
Just a minute later, we were seeing the Court of Human Rights, part of which looks like a ship.
We didn't see much of the European Parliament, but we saw security people/police down near the river Ill as we drove by. Something must have been up. The Ill or as the French say, l'Ill, is the river that circles the city.
At 9:45, we were off the bus to follow the pink board for the gentle version of "The Gem of the Alsace" tour. Looking up, I saw lampposts that struck me as supremely French. I don't know why.
Pretty fast we learned that "bourg" was short for "bourgeoisie". We also learned that when the Romans founded the town, they called it Argentoratum. There seems to be no reason why, as there is no silver in the area. This Janus fountain salutes that time. And it looks pretty cool.
As we walked along Place Broglie toward the old town, we passed this really unusual bush called a black lace elderberry. I thought it was pretty cool.
The guide led us back to the parking area behind some buildings and showed us the Aumôneries Miltaires (Military Chaplainies): Catholique, Israelite, Musulmane, Protestante. They may be in French, but I think it is pretty easy to figure out those religions. It was here that I saw the first sign for handicapped parking that I have ever seen in Europe.
When we came back out to the street, we got our first glimpse of the cathedral in the distance. We also saw the front of the Opéra National du Rhin, or National Opera of the Rhine. Looked like an opera house.
There's no doubt about it: seeing a cannon standing on its cap is weird and using it as decoration is weirder still. Here, it was outside the officer's mess of what used to be the artillery school. At least, the cannon was used on a reasonable building. Nicer still was the sight of one getting swallowed by hedge and roses.
In researching the tree below, I learned not only its name but also a new term. It was a pollarded plane tree. "Pollarded" means that it was trimmed, which it obviously was.
Interestingly, the town hall didn't sport a local slogan, but rather the national one.
We didn't get close, but we saw a terrific building full of trompe l'oeil. It was the Christian Patisserie,at 12 Rue l'Outre.
When the guide got us to the actual square of Place Broglie at 10:32, he pointed out the house on the corner. It was Maison Blankenburg at 1 Place Broglie. It was built from 1899-1901 by architects Jules Berninger and Gustave Krafft. It had really nice Art Nouveau details.
To really drive home that this place has been both French and German, street names are posted in both languages, even the Judengass or Jewish Alley.
Soon, we had a view of the side of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg or Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg or Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg. This was the Romanesque part of the cathedral- thick walls, smaller windows, and massive columns.
As we walked along the side of the cathedral, we got an unusual view of the back of the western spire. A lot of carving went into making it.
When we reached the square in front of the cathedral, the guide directed our attention to the northwest corner of the square where we saw the Kammerzell House (Alsation: Kammerzelhüs, French: Maison Kammerzell, and German: Kammerzellhaus) It was built in 1427 and redone in 1467 and 1589. It is seen as representative of the German Renaissance and one of the most ornate and well-preserved medieval houses in Gothic architecture now standing in what was once the Holy Roman Empire. It looked really cool and could have easily stood in an old German town.
When we turned to look up at the cathedral, I immediately noticed all the vertical lines. I remembered that I'd learned long ago that Gothic churches were built to direct your gaze, and thus your mind, upward. These lines certainly did.
He drew our attention to the front of the building. He told us that in World War II, the middle ages colored windows were removed for safe keeping, but the 19th century ones were not. He pointed out the figure of the dead Adam lying beneath the crucified Jesus- the Old and New Man. High above the door was the Madonna, to whom the church was dedicated. Seated below her on a throne was King Solomon with the 12 lions of Israel on steps leading up to him.
Just after 11, we were inside the church and he told us that the Gothic was a celebration of light and he pointed to the stained glass windows. The first set on the left actually had its first section bricked up, which implied that part of the window had been destroyed. What remained were depiction of Henricus Rex (probably Henry the Fowler), Fridericus Rex ( Frederick I), and Henricus Babinbergensis (Henry II of Bamberg. Fun fact about Henry II: it's his head, which was made between 1250 and 1275, but in 1522, it was put on a body from 1180. No idea why.
There were five sets of windows devoted to emperors. The best contained Otto Rex (Otto I), Otto II Rex (Otto II), Otto III Rex (Otto III), and Conradus II Rex (Conrad II), who is depicted with an imperial prince who may be Henry III. The important thing about this group is Otto I was the first German Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
The guide told us that the columns were made of smaller columns and each went to an arch which went to an arch, and that this is true even outside of the church.
We took a look at the pulpit, which was on the side of the nave, and was quite ornate as expected.
As we approached the center of the nave, I turned to take a photo of the wonderful rose window in the back of the church. Evidently, it is a rayonnant Gothic design by Erwin von Steinbach and was finished in 1345. (Outside, statues of the 12 Apostles are above the window.)
The altar area was frightfully dark and I am less than thrilled with my photo of it.
There was a rather nice statue of Mary, but I must admit that it seemed relatively modern.
I took a photo of a statue in a line of four statues outside of a side chapel on the south side of the nave. I have searched diligently to find out who this statue is, because I know that there must be some reason that I did so. There are plenty of pictures of this statue, or more precisely, of the group of statues, but no one identifies the saint. I did find out that the chapel was dedicated to St. Catherine. Now, there are plenty of St. Catherines and it was very difficult to find out for sure which one this was. The date of the church made it quite likely that the one site that made mention of St. Catherine of Alexandria was correct. I was convinced that this was true, when I finally got a good look at all of the saints and started kicking myself for not having noticed that the statue immediately to the right of this one is holding a broken wheel- the symbol of my patron saint. So, I now have a picture of that statue courtesy of Wikimedia for my collection of trip photos. I'm trying to console myself with the idea that we were in a bit of a rush in there. Here, I give you the photo I took and you can enjoy the ceiling of the chapel behind the statue.
As we headed down the nave, he pointed out that the windows on the south side told stories and were from the 1300s. They were well above the height of people and that made them harder to study. They did look pretty.Three levels of windows made it pretty impressive.
I got photos of the very pretty ceiling above the south aisle, as well as of the organ pipes high above the north side of the nave. It was only later that I realized that we'd come in the north door and exited the south and never stood in the back of the church to get a view down the nave. That was disappointing.
The guide was hurrying us out, because the church was to close at 11:30. For lunch? Perhaps. I made a mental note of the large religious shop in the back left, but we never got back to it.
The guide led us out to a building on the south side of the square to the right of the church. For those intending to stay in town and roam on our own, this would be where we would meet someone who would lead groups to the bus at specific times. This was also the location of free public restrooms, which was very helpful. We gave him a 2 Euro tip and then availed ourselves of the facilities.
This was also a good location for photos of this side of the cathedral. The buttresses were quite massive and definitely not flying like the ones at the other Notre Dame. I was interested to see the large stone lacework over just two sections of window. I could never find out when the rest was bricked up.
We went around to the front of the church to take a photo from down the street. This was no easy feat. All I could really get was the unused center door and the tower.
I believe it was J, who had heard that Petite France was worth a look. So, she pulled it up on Google maps and we decided to take what seemed to be an interesting walk from where we were. We turned left and headed for the river Ill. L'Ill really does circle the inner portion of the city, as we were on the opposite side from where the tour had started and yet the river was nearby again.
We walked past souvenir shops and restaurants. We saw many, many versions of stuffed storks and I decided I wanted one for our granddaughter. Since she was soon turning one, we rejected many, many of them for having button eyes. We did find one with stitched eyes, but I said we should make a mental note of where we saw it and see if it was a bit cheaper away from the cathedral.
Soon, we found ourselves above the river. We saw that there was a paved walkway along the river and thought that would be a pleasant way to go. We saw some tour boats, including the one below. Note how its construction allows for great covered views, but will stay below the very low bridges, including this one, the Pont du Corbeau.
It was warming up, which was a nice change from the cold of Switzerland.
From down here, we had a good view of the buildings on the other bank of the river. Some looked like they'd been there a while, but were in good shape.
We took special note of that church as we got closer to it. I was inclined to expect that it was Catholic. However, there was a rooster vane on top and J said that that meant it was likely to be Protestant. During the Reformation, many Protestants replaced the Catholic cross on top of the church with the rooster, which was meant to be a reminder of the weakness of man ( rooster crowing three times before Peter denied Christ). However, my research shows that there were Catholic popes who were into this symbol, too.
Thanks to my iPhone attaching a location and map to every photo, I was able to figure out the name of this church, even though we did not cross the river to see it. It turns out that Gothic church was St. Nicholas and Jean Calvin ( you know, Calvinism Jean Calvin) preached and led services here in 1538. Even cooler to me, was that Albert Schweitzer (you know, Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer) was a pastor there from 1900 to 1913 and played the organ there. ( A biography of him that my German III kids read talked about him coming back to France from Africa and playing the organ to raise money for his hospital back there.) It's not a parish church any more, but it is still affiliated with the Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine, and is rented out to a Charismatic group for Sunday services. Fascinating stuff everywhere you turn!
Under one bridge, we saw signs of a homeless sleeping spot, but other than that, it was a clean path with some trees. I even asked at one point to just take a moment to sit on one of the benches and enjoy the scene.
Around 12:15, we started to hear the sound of rushing water. Ahead, we could see the beginning of Petite-France and water pouring out from under the buildings. Looking at the map, it looked like l'Ill had four channels up there creating four channels and several islands. This looked interesting.
We walked under the Pont Saint-Martin (Pont=bridge) and saw a truly charming restaurant on the far side- Au Pont Saint-Martin. I figured "au" meant "at".
We soon saw a lock with literal locks on its fence. The lock was also rather leaky. We weren't convinced the tour boat we had seen would have fit in here, but there was no place for it to go. The folks whose homes were next to the spillway had created nice little patios for themselves.
Things got charming in a hurry. This first photo is looking down the main channel. The second of Maison des Tanneurs (Tanners House) dates to 1572!
Pont du Faisan (Pheasant Bridge) seemed to be the name for the next bridge as it crossed over each of the other three channels. The road, at least, was called Rue des Moulins. The view down toward the southwest on each was just charming.
As we started to head back to the mainland, which is really an island containing the old town, we saw outlets under the buildings to our right and realized this was how the water got through.
We'd seen the back of a Christmas store from the riverside. So, stopping at souvenir shops along the way, we made our way to Rue des Dentelles. Unfortunately, the store was closed for lunch and wouldn't be open until 2.
We did come upon a shop with cute stuffed owls on perches. They would even personalize them. I got one for my granddaughter, of course.
The street changed its name to Rue de la Monnaie just as we came to a primary school. There were plenty of kids playing in the schoolyard. We could see them at times past the barriers and their teachers, too, who were definitely dressed casually.
Just past the school was a very long tribute to Albert Schweitzer at 6 Pl. Saint-Thomas. I think that the first photo captures the entire expanse. It took multiple photos to get all the translations. I'm including just the German, French, and English. If you don't look at him closely enough, you don't notice that the hair is too neat to be Einstein. Plus, Einstein wasn't from here.
We took a slight bend to follow Rue des Serruriers, which had shops and restaurants, but none appealed to us. We followed it for a couple of blocks, when another carousel came into view on the Place Gutenberg. This one was larger and in operation. While J took her photos, I wandered over to a statue on a pedestal and discovered that it was Gutenberg.
Gutenberg had lived here from 1434-44, studying to be a goldsmith. The statue, which has him showing a page from the Bible, is by David d'Angers and was done in 1840, which could explain why some of the panels seem problematic to me. The very first one I saw was of William Wilberforce and other abolitionists bringing "freedom and enlightenment to the slaves". They just look like the Great White Saviors to me. The next shows Ben Franklin and other signers of the Declaration of Independence, including two from my home state- Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Samuel Chase. The next, according to victorianweb.org, is "The printing press in Europe, showing such renowned men of letters as Erasmus, Chaucer, Milton, Molière, Rousseau, Voltaire, Kant and Schiller; the original plaster panel, which gave prominence to Martin Luther, caused an uproar". The last is of Brahmans of the East exchanging manuscripts for books and Chinese people reading Confucius. But, again, a helpful white guy in there.
We realized that it was 1:15 and we needed to eat. We checked out the cafés on the square and chose Au Gutenberg, which seemed appropriate.
K asked the waiter for a table for 3 and he took us to one with a fair amount of umbrella coverage. Paper menus served as placemats and he brought a bowl of snack mix. K ordered 25 cl (4,10 Euros) Kronenbourg 1664 beer, while J ordered her usual Coke (4,40 Euros) and I ordered Coke Zero(4,40 Euros). The waiter left us to study the menu. The drinks came fairly quickly and, luckily, we were ready with our food choices.
Then, we sat. The temperature was 80° and felt like 81°. We tried not to drink up our drinks before the food arrived. The food did seem to take quite a while.
Finally, the food came. J and I each got Tarte flambée traditionnelle - Flammkuchen (11,30 Euros), which is like a white pizza. I was fairly shocked to see the onions and wondered how my stomach would handle them. Then, looking at the meat sprinkled on top, I saw that it was mostly fat. I figured, if I could handle this meal, I was well. It was delicious.
Fleischkiechle mit Bratkartoffeln - Fleischkiechle and potatoes (14,50 Euros). I loved how they couldn't translate Fleischkiechle. It looked like German Frikadelle, basically little meatloafs or fat hamburgers. They did taste good, as did the potatoes.
We felt we just had to try a dessert and settled on Tarte du jour - Tageskuchen - Tart of the day (7,60 Euros). It turned out to be a thick apple cake in a pool of custard. Quite good.
After the paying the bill of 70 Euros, including a small tip, we left at 2:30. We were near the cathedral square. So, we hurried up the street checking shops for the stork. We finally wound up getting it at the place we first saw it.
We made it to the meeting spot with less than two minutes to square. I did have time to take photos of the interesting gargoyles up on the cathedral.
At 2:40, the guide led us on an absolute forced march. I took one photo as we crossed l'Ill, but that was it. I did note how red the back of her neck was. I realized that she'd spent a lot of time out in the sun today, hurrying people to the bus and hurrying back to get the next group. We did reach the bus at 3, as required.
We were on the road at 3:04. From my window seat, I watched modern Stuttgart go by. I was impressed by how nice the mass transit trains looked. Those low windows must make people feel less boxed in. I also noted the apartment buildings with the exterior metal blinds that seem to be ubiquitous in Europe.
When we reached the port at 3:20, it was now 81°, felt like 83°. As we walked beside the AmaPrima, I picked out our cabin and took a photo. Then, I sent K and J in to sit there and get their picture taken. It was a nice opportunity.
In our cabin, I decided that the large bin under the bed would be perfect for collecting souvenirs.
At 5:45, we all went to the lounge to hear French Chansons by Armand on accordion and Marylene singing. I didn't take photos, but probably should have. She sang well and often told us about the songs, some of which we probably thought were American, but were actually French. It was quite enjoyable.
As we left, I saw that the ship's electronic map display was actually showing the Google Earth look at where we were. Pretty cool.
It was now K's turn to be sick. He took the Imodium, but it didn't seem to work for him. He didn't have the chills or the nausea.
So, at 7:39, J and I went to dinner and wound up sitting with a nice couple. The man owned a corporate jet company and flew clients around. She was a retired nurse.
J chose the French onion soup-"Soup à l' Oignon"- to start and I got the "Kir Royal" sorbet. Both were good.
We both got the "Medallions D' Agneau en Croute de Moutarde", which was mustard crusted meallions of lamb, thyme sauce, ratatouille artichokes puree, potato gratin, for our main course and it even came with mint jelly. We both enjoyed it.
For dessert, we both got Crèpe Suzette, which was orange- Cointreau- caramel and cinnamon ice cream, another good choice.
After planning where to meet tomorrow, I was back in my cabin at 9:40. I knew K had a long night ahead of him.
I'd walked 9,925 steps today for 3.1 miles and climbed 1 flight.
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