Strasbourg

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

Strasbourg

December 5, 2001

An hour out of Heidelburg on the autobahn and we turned right, into France. That's "right" as in west. We passed a sign that said it's France, but any change was subtle. This was Alsace after all and it's been both France and Germany over the years so the disappearance of boarders under the new European Union may not seem so new. Or maybe it is, because earlier border changes were preceded by prolonged and bloody wars. This time, the only invasion of local concern may be McDonald's, Hollywood, and GAP jeans and residents of both sides of the border worry. Better this way.

On the road into Strasbourg, we glanced up and saw a Tourist Information building. Our luck was better than ususal; we normally wander around for an hour to get this far. However, the "information lady" prompted us to start a "grump/nice" score sheet. Any encounter with locals that is good gets a "nice" score. Negatives get a "grump". So far, France was one-to-nothing in favor of the grumps because this TI lady offered no information other than two English-language brochures. Her answer to everything was "read the paper". Ouch. We didn't want the rest of France to be that way.

Fortunately, our impressions quickly changed. We had one interesting hotel recommendation from our guidebook, so we had a goal. That's not enough. We also needed parking and that proved elusive. We actually drove past the hotel in our search to find a place to park, but had to continue wandering for several more blocks. Finally, we found something and started our hike back. It was a drizzly ten-minute walk and, just as we reached the hotel, we spotted the small sign for indoor public parking just across the street. This was indeed going to be our lucky day - almost.

The hotel was full. This is one of the drawbacks of travel without a schedule. Nevertheless, the hotel clerk started calling nearby hotels and at the fifth call or so did find the Hotel Orangerie. This was definitely a positive encounter, so our grump/nice score went to one-to-one.

The "nice" score notched up again when we finally reached the Orangerie. A very hospitable hotel manager offered a choice of rooms and even the cheapest was just fine. We asked about parking and he said they did have one indoor place, at least for the first night. Later, when he saw Marianne parking in the little covered driveway, he extended the offer to both nights of our stay. I don't know if he particularly liked the car or the driver. Anyway, we were settled, the car was put away, and we even had some exploring time left in the day.

We took a bus to the island that is the old center of town. Our first tourist destination was the cathedral. Inside and out it was spectacular. According to our Lonely Planet guidebook, this was the tallest church in Europe when it was built. Inside, the vaulted ceiling, the stained glass windows along the sides and the huge glass rosette window tempted several photo experiments. Unfortunately, the light had almost gone and nothing turned out to match the in-person impressions.

We did manage a picture of one of the tapestries. These 15th Century pieces have faded a bit, but still commanded attention. To a peasant of 500 years ago, this must have been a place whose magic might be compared with Orlando's Magic Kingdom today. Off to one side of the main altar, there was a 17th century "astrological clock" that kept track of the time and celestial seasons. Again, this must have been as wonderful to its first audience as Disney's most modern displays are today.

Outside, fairs were just gearing up for the evening and by now we had earned our first spiced Christmas wine. Here in Alsace it goes by both the German "gluhwien" and the French "vin chaud" but the taste was definitely French. The wine was actually pretty good and the spices just a nice accent. No sweatsock flavor here.

Thus fortified, we looked for a place for dinner. Here we also discovered that we were indeed in France because no restaurant was serving before 7:00 or 7:30. We ended up with time to walk home along the canals and boulevards. We saw a few of the huge old homes that now serve as offices in this part of town. I assume that their original role was to serve as impressive displays of wealth a century ago and I suppose that's still their role. They do it well.

Back at the hotel we asked for restaurant recommendations and were sent a few doors down the boulevard. At 7:15, we were almost the first seated but the regulars were not far behind us. We struggled with the menu and, for almost the first time in our trip, our English was worthless with either the menu or the waiter. Marianne's German only helped a little despite the fact that Alsacian, the local language, is Germanic. Food words were just too specific, but the good news is that everything that showed up was wonderful and, in the end, I'd say it was more German than French but mostly just Alsacian.

The next day we went into town and started with a search for a pre-paid telephone card. These are the indispensable purchases that allow calls back home to cost several minutes per dollar instead of a few dollars per minute. Our German cards no longer worked, so we needed the French replacements and we figured that the main Tourist Information center in the train station would know where we could to find this tourist necessity. Wrong. The TI lady did not even seem to understand the concept of a long-distance phone card. She almost seemed to doubt that there was any need to call outside of France. Add one to the "grump" score. Fortunately, we wandered into the train station proper and asked at the magazine kiosk. Here, not 30 feet from the TI office, the girl knew what we wanted, offered us a choice of a 50-franc or a 100-franc card, and was completely pleasant about the whole thing. The grump/nice score returned to even.

Now we could wander as unencumbered tourists. We headed for a place on our map called Petite France. It's a series of small medieval islands with absolutely charming canals and half-timbered buildings. This was originally the shipping and industrial center of town but now it's converted to homes, shops and restaurants. Our visit under December clouds and drizzle may not have flattered the locale but the absence of crowds made up for it. For us, this was the Magic Kingdom.

But we don't get to just wander through magical medieval streets on our journey. No sir. We also need culture, so we went across a part of the river into the Contemporary Art Museum, a very modern, very large, display space.

Of course Marianne is the expert in here so I just try to keep up. She could not exactly explain to me the hairy leg installation but I'm sure it's an important work. There were other important works too.

One section was displaying the works of graphic artist Tomi Ungere. From his New York base, he had drawn everything from illustrations in children's books to Broadway play billboards and magazine covers. He also created some of the most biting political cartoons of the Viet Nam War era. I wonder what he would have drawn about today's wars?

After culture came food. Back in Petite France, we wandered into a small, crowded, very-French, restaurant. Again, this was a place for neighbors, not tourists. No English menu. No English from the waitress. No matter. The waitress was busy but friendly and the menu was so small that Marianne opted for one local specialty called baekkofen and I ordered another local dish, chacroute. I'm sure that by French haute cuisine standards these might be considered peasant food but they were wonderful. Moreover, the experience of eating local specialties among the noise and animation of a very local crowd reminded us that meals are an important part of our journey.

But, after just two days, our Strasbourg stop had to end. We now had appointments looming. I had scheduled a dinner in a few days with a former client in Lyon and a couple days after that we were booked on flights back to Washington. Our travel takes on a different tempo when we have such a full schedule as two appointments in the same week. We have definitely left the working world.

There are still some stops before our appointments, however; some we planned and didn't do and others we did without planning. But those are other stories.

Take care and consider that, if people could stop centuries of fighting over the partition of Alsace and Lorraine, maybe there is hope elsewhere today. Maybe.

Regards,

John and Marianne

Previous Diary

Next Diary

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

Created December 18, 2001

This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.