Strasbourg

Okay, I think I need to sit down and finally write about Strasbourg....

Even though I think my feelings about the trip are a little tainted after all that has happened....

It was a nice little trip I think, and I would love to go to Strasbourg again someday....  I kinda wish I could study there, as it is a college town.

So, I left off the story where I finally got to Strasbourg.

Out of the Gare de Strasbourg, in the lightly lit early night.

And my shining star?  McDonalds- with free wifi!  I don't think there could have been anything quite as beautiful!  (I know, I know, I'm here in France and I continue to eat at McDonalds....  but don't you fear- I eat much better the next couple of nights!)

Remember how I had planned to go to Nice?  That meant that I had reserved a bed in Nice, not Strasbourg.  So I had to cancel my reservation there and find somewhere to stay that night in Strasbourg. 

Well, I found somewhere on the internet, but when I went to find it, I stumbled upon a place that had a room for a little bit cheaper that happened to have a room free.  So I stayed there, and then found a another, (much) cheaper place to stay the next nights since the hotel I was currently in had no occupancy the following night.

What I ended up finding was a hotel room cheaper than I was finding any hostel beds for.....  interesting....

The main disadvantage of the hotel that I found was the distance from city center....  and how the last bus there was at quarter to midnight.

And the directions online sure didn't help!  As most of the page was in English, this was the only part that was left in French....

It was a small hotel room with a TV that didn't work.  The bathroom was not included, and the sink was broken.  In the hallway, the bathrooms stunk....  as far as the showers, I don't know (don't worry, I had taken a shower in the morning of the first hotel, and it was only a couple of days....).  The bed- hard, but luckily there was another mattress on the other bunk that I could use to make it (a little) better.  The wi-fi was decent, but there was no plugs in the room!

But really, the main attraction was the city itself.  Gorgeous!

A few things that I would recommend to others if they're thinking about going to Strasbourg:

--If you're there for a short time, a bus/tram ticket makes getting to places faster, and definitely is a good price at 4 Euros for 24 hours (for a group of three- 5.50E, quite reasonable).  Don't use the a bus/tram without one- in only the few days I was there, I had my ticket checked twice.

And make sure you purchase the correct ticket.  In the train station there is a set of machines for the ter/regional train system tickets.  Same prices, but not the correct ones....  they don't fit into the validation thingys.

--Bring your own map.  The one from the tourist office was great in naming the top 20 places to go in Strasbourg, but the map itself had very little detail and made finding anything a little difficult (I think it had maybe, like, three street names on it).

--I would suggest one stay closer to the city center, as long as your purpose there is to be a tourist.  I wish I could have stayed out longer.  I'm not a big party/club/bar person in general, but the city is even more gorgeous at night and would have loved to be able to take more pictures.


In general, I really didn't do much overall.  I can't give you any must see places, other than Strasbourg itself.  Monday I walked around, and did a little shopping.  There were major sales in every store.  I didn't spend that much....  I think about 5 Euros maybe.  Just a little of this, a little of that.  A few postcards to add to my collection.

That night I ate at a little italian joint and had a pizza.  Now, it's not pizza like when we think of pizza in the States.  But thin crust, and really not much toppings.  Aber doch lecker (hehe, maybe I should say that in French since I was in France at the time....).

As far as "Chantilly Lace" goes....

When I was looking at the dessert menu, I noticed that almost everything had "chantilly" on it....  almost every other word I knew or could guess, but I hadn't brought my french/english dictionary out with me.  I could faintly hear that the guys next to me spoke English, so I mustered up the courage and asked them.

chantilly=Zahne=creme

Well, my question got the talking about the song, and conveniently my hair was up in a pony tail that night....

Even with construction, I was lucky to make it to the bus stop in time to make the last bus....  but the next night I knew I couldn't take any chances.

Tuesday, of course I slept in.  Once I finally got up and about, and into the center of town, I finally decided to make it to all the top 20 places to see in Strasbourg, at least according to my map.  I think I probably saw at least 15 of them, before I got tired and aborted my mission (probably most of it had to do with my frustration over the stupid map and not being able to find anything because of the lack of street names and a scale that was not in proportion to how things actually were).

I think my favorite place was the park (whose name I would now have to look up because the map itself was a victim of the "great lost purse" debacle of 2010) and there's definitely more that I would have like to have seen.  The only place I actually went into was the "Notre Dame de Strasbourg" but I took many pictures of my entire day. 

Dinner Tuesday night was at "Hippotamomus. Bar. Grill."  With a tagline of "Pour l'amour de la viande," (for the love of meat) I knew that I couldn't go wrong.

The rest of the trip went pretty smoothly....  well, until I got to Frankfurt and lost my purse.