STRASBOURG

We had successfully got onto the train in Basel and within 5 minutes of leaving, we had crossed the border into France.  I couldn't yet relax though until we were walking out the door of the Strasbourg train station.  

It all went without a hitch and before we knew it, we were walking out of the spaceship looking train station and into the pretty old town on Strasbourg.

I had loaded the map of Strasbourg into my iPhone that morning using the hostel's wifi and although I didn't have wifi in the streets, the blue dot still tracked our position and so Guido was able to navigate us through the beautiful cobbled streets until we came to the seriously impressive Strasbourg cathedral.

Our hotel was located almost in the same square as the cathedral and as we were approaching we saw M & D's familiar faces walking towards us.  We all hugged and kissed and did all that stuff that you do after you haven't seen loved ones in a while and then dropped off our luggage at the hotel as we couldn't check-in for an hour or so.

We found a great bakery that had huge chicken sandwiches and some mouth watering pastries, stocked up on food and then found a cafe in the main square for some coffee.  It was quite funny as we all tried to eat our food under the table whenever the waiters weren't watching!

Obviously M & D were really tired after 30 or so hours of travelling, so we all had a rest in the afternoon before Dad and I went to find some beers to put in the fridge.  We all got ready around 6pm and caught up in M & D's room for drinks and a proper catch up etc.

Dinner that night was at a great little restaurant pretty close to where we were staying.  The large waiter who seemed like he was also the owner gave us some tasty starters on the house and then we all bravely ordered the raw crab carpaccio for entree.  Suprisingly I managed to finish mine and even keep it in my stomach, but it was touch and go as it felt like I was eating some sort of sea water slug, yuk!

Our main meals were a different story though, absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately Anna wasn't feeling so great, but her loss was my gain, as I lapped up her meal as well haha.
Being with M & D, I knew there was going to be plenty of dessert along the way, as Mum's sweet tooth is just as prevalent as mine, so I thought I may as well get stuck into it on the first night, yumm!!

The short walk home gave us a chance to get some fresh air and also gave us great views of the spectacular cathedral all lit up.

Next morning we just got downstairs in time before breakfast was finished for the day, so although it was pretty good, we were basically eating all the left overs.  Anna and I were pretty happy though as it was waaaaaay better than the hostel breakfast's we had been used to!

Strasbourg's most iconic landmark is, without a doubt, the candy-coloured sandstone gothic cathedral. The Cathedral Notre Dame is one of the marvels of European architecture and it towers above the restaurants, bars, pubs and souvenir shops of the lively old town.

At 142m high, it was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874, when it was surpassed by St. Nikolai's Church in Hamburg.  Today it is the 6th tallest church in the world and the tallest still-standing structure built entirely in the middle ages (construction began in 1176!).

Inside the church it is awash with brilliant stain glass windows, grand organs and a stunning 16th century astronomical clock that strikes solar noon at 12:30pm each day.

After walking around the cathedral for a while, we left and headed down to the canal in front of the Palais Rohan to buy tickets for the Batorama.

The scenic boat trip took us along the storybook canals of the 'Petite France' area which was beautiful to say the least, and also the Vauban Dam which was really interesting to see how the controlled the levels of the different canals.

Strasbourg is the intellectual and cultural capital of the Alsace region and the unofficial seat of European Power - the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights are all situated in Strasbourg.  The boat ride also took us past the glinting buildings of the EU institutions which were certainly a lot more modern than anything we had seen in a while.

Although it was a really nice day, it felt a lot like Melbourne.  Every time the sun went behind the clouds it dropped a considerable amount in temperature and there we were scurrying to put our jumpers and beanies on, only to take them off again 5 minutes later!

The boat ride lasted a bit over an hour and as we came towards the end, we all made the comment about how totally worth it was doing, we got to see a whole lot of interesting things, as well as some really beautiful scenery.

guy who looked like BubbaGumpShrimp getting excited as our boat arrived; I think he actually sold something to!

We had been given a sneak peak of the half-timbered buildings and flowery canals around the Petite France area on the boat, but we needed to explore it more by foot to really appreciate how pretty this Unesco-listed sight was.  Lonely Planet describes it as fairy-tale pretty and enchanting and I can't come up with anything better than that!

Guido (me) steered the clan in the direction of a great little cafe that had excellent coffee, but the real highlight that still gets me weak at the knees writing about it 3 weeks later, was the apple and raspberry crumble, oh my god, so so so so good!!!

We then walked around Petite France a little while longer, crossed the canals by the Vauban Dam and headed over towards the Cave des Hospices de Strasbourg.

wine barrel from 1471, still full!

The Alsace region is known word wide for its wine, especially riesling, and deep down in the brick-vaulted bowels of of Strasbourg's hospital, there is a cellar housing some of the finest Alsation wines going around.  Mum and Dad, being crazy wine buffs were in their element and there was no chance of them leaving without at least one bottle!

Anna waving from our bedroom window

Lunch was a sausage in bread at one of the small markets and an interesting local beer and then Mum and Anna went back to the hotel for an afternoon rest.  Dad and I took this opportunity to hike up to the 66m high platform of the Cathedral Notre Dame for pretty good views out over the city.

Although the walk up was pretty tough, going back down the spiral staircase at a much quicker speed left us very very dizzy at the bottom!

Dad then went home, which gave me the opportunity to find some postcards to add to my HUGE collection and then Mum and Anna joined me and we went to 'Bistro et Chocolat'.  It was a pretty impressive shop that included chocolate fondue, organic hot chocolate with ginger, chocolate soup sprinkled with gingerbread croutons, basically an ode to the cocoa bean!  We were pretty unimaginative though and walked out with a block of chocolate haha.

That evening Anna and I introduced M & D to the card game President & Shitkicker and we had a lot of fun playing that with a few beers and glasses of wine before going out to dinner.
Unfortunately the restaurant we wanted to go to was fully booked all night, so we tried the next one down the pecking order and they told us it would be a 45 minute wait.  As our pecking order ended at 2, we put our names down and left to go find another pre-dinner drink.

We ended up having a bottle of wine at Maison Kammerzell, one of the most interesting buildings you will ever see.  It looked like the whole thing had been carved out of one piece of wood, it was seriously impressive.

pork knuckle - doesn't look the best, but it was bloody good!

We finally sat down to dinner at about 9:30, which was pretty late for M & D, but just perfect for us seasoned travellers!  As soon as I saw pork knuckle on the menu I was all over it and although it wasn't roasted like I was hoping, it was still pretty good!  Anna's steak was huge, but she managed to devour all of it, and M & D loved their meals as well.  All in all a pretty good outing!

Anna's meal looked much more appealing, that herb butter was sensational

always happy after a decent meal

The next morning we skipped the hotel breakfast and instead bought some fruit from the nearest supermarket (which actually wasn't very near!), some quiche's and pastries and ate it by the canal.  We then sat down for a coffee and then Dad and I went off to pick up the car from the train station, whilst Mum and Anna guarded the suitcases and had a good old gossip at place du Gutenberg.

It was a pretty simple process picking up the car, and aside from getting off to a sketchy start with Dad hopping in the wrong side of the car, we managed to get back into the middle of town, pick up all the bags (oh and Anna and mum as well) and head off for our next destination.