My Return to Strasbourg

Last Saturday, I went on a group excursion to Strasbourg, France.  This is my second time in Strasbourg and I was excited to see some new sights and re-visit some old ones.

I envy the kids who got to play in this epic bounce house.

Our tour first started off at the Strasbourg Cathedral.  No photo I’ve taken can do this place justice.  The church is so beautiful and so massive.

Strasbourg Cathedral

The first scheduled event was to watch the Astronomical clock go off at 12:30pm within the Cathedral, one of the world’s oldest and largest Astronomical clocks (I’ll let you google the rest).  The clock was an extremely impressive sight, but the amount of people packed into that tiny corner of the cathedral added a huge dose of claustrophobia to the experience.  On a side note, cultural differences between Americans and Europeans, Americans have an imaginary three-foot bubble around them at all times.  Think about it next time you’re in a huge crowd and get back to me.

After the uncomfortable viewing of the clock we were given a lunch break.  A lot of our group was lost in the massive crowd so Helen and I went down the street to splurge on delicious French cuisine.  It was the best food I’ve had in Europe thus far.  A light pastry with a creamy mushroom sauce and a complimentary creme brulee, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect lunch.

The Astronoical Clock next to the Pillar of Angels

On the way back to meet the group I see a couple of older men with winter hats on in the shape of storks.  The Stork is one of the more common symbols of the Alsace region so of course they have them available to you in every way shape and form in every souvenir shop.  I point out this ridiculousness to Helen and she replied back with, “Oh my God, I want one.”  We didn’t have time to buy them at the moment, but we made is a must do for later.

The group getting ready for a boat ride.

We then moved on to our boat tour.  Helen had looked forward to this boat ride for a whole week until she was severely disappointed with what looked like a greenhouse on water.  I assured her that it would be ok and at least we’ll get to see some more of the beautiful sights of Strasbourg.  As the group boarded the boat, a voice came over a loud-speaker instructing us to put our headphones on and to select the language which we would prefer to listen to the tour to.  Helen and I could have chosen English, but there was also a children’s version of the audio tour in English that we were curious to listen in on.  We started cracking up immediately to the ridiculousness of the commentary.

View from the boat

This audio tour was guided by “Captain Jack” and his parrot “Coco” that he threatened to either beat up or kill after every bridge that we had passed under.  Not only would he non-shellantly express the morbid details of the history of Strasbourg (such as the high tide drowning under bridges), but our fictional “Captain Jack” also told us stories of his younger days when fooling around with women on the banks of the river before sailing out on his next adventure.  After a while Helen and I weren’t sure what we were hysterically laughing at the fact that they consider this material appropriate for children or that we had willingly listened to a fake pirate during the whole boat ride.  You might think we’re a bit nuts, but it made the tour worth while.

After the boat ride we were given a couple of hours of free time.  What was at the top of the list of things that I absolutely must do?  Hike it back to the cathedral and climb the  tower of course.  Not only do I enjoy the adventure in climbing cathedral towers, but I was on a mission.  When my boyfriend Kaleb had visited here a little over a year ago, he drew a stick figure of himself in the tower.  Operation stick figure: to find his and draw mine next to it.  But first a pit stop, Helen and I were dead set on buying those stork hats.

The highest you’re allowed to climb

Helen and Matt came along with me on my mini adventure.  Climbing the tower was extremely nerve-racking for them because of the height, but we pressed on checking every brick in every corner to find that small trace of Kaleb.  The second we made it to the top, Helen and Matt were ready to get right back down.  I hung back for a little bit to take in the view of the city and rapidly search for this damn stick figure.  I was starting to give up hope, but I finally found it by the exiting staircase.  I was so excited that I let out a loud gasp and whipped out a pen to draw mine next to it, but of course that’s when everyone up there decided that they wanted to get down now so I had to draw something as quickly as possible without getting nasty looks for adding to the insane amounts of graffiti already present on the cathedral.

After climbing the tower, we quickly visited the history museum nearby (sorry, no photos were allowed), bought some pastries, and waited to meet up with the rest of the group.  To pass the time before returning home, Helen and I whipped out our newly purchased stork hats and displayed ourselves publicly as REALLY obnoxious tourists.  It was a great idea.  The day ended with an exhausting train ride back to Freiburg.  Next trip on the schedule, Basel, Switzerland.

The guy behind us thinks we’re hott stuff, let me tell ya.

-Sarah