Weekend at Strasbourg

On Friday night we decided we would do no sightseeing on Saturday. We were quite tired of seeing interesting new things, walking up and down steps, trying very hard to understand and speak the language ( me) , deciding where to eat ( usually me because I have more of a command of French food words than Noel)   etc etc.

We had a late breakfast at a bakery that had been recommended to us, Very nice.  I bought a new lock for my suitcase and tried to do some shopping for a few small souvenirs but that was too hard.  Saturday was a day for as few decisions as possible.

We went to the first restaurant we came to and discovered, once we were inside, that it specialised in food from Lyon, where we were last year. It was Ok, but we would normally have chosen one with local food.

In the afternoon I went out again, but aborted my attempt to have coffee in a cafe and read my book on my own. The streets and cafes were crowded with locals out for an afternoon stroll and tourists out and about. I bought 2 macaroons  to share with Noel and read my book in our apartment.

Today we had another slow start after a disturbed night. Half of Strasbourg's youth was  partying most of the night underneath our window.

We have been caught before with shops all shut on Sunday afternoon so made sure this morning that we had our usual bread and cheese available  for dinner. 

We went to the Museum of the history of Strasburg and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had audio guides that came on if you stood on the marked spot. Once we got the hang of the layout and how and when to stand and listen to the commentry, it went smoothly. There were lots of extra thought provoking bits that you could read or listen to. I came away with a better understanding of the mixed German/ French background of this city and the difficulties that the locals have had to face because of these changes.

We made a good decision for lunch. The museum was on a big Place with lots of fullish cafes, so we walked a block and then started looking down alleys and we found a nice half-full place ( and most of these were locals) where the waiter waited patiently for my slow French, The food was good too.

We had been told by our Wednesday tour guides of a church built by Prussians after the Franco-Prussian war ended in 1871 for their soldiers. A unique feature is the presence of 16 doors for the diferent ranks to enter.  We walked there in the sunny afternoon through some streets with no tourists and few locals but with very large imposing houses. The church itself is almost square with a short , wide nave and wide transept and galleries for worshippers. We checked, there are indeed 16 doors to the outside. For a break, we sat and listened to choir practice. We nice, but in German or Alsatian , we cannot tell the difference.

It was nice to wander back through yet more diferent streets.