July 28 –
It was a dreary rainy day in Luxembourg this morning so we ate breakfast in the hotel but only because the kids were free! Good thing too because we were not at all pleased with the buffet. It took forever to get coffee, the eggs came either runny or uncooked and needed to sit in a pot of semi-warm water for a *long* time, and they never came to clear away the plates even though we used many and they piled up on the table!
Undaunted by this inauspicious start, however, we packed up the car and programmed Helga to take us to Strasbourg – about a 2 hour drive. We encountered our first European toll road – which took credit cards – and managed to keep up with the flow of traffic proceeding at 130kmph. We pulled into the city and up to our hotel right around noon.
Cases unloaded and the car parked, we wandered into the old city to experience the market. When we asked at the desk where the market was, we were essentially told that it was all over the city. This was no exaggeration! You couldn’t turn a street corner without seeing more stalls lined up on every street. Shoes, sausages, tank tops, toys, watches, pretzels, mattresses (?!?), and just about anything else you could think of was for sale somewhere. And the people! I don’t know the population of Strasbourg but I think that half of Germany was also here today!
And we did do some shopping – of course. I bought a great sundress and Gillian got a new watch. I encountered my first truly rude French sales clerk in a small shop. I wanted to buy a 2 litre bottle of water for €2 but all I had was a €20 note. When she pointed out that the bottle only cost 2 – by holding up two fingers – and I shrugged and looked helpless – the international sign for “that’s all I have” – I got tsked at, she rolled her eyes and then turned to a colleague behind the counter and continued a previous chat! I was ready to hit her with the bottle of water but Duncan saved me from an international incident by scrounging up a coin and then she was all sweetness and light; I even got a cheery “Bon jour” on the way out the door…. go figure.
And for those familiar with my nun saga (I’m being stalked by nuns – really!), I had my first real sighting today. Asian nuns in grey habits fairly swarming the streets. As it was raining intermittently, one had decided to don a fishing hat over her habit – a sight not readily forgotten! To make up for the lack of sightings prior to this, we ran into a group of French nuns later on in the day. I suspect I will encounter them regularly now since their cover was blown….
We skipped the formal lunch and grabbed munchies in the market. Duncan and Frank enjoyed the traditional French treat of Churros (!) while Gillian and I settled for the more mundane crepe. I dedicated my crepe to my friends Christine and Julie with whom I should have shared one last year and then proceeded to devour it!
After some wandering, we went to the main attraction in Strasbourg: the cathedral. I lit a candle (that’s 6) and admired the stained glass windows. This is the first cathedrals we’ve visited with a serious decorative disparity between indoors and out. It’s incredibly ornate architecturally but very plain inside. There is a really cool astronomical clock inside as well – Duncan had to explain it to me of course.
More wandering around the city until the real rain started then we decided to get an early dinner. Later on in the evening, we ventured back to the cathedral for a really neat light show. Starting at 10:15 p.m. the cathedral puts on a light show set to music on the western facade. It was really neat! Not quite as cool as the Magic Fountains in Barcelona but definitely a sight to see.
/san/
[Pedometer: 25, 958 which is probably only about 10 miles since most of it was spent jostling impatient French market goers.]
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