Strasbourg, France – September 24, 2012

We woke up this morning having not slept well at all.  We had left our window open to get some fresh, cooler air into the room, but that also meant we could hear any noise out on the street.  This time it was not late night partiers, it was just the noise from vehicle traffic and then, early this morning, vendors setting up their sidewalk cafe tables for morning coffee.

We have an air conditioner in the room, but we do not have the remote to turn it on.  We may have to ask the front desk how to operate it so we can be cool at night without the windows being open and get a good quiet nights sleep tonight.

We slept in (well sort of with the noise) since it was rainy and windy when I looked out the window early in the morning when I went to close it due to early morning noise, before actually getting up.  Once we got ready, we headed out with our raincoats and umbrellas.  We stopped near the hotel for some coffee and a pastry since the room rate at the hotel does not include any breakfast.

We headed to a tram station and purchased a “Trio” ticket, which gives up to three persons the right to ride the buses or trams for 24 hours.  It was a much better deal than an individual 24 hour ticket times 2, or for single ride tickets.

We rode the tram to the area of town called La Petite France, which is sort of a historic area of Strasbourg.  As we proceeded there, the sun actually started to peak out from the clouds.  The area was nice, and a good spot for some photos.

We were walking around and saw where the river actually flowed around a lock, which is used for raising the tour boats as they circle the city on the Ill River, the small river surrounding the old town of Strasbourg.

It was an old wooden lock with two gates, just large enough for the tour boats.  It took about 5 minutes for the lock to fill up and raise the boat, before an operator in a nearby control room opened the lock.  Apparently, there are more of these locks on the river.

We walked through some of the cobbled streets of La Petite France, and headed over to the Cathedral.  Although we saw it form the outside late yesterday, we were not able to go inside since it was closed.  In addition, the sun was out, and so it was a better photo opportunity, and we hoped the lighting inside would also be better since most of the light inside is from  natural sunlight through all of the stained class windows.

It was about 11:30 AM, and each day at 12:00 noon, the Astronomical Clock inside the Cathedral does a special operating presentation.  Of course, there was a small fee for the privilege to see the clock operate.  The Cathedral is actually closed for an hour beforehand so they can differentiate the paying customers entering to see the Cock, which is in a corner inside the Cathedral, from the normal non-paying visitors to the church.  There was already a crowd inside the small area where the astronomical clock was located, so we did not have the best view.  There was a 25 minute film explaining the clock operation, and what we would see at noon, and its significance.

Noon came, and the clock was illuminated for better video and picture taking.  It was somewhat of a disappointment, there seemed to be several moving parts of the clock, but only two items actually moved and struck some small bells, and then it was over.

However, the remainder of the Cathedral was not disappointing.  The stained glass panels were spectacular, and the large set of pipes for the organ were also beautiful, located on the side of the Cathedral instead of the rear, which is more typical.  The Cathedral actually seemed to be in better condition than the other Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  There was some renovation going on on one side of the outside of the Cathedral, and so there was some of the dreaded, picture ruining scaffolding erected on that side.

Since it had become cloudy by the time we left the inside of the Cathedral, we decided not to climb the Bell Tower.  I don’t think the weather was the main factor in that decision, our legs were telling us not to do it, they had done too much climbing in Switzerland.

We walked around the old section of town and stopped for some lunch at an Italian cafe.  We were in the mood for some fresh pizza, having had our fill of ham and cheese sandwiches for lunches on the go in Switzerland.  We both ordered different pizzas, although we really only wanted to split one, and have a couple of glasses of wine.  However, the restaurant menu indicated there would be a 2.00 Euro charge, per person, for splitting a pizza, which was about half the cost of just getting another one, so we ordered two.  The other interesting rule they had was that the restaurant did not allow anyone just to have drinks there, you had to order food.  That seemed unusual, especially since there were outside tables on the sidewalk area.  We could understand the 2.00 Euro fee for splitting a meal, but only if you say inside, since those tables were set up with linen table cloths, etc, and it is typical, more so in Italy, for there to be a table set up fee of around 2.00 Euro for sitting at a table to eat.  Outside, we got two paper placemats.

The pizzas were good, we both liked mine better than the weird one Stephanie got, which was a “Mexican” pizza with some type of chili sauce on it.  Mine was a good old  ham, cheese and mushroom pizza, and the toppings were really good.  Stephanie keeps having a urge for Mexican food, and I keep telling her to wait until we get home.  An Italian pizza restaurant in Strasbourg, France just does not add up to good Mexican food.

We rode the tram back to the center of town, and walked along looking for a grocery store to get some good French wine and some snacks.  We finally found a very large supermarket, and they had a really good selection of everything.  It is just amazing to see how much cheaper wine is in France than in Switzerland.  Instead of paying 15.00 Swiss Francs for two thimbles full of wine, we got a whole half liter with our lunch for 12.00 Euro, which seemed cheaper, but may not be that different taking into consideration the different exchange rates.  It is certainly mentally less expensive.

Since it was starting to drizzle, and the wind was blowing pretty hard, we headed back to the hotel.  We were just tired from being on the go for over a week, and not sleeping that well last night.  Although there are probably some more sights to see here, with the marginal weather, and us just being tired, we decided to take it easy in the room, taking some small naps as we listened to the people walk by outside.