A Run to the Border
Our plan for the long holiday weekend was to take two day trips. On Thursday we went to Triberg in the Black Forest, and today we made our first trip to France, crossing the border into Strasbourg.
Triberg is famous for its cuckoo clocks and it is home to Germany's tallest waterfall. Weather-wise Thursday was not a very good day (pouring rain) so I do not have any pictures to share with you. Despite the weather Tom and I spent a few hours exploring and did some shopping. We came home with real, bona fide black forest ham and it is so good. We got three different kinds. Tom learned from the butcher that the ham is smoked using pine wood, and you can taste it. YUM!
We decided not to go anywhere on New Year's Day because it's a holiday here too and most places were closed. So we spent the day at the house, watched a few movies, read some and Tom made a really nice dinner.
We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. We got a good couple inches of snow but after getting the driveway shoveled and the car cleaned off we were on our way to France.
Here are some pictures from the drive.
The drive to Strasbourg from Stuttgart is not bad. It is definitely less than 2 hours, could be closer to an hour and a quarter, but traffic can slow things down a bit. We got caught in a few traffic jams today but all-in-all it wasn't bad.
So, here's some history courtesy of Rick Steves. Strasbourg is part of a region called Alsace. It lies between the Rhine River on the east and the Vosges Mountains to the west. It has changed hands several times between Germany and France because of its location. Germany thinks the mountains are the natural border, while France thinks it's the Rhine River. Because of this back-and-forth action, German culture is very prevalent in Strasbourg. When we went to lunch today the waiter asked if we need menus in English or German. We were in a French restaurant but the menu choices were largely German. Tom had a schnitzel.
It is a larger city than I was expecting but the city center was easily explored on foot. Here is one of the city squares. I loved the different rooftops of these buildings. The style made me think of a Tim Burton film.
While crews were in the midst of taking down the booths used for the Christmas market, there was still a ton of Christmas lights and decorations up around the city. I would definitely like to visit again next year at night when everything is lite up. It's got to be gorgeous.
The big tourist attraction for Strasbourg is its cathedral, the La Petite Cathedrale de Notre-Dame. Construction of the cathedral began in 1176 but wasn't completed until 1429.
The single spire is 142 meters and was the highest in all of Christendom until the 19th Century.
Thankfully the church survived the Franco-Prussian war and World Wars I and II. It's almost got this lace like appearance to it. It's very stunning.
Inside there is a large collection of tapestries that are hundreds of years old and stained glass windows that date back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Also inside is a 15th century astronomical clock, restored in 1883. We stuck around until the top of the hour to see what happened but it was a bit disappointing. One of the figurines rang a bell and moved in a circle and that was it. This was at 3 p.m. Apparently daily at 12:30 p.m. there is a bigger show where all the different characters on the clock, including the twelve apostles, get into the action.
I look forward to going back to Strasbourg. I think when we have guests visiting it will make for a nice day trip that will let our visitors say they visited France.
Today's trip was a big step for Tom. France is not on his top ten list...probably not even his top 50 but he knew that I wanted to go so he did his husbandly duty. He probably won't admit it but I think he enjoyed the day too.
Triberg is famous for its cuckoo clocks and it is home to Germany's tallest waterfall. Weather-wise Thursday was not a very good day (pouring rain) so I do not have any pictures to share with you. Despite the weather Tom and I spent a few hours exploring and did some shopping. We came home with real, bona fide black forest ham and it is so good. We got three different kinds. Tom learned from the butcher that the ham is smoked using pine wood, and you can taste it. YUM!
We decided not to go anywhere on New Year's Day because it's a holiday here too and most places were closed. So we spent the day at the house, watched a few movies, read some and Tom made a really nice dinner.
We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. We got a good couple inches of snow but after getting the driveway shoveled and the car cleaned off we were on our way to France.
Here are some pictures from the drive.
The drive to Strasbourg from Stuttgart is not bad. It is definitely less than 2 hours, could be closer to an hour and a quarter, but traffic can slow things down a bit. We got caught in a few traffic jams today but all-in-all it wasn't bad.
So, here's some history courtesy of Rick Steves. Strasbourg is part of a region called Alsace. It lies between the Rhine River on the east and the Vosges Mountains to the west. It has changed hands several times between Germany and France because of its location. Germany thinks the mountains are the natural border, while France thinks it's the Rhine River. Because of this back-and-forth action, German culture is very prevalent in Strasbourg. When we went to lunch today the waiter asked if we need menus in English or German. We were in a French restaurant but the menu choices were largely German. Tom had a schnitzel.
It is a larger city than I was expecting but the city center was easily explored on foot. Here is one of the city squares. I loved the different rooftops of these buildings. The style made me think of a Tim Burton film.
While crews were in the midst of taking down the booths used for the Christmas market, there was still a ton of Christmas lights and decorations up around the city. I would definitely like to visit again next year at night when everything is lite up. It's got to be gorgeous.
The big tourist attraction for Strasbourg is its cathedral, the La Petite Cathedrale de Notre-Dame. Construction of the cathedral began in 1176 but wasn't completed until 1429.
The single spire is 142 meters and was the highest in all of Christendom until the 19th Century.
Thankfully the church survived the Franco-Prussian war and World Wars I and II. It's almost got this lace like appearance to it. It's very stunning.
Inside there is a large collection of tapestries that are hundreds of years old and stained glass windows that date back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Also inside is a 15th century astronomical clock, restored in 1883. We stuck around until the top of the hour to see what happened but it was a bit disappointing. One of the figurines rang a bell and moved in a circle and that was it. This was at 3 p.m. Apparently daily at 12:30 p.m. there is a bigger show where all the different characters on the clock, including the twelve apostles, get into the action.
I look forward to going back to Strasbourg. I think when we have guests visiting it will make for a nice day trip that will let our visitors say they visited France.
Today's trip was a big step for Tom. France is not on his top ten list...probably not even his top 50 but he knew that I wanted to go so he did his husbandly duty. He probably won't admit it but I think he enjoyed the day too.
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