We woke up in Strasbourg refreshed and happy. We decided not to eat breakfast in the hotel because it costs 22 euro each or about $58.00! When we left the hotel it was raining
lightly so we took umbrellas with us.
We were wandering the streets, as usual, and stopped so David could look at the map. A very nice man stopped and asked us, in English, what we were looking for. His name was Re'ino (Ray-no) and he and David had a very long conversation. Re'ino has lived in Strasbourg for the last 10 years and loves it there. He is a fireman. Prior to that he was a diving instructor and lived 11 different places all over the world -- Belgium, Australia and the United States. He had all the time in the world for us! We finally asked him where we should have breakfast and he showed us to a beautiful outdoor cafe. We had the typical breakfast of croissants, bread and cheese with coffee and tea. How could you not like delicious bread and cheese for breakfast. We were also served kind of a sweet bread which we both loved.
After breakfast we walked to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg. It is the sixth-tallest church in the world and the highest still-standing structure built entirely in the Middle Ages. We marvelled at it for a very long time and took many, many pictures.
We then walked over the the Museum of History which is located in an old slaughterhouse which was built in 1587! It was turned into the museum in 1920. Strasbourg was a center of weapons' manufacturing and people came from all around to purchase weapons such as canons, muskets, spears, etc. They also produced armor. We had an English audio guide so that was wonderful!
There is a canal that winds around the entire old section of the city so we decided to take a boat tour on the Batorama. We walked to the dock and discovered a very long line for tickets. I bet there were 150 people in line ahead of us! Turns out there was only one person selling tickets! Oh well, we are on vacation! We bought our tickets and had to wait for the 1:45 p.m. tour. We sat in a beautiful water-side park and people-watched until time to board.
Our boat was glass covered and held about 300. An audio tour was available in about 20 languages. The tour was an hour and a half. The most interesting part for me was that the boat had to travel through two locks. It would take about 5 minutes for the lock to fill and raise the boat and off we'd go. The tour took us around old town, past the tanner's quarters and under covered bridges. Charming and gorgeous! We also saw the European Parliament Houses which I expected to be very old and filled with character but turned out to be fairly new, modern buildings! They didn't exactly fit into my expectations! The boat tour was well worth taking for the views and history.
We didn't know where to go for dinner that evening so we asked at the front desk and the woman suggested a nearby restaurant called L'Evis des Sens where I had the most delicious meal of the trip so far!!! There were no vegetarian selections on the menu but David told our waiter he was a vegetarian and as frequently happens, the chef made him an incredible vegetarian meal. Our meals were beautifully presented too! David had a stuffed tomato (stuffed with rice) on a bed of pureed potatoes with carrots, green beans, onions and mushrooms. It had some kind of very savory sauce on it. I had a chicken breast on kind of a potato pancake with vegetables. For dessert we had a flourless chocolate torte with fresh raspberries. I tell you, it's amazing we still fit into our clothes -- thanks only to the many miles we walk each day!!!
We walked back to the hotel and went to sleep quickly because we had to get up early the next day to take the train to Colmar for our wine tour.
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