Flag of France

French license plate for Alsace

Canal boat

Traditional Alsatian restaurant

Street scene

Half-timbered house

       We walked up from the canal to the plaza at the Cathedral Notre Dame.  The carved red sandstone Gothic building is overwhelming!  The tower is 461 feet tall with 332 steps to the top for a view, the facade is crowded with bas relief stories from the Bible, saints, apostles, angels, and ornate spires. Inside there is an the astronomical clock with many functions.

       While walking through the picturesque streets and alleys around the Munster Plaza in Strasbourg, we found the “thin man’s pillar.” Gale had her picture taken going through.  The story is that if a man could not walk through between the pillar and the wall, he was too fat!  Marge thought her backpack would get caught!

Strasbourg Cathedral of Notre Dame

Astronomical clock in the Cathedral

Astronomical clock in the Cathedral

Maison Kammerzell restaurant - wonderful wood building

Maison Kammerzell restaurant - wonderful wood building

Thin man's pillar

Street carousel

       After lunch we took an optional tour into the wine region of Alsace.  On the way we stopped at Hunawihr to visit the Centre de Reintroduction of storks and swans.  We were given a five-minute introduction to the privately run park and information about storks. 

      Storks are the center of many Alsatian legends; the most famous of course is that storks deliver babies.  Storks migrate from Alsace to North Africa (we saw them in Tunis).  In 1927 there were 150 nesting couples in Alsace; in 1975 there were only 10.  Their disappearance was blamed on: electrocution for nesting on power poles; disappearance of natural habitat (they are carnivorous eating rodents, worms, insects); intoxication from pesticides; and being hunted by starvation plagued African countries – Niger, Senegal, Mauritania.  In 1976 this center was formed.  They take the three to five eggs from a nest on their 7.5 acres and hatch them and take care of them in a nursery.  Some they keep for three years, when they are mature enough to breed but have lost their migratory instinct.  Others are set free with leg bands at age one and they can still remember how to migrate – interesting!  Mature storks have red beaks and legs; youth have black ones.  Today there are almost 400 nesting couples in the Alsace region and both male and female take turns sitting on the eggs.  Their nests are huge and the female is faithful to her nest and adds to it every year.  She is not a faithful partner and gets a new male every year.  The center also has a variety of other animals.

Storks

Young storks

Mature storks

Stork eggs

Feeding the youngsters

Turtles sunning

Decorated half-timbered house

Many storied half-timbered house

Street scene

Storks nesting

Kugelhopf pans

      These are molds for making a cake-like bread.  The story is that one of the wise men lost his way on his travels home and wandered into the Alsace Region.  He was treated so well by the locals that when he left, he gave them his crown.  That is the shape of the bread pan.

Kugelhopf pans for sale

Tues., 7/8/14 – In Strasbourg: The Black Forest and Baden-Baden by Coach

      In the afternoon we took the included trip through the Black Forest of Germany to Baden-Baden, a famous German wellness city visited by the rich and famous.  (We did not see any.)  We crossed a bridge from Alsace into Kehl, Germany and rode along agricultural fields and up into the Black Forest.  It began raining this morning and never stopped all day.  The forest is called black because it is so dense with tall evergreens and Linden (sycamore) trees that it is very dark at ground level.  However we were soon in thick wet cloud cover and could only see about ten yards from the bus.  The Romans were here as early as 50 AD.  The word spa comes from the Latin “salus per aquam” – health through water.  The Oos River also runs through town.

Flag of Germany

German license plate

       We began our walking tour of Baden-Baden with a comfort stop at the Caracalla Baths with two toilets (for each sex) and with 110 people on our three buses it took quite a while to get our business done.  While waiting we stepped into a church to get out of the rain.  It was plain outside but the stained glass windows were abstract masterpieces.
       We finally walked on to the Roman Baths and Ruins Museum and then walked through the touristy part of town.  There is a strong Russian influence in Baden-Baden.  Maybe 30% of the population is Russian.  Both the rich and the poor Russians come here and they are accepted because they bring business and economic benefits.  Dostoyevsky visited here and gambled away his wealth at the casino and then wrote the book, The Gambler.
       We passed the Rathaus that was once a Jesuit monastery and a statue of Otto von Bismarck and through the shopping street.  Then we crossed the Oos River, not more than a stream, and entered the colonnaded Trinkhalle and then went into the lobby of the casino.

Spitalkirghe (church)

Roman baths

Roman grave marker

Friedrichsbad (baths)

Commemorating a Dostoyevsky visit

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck

Bust of Kaiser Wilhelm I in front of the Trinkhalle

       We were to meet our ship down river from Baden-Baden but the last lock she was to sail through was “broken.”  The barges and riverboats were stacked up.  After phone calls back to our ship and alternatives weighed, our captain turned his boat around and headed upstream to an unnamed, unmanned dock he knew of.  Our buses drove around the lock and after a half hour delivered us to the middle of nowhere to happily see our River Melody not far away.  He came alongside and we all got on.  We were 1 ½ hours late, and were invited to dinner right away.  The chef and crew managed to serve the meal as though there had been no delay.  It was actually an exciting adjustment to our schedule.