Greetings From Aix-en-Provence -
Yes, it’s Sunday evening (January 5th) and we’re back in our French home. It is always nice to be home. The 15-day Paris Trip is over and we’ve rated it a total success (a sigh of relief from the trip planner).
Let’s cover the last two days. We got up yesterday (Saturday) in Heidelberg. Our stay there was a little too brief, but we didn’t say the trip was perfect. See a photo of the Heidelberg Castle, which is the big tourist attraction, along with Old Town, which is directly below the castle and where our hotel was located. When we walked out the front door of our hotel, we were looking at the famous foot bridge (see the photo). We must confess, due to time constraints, we were not able to visit the Heidelberg Castle.
As you know, trains were a big part of the trip. We can’t say enough about the trains. We all enjoyed the train experience. So, we added a photo of the Heidelberg train station, which you may judge as nothing special. Yes, that is a Burger King, which is not seen much in France, but has a fairly strong presence in Germany. And, a look at the platform at the Heidelberg station as we awaited the arrival of our train to Karlsruhe. We were changing from the German train to the French train in Karlsruhe. I had just enough time to walk outside of the Karlsruhe train station into the rain. The photo of the Karlsruhe station gives you a little idea of how things look in Germany. And, outside the Karlsruhe station were the typical trams, which in many cities are orientated to the train station, and the buildings across the street, which were much more typical of the German cities (and, not what you’d typically see near French train stations – newer buildings in Germany). And, there was a McDonalds inside the Karlsruhe train station. I can tell you from first hand experience that the meat at McDonalds in Germany is superior to the McDonalds’ meat used in France. I suppose we should all agree that McDonalds’ meat is probably not great anywhere.
As the French train left the Karlsruhe station, Marlene and I both commented that the French trains have a better ride than the German trains. The fact is, you have newer cars in some situations, and better tracks in some situations. So, our observations are quite subjective. The trip from Heidelberg to Strasbourg (across the border <the Rhine River> in France) was fairly uneventful. Some homogeneity, with single family, light colored stucco homes with prominent peaked roofs, still the norm. The cities we stopped in and went through didn’t show the “age” you typically see more prominently in French cities and villages. I still believe the big difference is the number of buildings in Germany that were lost in World War II. The older buildings in France, with some pretty dramatic architecture, really helps make France what it is, and Germany, for the most part, doesn’t have that. Another observation worth making is that in France you do not want to be a painting contractor. Lots of houses have cracks in the walls and look like they have not been painted since they were initially constructed. In Germany, it seemed like all of the houses looked like they were freshly painted.
The entire trip from Heidelberg to Strasbourg was less than two hours, including the change of trains. Thus, we had some time on Saturday to explore Strasbourg, which is coming up next.
The Wilsons
