Hello From The Finish Line -
It’s the very end of the 15-day Paris trip.
Before it’s forgotten (and please excuse redundancy), the people were so much taller in the Netherlands and Germany than in France.
We arrived yesterday afternoon in Strasbourg and it was gray and raining, which was not unusual during the trip. The good news is that it was not real cold on the trip, so weather (considering the time of year) wasn’t much of a factor. Marlene was nice enough to pose outside our hotel in Strasbourg. By the way, we were very happy with our accommodations on the trip. Granted we didn’t get down to the budget level of hotels, but we didn’t stay at the real nice hotels either. Again, finding single rooms that will accommodate four persons in Europe is a real challenge, and eliminates many hotels as a possibility.
Strasbourg is very interesting – half French and half German. You can look up the history, but the short story is that after World War I the residents of the Alsace region would have voted to become part of Germany, but President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the region (including Strasbourg) be included in France. Some streets have German names, while others have French names. What a great place to live if you can’t decide if you want to live in France or Germany. From Strasbourg, the train journey to Paris is under 3 hours and the train trip to Munich is pretty short, to say nothing of Switzerland being not that far away. The most notable thing upon arriving in Strasbourg was the endless number of old French architecture buildings. They have absolutely beautiful 5-6 story buildings (as does Paris, Marseille, Nice and many other French cities), primarily used as residences with retail at street level. We were really struck, quickly realizing we generally hadn’t seen that kind of great architecture in Amsterdam and Germany.
We got some photos, including a good looking buy in front of a church across the street from our hotel, and photos showing a look down the street in each direction from our hotel.
Marlene and I took a long tram ride late in the afternoon. They have six tram lines in Strasbourg. We went to an area with buildings housing European agencies/organizations, including the European Parliament building (you’ll have to look it up). At one end of the tram route we saw a shopping center (commercial center), and couldn’t help but notice the large number of people exiting the tram and walking down the sidewalk through the parking lot and into the shopping center. There was a significant tram/bus center at the shopping center. The European culture and way of life is so much different than we have in the United States.
Later we took the tram to Petite France (an old town area) and had dinner (our last night of good food), so there’s a photo of Marlene at the tram station. We also caught a photo of a typical evening street scene in Strasbourg.
This morning we caught some of those great looking buildings (photos) looking out of our hotel room window, and Marz, Keaka and Sophia waiting for the taxi cab to the train station.
Today’s train trip home featured two trains, starting with a slower train from Strasbourg to Lyon, which included a number of stops. And, you’ll see a photo of Marlene looking out the window at an old train station along the way. Though we were totally in France, there was still a German feel to the towns and countryside, which developed into a slight Swiss feel as were travelled not far from the Swiss-France border. Lots of farms and some hills here and there. Nothing really brilliant about the cities and towns. Our transfer at Lyon was interesting, in that the Lyon Gare (train station) was chaotic on a Sunday afternoon. And, French trains arrive and depart on time. Our train from Strasbourg was headed to Marseilles (no stop in Aix-en Provence). The train would stop for only a few minutes in Lyon, with lots of people clamoring to get off, with other folks pushing to get on the train. Typically, a French train spends only two minutes at a stop. It’s an art form to get off and on, especially with everyone carrying suitcases. Our train from Lyon to Aix-en Provence was the true high-speed TGV train (geez, does it get going – approaching 200 mph). Get off in a hurry at your stop. Our train was barely away from the Aix TGV station when another train pulled up. There is no room for trains being late. Almost every train we were on during the trip was right on time leaving and arriving. There may have been two or three trains that arrived late, but only 1 – 3 minutes late. What a system.
Our Strasbourg-to-Lyon train stopped in Milhouse, France. The French conductor continually referred to the city as “mus” with a long “u”. No use pronouncing all of the letters.
And, there you have it. Thanks for coming along on the journey.
The Wilsons
