Strasbourg is fantastic. It was named “capital of Europe” in 1945 and today houses
several of the European Union ministries.
But it is first and foremost a medieval city with a rich and vibrant history. It is also the center of Alsace, the
northern part of France that has been sometimes German and sometimes French,
depending on which direction the political winds were blowing. You are as likely to hear German as
French spoken on the street. Or maybe
it’s Alsatian – a version of German peppered with French phrases.
The River Ill, a major transportation artery in times past and a
source of power for Strasbourg’s many mills, bisects the city. Many of the houses are “half-timbered”
and date back to the 1600s. The most photogenic was once the tanner’s house,
smelly then and beautiful now.
There is a bakery that dates from 1279 and a wine cellar – in the
hospital of all places – with a cask of wine from 1472, which, we were assured,
is still drinkable. The cathedral
is one of the most impressive Gothic structures we have yet seen, especially at
night. And Strasbourg has had its
share of famous residents; Goethe, Wagner, Mozart, Gutenberg, and Albert
Schweitzer, just to name a few.
We learned much of this from the audio-guided walking tour of
the old town and the boat tour of the river. Nicole, who was both a student and a teacher here, added her
share while her sometime tour guide friend, Guy, showed us some of the
lesser-known places. There are
probably things we haven’t seen in Strasbourg, but there can’t be too many.
