Out on the Town March 29, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Strasbourg , trackback
This morning we walked around Strasbourg a bit before arriving at the Cathedral, Notre Dame of Strasbourg. The Cathedral was fantastic but we decided not to pay to climb the steps up the bell-tower; however, there is a fantastic astronomical clock in one corner of the church that is a must see for visitors to Strasbourg.
The central part of the cathedral was large and airy, plenty of space for the chairs in the middle and surrounded by hallways with beautiful stained-glass windows along the exterior walls. Additionally, as you travel back through the church, there are several different places reserved for prayer so that parishioners can pray in peace while the tourists visit the rest of the church.
After exploring the Cathedral thoroughly, we wandered around the square surrounding the church, encountering 2 museums, one of which refuses entry without an appointment! Anyway, we decided not to visit the museums because they didn’t look to fantastic and we’d have to pay to look at things like vases on columns.
Finally, we settled on having a cup of tea in front of the Cathedral at a small café looking at the front of the Cathedral. After leaving the Cathedral, we walked down the Ill River for a while, enjoying the scenery and buildings; we saw several buildings which, unbeknownst to us at the time, have histories over a thousand years long.
Among the buildings along the Ill, we saw the courthouse, national library, and more.
We finally found a gorgeous sun-filled park to relax a bit and decide on the next thing to do. After much thought and deliberation, we headed back to Austin’s flat at the same time he was arriving and we decided to take a cruise on the waterways of Strasbourg together.
We followed the boat through Strasbourg to find where it docks where we bought tickets and got aboard. The boat was a glass-covered boat allowing us to see out in all directions except down. While riding aboard the boat, we each got a pair of headphones to listen to a commentary about Strasbourg’s history and about the buildings we were passing by and we realized that Strasbourg has had a pretty funny past, there are all sorts of strange and outright hilarious events through the city’s history.
On the boat, we passed the EU Parliament by boat; we passed through a lock, and even saw a wall that was built across the river to preclude attacks from that direction, in addition to flooding an area near the town, protecting that side as well. We also saw what used to be a prison, has gone through several iterations and is now a school of business administration.
Apparently, in Strasbourg, the half-timber houses are considered more of furniture than buildings because they are easily replaceable. While I found this interesting, it made me wonder if all buildings that would be above furniture on the chain are made of stone or brick because there are a lot of half-timber buildings in the city.
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