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Bonjour,
Arrival at Strasbourg was less than scintilating. We crossed the Rhine from Germany into France, singing "Vive la France" as we entered. I'm still not really sure why we sang, but it seemed mildly entertaining at the time. However, we were not at the hotel quite yet. That step would take the better part of an hour and a half! We droved along one side of the canal lining the Grand Ile, crossed it, and reversed our any progress that had been made by driving back along the other side of the canal, all in a vain attempt to follow the gps system that the driver had. The main problem that the machine seemed to have was that it didn't take into account construction, or the fact that the bridge that it recommends we drive over doesn't actually exist. The big test was yet to come. We decided to proceed along a one way street. Not really an issue, as we are in a bus and people tend to get out of the way when we come towards them. However, when a tram enters the fray, things become complicated. The tram wasn't backing down, we weren't backing down and
the standoff commenced. It was a brief standoff. The tram one. We drove partially on to the sidewalk to allow the tram to pass, as well as the consistantly growing line of cars behind us, before somehow reversing and heading down the street towards our hotel before reversing one more time and parking infront of it. I'm still flabbergasted at how the driver was capable of manouvering the bus as well as he did and I still suspect that he may have been related to Michael Schumacher.
I threw my stuff into the room, which was approximatly the size of a closet (I'm not really exaggerating, imagine a large walk-in closet with two beds in it and you can picture the room), and ran back to the lobby to meet the French contingent (Xavier, Kathleen, Cloude, Edith and Aurelie) so we could wander around the city while it was still light out to take photos. I'm very glad we rushed. The city is absolutely spectactular. I ran out of superlatives to describe it after about 10 minutes! We walked to the Cathedral first, which only has one spire is somewhat unique as a result. It is made of a
slightly pinkish stone that was glowing irridescently in the setting sun's rays. The photo really does not do it justice. After marvelling in awe at the building for a while, we wandered towards the area known as Petite France. It is the oldest part of town, complete with many 16th century buildings. The German influence on the city becomes quite apparent in the area. Most of the houses are timber framed with beams criss-crossing the facades of the buildings.
It was a very evocative area and we were content to wander around for a while and eat dinner there when, all of a sudden, we had heard a loud crash. We turned around and Xavier had walked into and broken a large wooden sign infront of one of the restaurants. After listening to him apologize profusely, and chuckling serepiciiusly the whole time, we walked back to the cathedral and enjoyed dinner while basking in it's illuminated light. All in all, a spectacular city that I will definately need to return to.
Bye for now,
Peter
Things I learned in Strasbourg:
-Beds can be stacked vertically.
-You can't win a game of chicken with a tram, whether you are in a bus or on foot.
-My French isn't as bad as first thought.
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