Blogs from Strasbourg, Alsace, France, Europe
May 27th 2012
After an 11-hour night's sleep I am fully revived and living on European time. Jet lag ain't got nothin' on me So today we all had our first experience reserving train tickets. What we thought would be a 20 minute venture to the train station ended up being an all-out 2 hours of chaos. Not knowing how train reservations worked and not knowing how to speak the language and trying to coordinate 3 different weekends with 20 different people was cause for the concierge manager to come out and tell us to either hurry up or leave and come back tomorrow. Finally, I thought I had my three weekends booked so I headed back to the hotel. Turns out, the guy booked me for the wrong weekend in Prague and the wrong day to Rome. So ... read more
May 26th 2012
Hello everyone! I have made it safe and sound. Flight was not bad at all. Combination of Advil PM, one German beer, and a newly purchased neck pillow knocked me out for a solid 6 hours. We landed in Frankfurt around 1PM and then took a 3 hour charter bus to Strasbourg on which I managed to get another hour of sleep in. Upon arriving at our hotel, we got settled and then took a tour of the city. Strasbourg is exactly what I would imagine France to be like. Cobblestone roads, cafes, bread carts, French townhomes. It's absolutely gorgeous. The locals may or may not be too fond of the 22 rambunctious Americans roaming their streets, but we try to be as respectful as possible. So after all the formalities were taken care of, 19/22 ... read more
La Marche Pour Jésus (The March for Jesus)
Published: May 23rd 2012Europe » France » Alsace » Strasbourg
May 14th 2012
On Saturday I was delighted to have the opportunity to take part in The March for Jesus in Strasbourg - the perfect place to pray for the nations of Europe! And there was certainly a very European theme - at the end of the march we were even given the honour of having a meeting in the European Council - this Europe theme really spoke to me of the plans God has for me concerning Europe (not just France!) We (I went with a surprisingly small group of people from church - I was surprised that more people hadn't wanted to take part - for me the idea of marching through the European capital, praying and worshiping God was just SO exciting!!) began the march next to the European Council and not far from the European ... read more
Alsacien sight-seeing and a city break in Strasbourg
Published: May 13th 2012Europe » France » Alsace » StrasbourgMay 9th 2012
My day of freedom finally came on Friday when as scheduled, I went over to Colmar to see Daniele, the English teacher from school. Her holidays had been worse spent than mine and she was clearly full of bitterness, hurt and sadness, making conversation with her sometimes difficult and I found myself constantly praying for protection around myself against the negativity emanating from her. I began to think that perhaps it had been a mistake to do something with her, getting the impression that she wasn't really in the mood to enjoy herself. But God puts certain people in our path for a reason, right? We headed off from Colmar to a small picteresque town called Riquewihr. On the way we stopped at a war memorial for the Allied Forces which acts as a great look-out ... read more
April 26th 2012
PART TWO OF THE JOURNEY BEGINS This blog will be slightly different than past blogs. I will be dividing it into four parts. There will be my normal descriptive narrative of our daily events and corresponding pictures; however, I am also adding additional sections: Daily eats, reviews and daily tips. Hopefully this will be more helpful to those that may read this that do not know me. April 25 & 26 2012 The trip began at 4 am Wednesday Morning. I had worked until 9 pm the night before and did not get done backing until midnight, but that is what it takes to go away for three weeks. The flight was uneventful, which is a good thing, since I don’t like flying much. Portland to Dulles, Dulles to Paris, 13 hours in the air, but ... read more
December 10th 2011
Strasbourg So with it being Christmas and all, I decided to go to Strasbourg, which is the most well known town in France for its Christmas markets. Having enjoyed the Christmas markets in Germany so much in the past, I decided to give France's a go. I used covoiturage to get there and set off to meet a friend of mine living there. We spent the morning walking around the Christmas markets. I ate some of the german influenced specialties of the area -choucroute , some crepes and had some vin chaud . After that I said goodbye to my friend who was madly studying for university exams and did a city tour. Strasbourg has been under German and French hands over time and the german influence is still very strong in Strasbourg today, with a ... read more
France, Part 12-My 21st Birthday and New Years in Strasbourg
Published: October 7th 2011Europe » France » Alsace » Strasbourg
October 4th 2011
Note: All events mentioned in this entry occurred from December 28, 2006-January 2, 2007. For more updated trips and entries, please refer back to this site at a later date. An updated entry or trip will NOT include a note like this. Thanks and enjoy! December 27, 2006-I had no choice now but to head back to Dijon in order to drop of my souvenirs and repack in order to head to my next stop, Strasbourg. I chose to visit Strasbourg because I was told by a lot of French people that it was very pretty but also had the best Marche de Noel in France. In fact, it was the first ever in France. I did want to see it because I did enjoy the Marche de Noel tradition and was curious to see how ... read more
August 22nd 2011
Strasbourg – The Tescos of Europe Waitrose or Lidl? As you drive into Strasbourg the signs welcome you to “ le Carrefour de l’Europe”. As an ignorant foreigner I only know Carrefour as a major French supermarket chain. “Carrefour” actually means “crossroads” which is one way of describing the fact that France and Germany spent years fighting over Alsace before Strasbourg rediscovered itself as one of the first “European” cities. The Alsatians {literally} seem to be quite happy just being Alsatians – the area has quite a lot of autonomy within France and even has a different social security system than the rest of France. Strasbourg I have a couple of days in Strasbourg and my host and guide, Kati, has taken some time off wo... read more
August 11th 2011
Bill and I have decided that Robbi is our good luck mascot -- it hasn't rained for two days and we haven't been lost since Linde gave him to us. Guess we had better keep him on the back of the bike for the next few days. It did indeed get cold last night; no clouds equals low temps. But we were packed and ready to go by 7:30 this morning. We had traveled this part of France in 2006 so decided to go a slightly different route this time, cycling through some small villages on our beloved back roads of France and along the canal via a bike path. Arrived in Strasbourg before 1:00, ate a good meal at a restaurant in front of the cathedral (with its beautiful stained glass windows dating back to ... read more
July 27th 2011
Hello all 62 blog readers. So today we- Almost didn't go to Strasbourg.! Thought it would be too difficult to find parking. Not true. We were able to park in a Park&Ride and take a tram right into the heart of the city. The old town isn't that large so we spent about 4-5 hours walking around. Saw the big cathedral the Petite France Quarter and just perused around the historical parts. We only have 2 days left before we leave for Belgium. I hope you have enjoyed some of our adventures in this part of Europe. It has been fun sharing it with you. Now for some pictures of our city visit to Strasbourg, France. I have 6 images of "Petite France Quarter" one of them is my favorite. Which one is yours?? God bless ... read more
