Blogs from Alsace, France, Europe - page 30

Kate and I had the opportunity to visit Strasbourg a few weeks ago. For a town that is over 2000 years old (the first mention of this city dates back to 12 B.C.), Strasbourg looked extremely well preserved. The old town is located on an island, which is surrounded by beautiful rivers and canals. Strasbourg sits at the confluence of the Bruche and Ill rivers and it sits across the Rhine River from Germany. It boasts one of the world’s most stunning cathedrals and its streets, including the Petite France neighborhood, are right out of a fairy tale. Situated on the Franco-German border, over the centuries, Strasbourg has been passed back and forward between those two countries. Annexed to France in 1681, after centuries of self-rule, Strasbourg was subject to German control from 1871 until the ... read more

Bonjour tout le monde! Before we get started on the blog, we have to apologise for the 87 emails you all received last time... we contacted travelblog.org & they said it had to do with our server (Mozilla) so sorry about that but we don't really know how it all happened! Hopefully you'll only get this once (but please open it, it will be good I promise)! Also, sorry for the delays in our updates but we've had a hell of a time finding internet for under £1 an hour, as it takes us about 2-3 hours to do each blog (download photos, resize them, write our journal...) PLUS we've been job hunting and to be honest finding a job in London is PRIORITY 1 at the moment, it's so damn expensive! So after the last ... read more

So we spent all day in the bus which would have killed me if we didn't end up in a great little town, in a tiny german-style restaurant, with our tour guide, downing bottle after bottle of wine telling stories about traveling and wierd cultural interactions. After the lovely dinner (described above) we went out for dessert. Just a handful of us, Craig, Sarah, Mary, Myself & Simeone (our guide). It was beautiful because after dessert we ended up in the town square with a whole lot of the locals gearing up for the tour de france with lots of drinking and lots of dancing. At some point in the evening Craig asked us all what we wanted to be when we grew up. When Simeone's turn to answer rolled around he said, "I want to ... read more

Visto que ni con huelgas consigo que se me haga caso, sólo me queda esperar que dentro de cien años, alguien reconozca mi talento. Nemo propheta in patria. Lo más destacable de estos días, aparte del buen tiempo, del mundial que va viento en popa ( España campeón!!), que todos los días caen unas cuantas cervezas; que aunque a veces trabajo un poco de más (que es casi mejor para la salud) y pese a que hace bastante calor de pronto te cae una chupa de agua de media hora; es que me estoy aficionando a la bici. Hoy (domingo) nos hemos ido a Francia a brujulear por los cerros; no es que haya sido intensivo de la muerte pero si nos hemos hecho unos 60 km. con el sol en todo lo alto. Menos mal ... read more

My original plan for December 30 was to get up early and go to Colmar if we hadn’t been able to get there the day before. Otherwise, I would have spent the morning in Strasbourg’s Christmas Market and showing Gen, Tyler and Grandma Phoebe the world-renowned mechanical clock inside the Cathedral. After that I had hoped to get on the road by early afternoon and perhaps take a detour by way of Luxembourg on our way to Trier, Germany. However, just a week before we left on our trip, one of my sisters e-mailed me asking if she, my other sister and my cousin could meet us in Strasbourg. They were spending Christmas in Paris but were willing to take the train to Strasbourg for the day. I told them they were nuts but my sister ... read more