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Published: November 10th 2017
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Geo: 49.159, 5.384
We got up in the morning, had breakfast and headed out to see Strasbourg. This is just for Anton, the Strasbourg we are in is 15 km inside France, from the German border.
We walked over to the Cathedral. We could see the tower before we even got anywhere near it. It is 550 meters high, 1800 feet. The roof is kind of flat on the main part of the church. It sticks way up above every building around it. Also, this being a Saturday, everybody and his brother was there to visit. There must have been 10 bus tours going on while we were there. Tons of people! We squeezed ourselves inside and looked around. There is an astronomical clock in there that has been running since the middle 1500's. It must have been 30 feet tall. After gawking at that we headed over to the river to see about a boat cruise on the river. Two rivers go around old Strasbourg, so you can circle it by boat. You must go through 2 locks during the trip, as the rivers are at different heights. The line to get tickets for the cruise was about 45
minutes. We left the line at around noon with tickets for a 3:30PM cruise. We wanted the open air boat instead of the enclosed one, because it was so nice out.
We walked over to Petit France, which is the area where the tanners worked. It had a bunch of little canals there so the tanners could get all of the water they needed. We stopped and got some lunch and then we got on the boat. There was an arrow at the boat pier that showed where to line up. We got there first and lined up at the arrow. Then people started lining up everywhere. It soon became a huge traffic jam. When the boat came in a guy told the people to line up behind the arrow, but nobody moved. They were pushing and shoving to get near the entrance. We were getting squished. I kept telling Stacy to move around because she had her back pack on and that would push the people back, but that didn't work. French people don't know how to make a line!
The boat ride was nice. After that we walked back to our hotel and had a nap. We went
to an Irish Pub for dinner that night. A band came in and started setting up. We asked the server if they were going to play French music and he said no that French music is boring. This band was going to play Jimmy Hendrix and other 60's rock and roll. Cool. We stayed for a while and listened to music, then home and off to bed.
The next morning we got the car and drove to Verdun. It was quite cool in the morning, about 58 degrees. This is the coolest its been since we arrived. On the way to Verdun, it started raining. We got into town, found our hotel and unpacked. By then it was down to a slight drizzle, so we headed out to see some sights. A large part of World War 1 was fought in the fields around Verdun. This is the main area where the trench warfare was. The Germans and the French had miles of trenches here and turned the whole area into a wasteland. Thirteen area villages were destroyed during the war and were never rebuilt. Over 800,000 people died in this area in 300 days of battle. Over 2,000,000 shells
were fired during the first 10 hours of the battle. We went to visit the Museum of the area, but it is closed for refurbishment. We looked around at some other bunkers and an old fort from the 1880's that is still there. By the time we were done, it has stopped raining.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the citadel in town and then head for our next stop Reims, which is where the Germans signed the document of surrender to end WWII.
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Michele
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Gorgeous!!!