STRASBOURG: Final Alsacian Town, and My Favorite! June 14th and 15th

 Yes, I am completely enamored with this lovely town! Really more of a city--the largest of the 3 visited--but by far the most beautiful and interesting. The historical architecture is mostly quite old, varied, and gorgeous. I took a "little train" tour through the town and took lots of photos... missing out on most of the explanations-- the sights went by far too quickly-- but I still greatly appreciated all that I saw. 

After the train ride, I did my own walking tour through other sections of the town, all most pleasant and beautiful. I had a delicious lunch of two crepes--the first, a savory vegetarian variety, with a few veggies; the other, a sugar-and-cinnamon dessert-- both very tasty and satisfying. I was delighted to have the inadvertent company of Sally, a Brit expat, who has been living in Strasbourg for the past 40 years! 

Finally, after a strong, decaf coffee in a sidewalk cafe and a quick visit to the university's botanical gardens, I returned to my Airbnb. It was a MOST gratifying two days spent here! I hope to return one day...maybe even to live as an expat?! We shall see... 

My tour began at--you guessed it--the Cathedral of Notre Dame, in the center of town!  I started out on my own, spending quite some time in this spectacular church...then jumped on the train for the "little train tour" of many other gorgeous, historical buildings. 

The most impressive feature of all, below: the astronomical clock. I latched onto an English-speaking tour group, and learned some fascinating details about this clock: 1) It is over 500 years old and still works! 2) It STOPPED working in 1838, whereby a clock specialist spent 4 years learning about/finding a way to understand the clock's mechanisms and what was wrong with it...then DID fix it, and it has worked ever since! Furthermore, the government of Strasbourg was SO impressed and happy with his work that they paid him in excess of his already high asking price for the work performed! 3) It keeps track of/measures the cycles of the moon, the cycles of the Zodiac, and keeps exceedingly precise time, including measuring both local time and Greenwich mean time! 4) It has perfectly moving, animated parts: a) at the top, is Jesus, and at certain hours, 3 disciples come out and stand before him to be blessed! b) below that little scene, is a skeleton representing time and death; at every hour (I witnessed this, happily!) a person at different stages of life passes by the skeleton-- child, young person, middle-aged, and old! In addition, there are myriad other decorations... including a rooster that crows three times when Jesus blesses a disciple... Really staggering to think about the skill that went into creating this masterpiece, half a millennium ago!!! WOW!

A group of school kids--there were a plethora of these groups about the town today--pose for photos in front of the massive church doors. 

Moving on... Both via train and on foot, we/I passed countless, impressive structures that were breathtakingly gorgeous. Hard to capture them all, but why I fell so in love with this amazing town! It would take too long for me to figure out--or remember--what all of them were, so only a few shall be identified below....

Another beautiful cathedral, somewhat in the style of Notre Dame also, but built more recently: 1892-97. (Yes, the construction took a full five years, but that is but a pittance, when you consider how massive it is!) 

University of Strasbourg... I would love to attend! I didn't go inside, but am curious what the classrooms are like...wondering if they are as lovely as the exterior! 

The city's library, or "biblioteca"

Another church of some sort...!

Palais de Justice...aka, the judicial center and courthouse. 

There were many bridges crossing the river that runs through the center of town, and all had these gorgeous flowers in planter boxes growing there along the railings. Such a nice touch, and added beautiful color to the scene! 

And yet another church of some sort... 

As mentioned, I had lunch at a creperie... this was the dessert crepe! A most unusual formation of it, and it was as tasty as it was beautiful to look at!

Lucky school kids! A whole group of them on a bicycle outing... wish I had had that sort of opportunity at their age!

View of "Le Petite France" from a historic, covered bridge.. (no photo of the bridge itself because it wasn't very pretty...especially its background of ugly, modern buildings!) 

My last stop: the university's botanical gardens, where I discovered this adorable "grenouille" in a pond! 

The garden was filled with plants, but all names were in French, so it didn't mean much to me..

And so ended a rapid visit to this marvelous town!