Strasbourg, France: Day 1 and 2

Strasbourg, France was an hour and a half train ride from Stuttgart! Heavenly! It was so nice to get to our destination so fast. We got off the train and the heat wave hit us. Our hotel was hot with no a/c. We filled up the tub with cold water and all put our feet in, it felt so good! It was hottttt that night and hard to sleep. I slept with a wet towel and it helped. In the morning the heat was up with the sun so we headed out first thing before it got hotter. We took a boat tour on the canals which was very pretty and a good history of the city. Fiona was not a fan of the boat but loved pulling our headphones off (it was an audio tour guide), so we'd take turns holding her and the other one listened. After that we toured the Alsace Musuem (Al-sauce) and learned about the culture of the region. The culture is so neat and has very specific decorating and designs related to the area. Plus, it was in a typical Alsace home so it was neat to see what that was like. We just sweated all day long though and a few of us might have gotten quite cranky. We soaked Fiona a few times to make sure she was cool. As we were walking around Chris walked into a store and I turned to ask him what we were going in there for but as he opened the door a big wave of cold air blew out and I thought, "I don't care what is in that store or what we need to buy, we are going in and staying for a while." Apparently, Chris thought it was a different store than it was but it turned out to be a candy store and as soon as he felt the cold air he thought the same thing as I did..."We'll buy whatever candy we need to stay in here!" We looked here and there and himmed and hawed, trying to decide which lovely morsels to buy. All the candy near the air conditioning fan looked extra delicious so we lingered there (heehee!). We bought some delicious bonbons and left the store in such cheery moods! It's amazing what sweets and cold air can do for a person!

The hot day ended in La Petite France where the houses on the canal were just beautiful! Some history on Petite France from Wikipedia: "The name Petite-France ("Little France") was not given for patriotic or architectural reasons. It comes from the "hospice of the syphilitic" (Hospice des Vérolés, in French), which was built in the late fifteenth century on this island, to cure persons with syphilis, then called the "French disease".

Who would have thought it would be such a big tourist attraction later on!

            

         

         

   

   

    

The next day we toured the Strasbourg Cathedral in hopes to find some relief from the sun. It was cooler in there but jammed with tourists so a little humid :) We watched the Astronomical Clock strike 10:00 (or 10:30 because it is on Medieval time or something like that...) and some animated figures walk around a figurine of death and an angel tipped a hourglass. The clock was really impressive. Here's some info from Wikipedia: The clock existing today originated in 1838-1843 (the clock has 1838-1842, but the celestial globe was only finished on June 24, 1843) and was built by Jean-Baptiste Schwilgué in Dasypodius' clock case, and with roughly the same functions, but equipped with completely new mechanics. Schwilgué made a number of preliminary studies years before, such as a design of the computus mechanism (Easter computation) in 1816, and built a prototype in 1821. This mechanism, whose whereabouts are now unknown, could compute Easter following the complex Gregorian rule.

The astronomical part is unusually accurate; it indicates leap years, equinoxes, and more astronomical data. Thus it was already much more a complex calculating machine than a clock. Often the complicated functioning of the Strasbourg Clock made specialized mathematical knowledge necessary (not just technical knowledge). The clock was able to determine the computus (date of Easter in the Christian calendar) at a time when computers did not yet exist. Easter had been defined at the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 as "the Sunday that follows the fourteenth day of the moon that falls on March 21 or immediately after". (See also Easter controversy,Ecclesiastical new moon, and Paschal Full Moon.)

After the Cathedral we went to the Orangerie Park outside of the city. Because of the heat all the buses were free that day so that was good! But when we got to the Park it was hot, hot, hot! There was a little outdoor zoo but we didn't want to be outdoor so we walked around for a bit and headed back into the city to tour another museum that hopefully had air. On the way back we found a mall and it was nice and cool and everyone was there! So we hung around there and ate lunch. We people watched and noticed the French really know how to dress well. Everyone is very stylish and classy, with well fitting clothes. No high-heels or short shorts/skirts, no too tight clothes or too low. They also wore make-up :) We were impressed! The style is also a lot more colorful than Germany. In Germany they wear a lot of black, gray, dark green...etc. Here there were patterns, pastels, bright shoes and bags! Cultures are so interesting!

    

    

We went back to the hotel and grabbed out luggage and got on the train to Colmar. It was just a 2 hr train ride plus it had a/c!