Sunday, December 7, 2008

French Connection, Part 1--Elsass

We had a long weekend to commemorate der Tag der deutschen Einheit, so we decided to celebrate in France. We hopped on a train to Straßburg on Thursday afternoon and arrived that evening. We ventured out in search of wine and crepes (too cliche, I know), turned a corner, and came across this little gem:


Spectacular
The next day we explored Straßburg a little more thoroughly. It turns they have the coolest train station I have ever seen. It's your typical old stone station, but it's covered in a huge glass bubble. That way, the station is a little bit bigger and the old stone facade will be protected from the elements.

Bubble

We headed to the river and followed it through the old city.

Best picture from S-burg

Bienvenu à Petit France


Let's have a look at the cathedral in daylight.
Gutenberg statue

Some important French buildings

And a really important French building

The European Union Parliament

We obvi couldn't go inside the Hemicycle, but it was still pretty awesome from the outside.

Next we left the city in search of real wine country. We took a train Molsheim, which is right in the heart of Elsass' world-famous vineyards.

Too soon?

Quick pit stop at the Bugatti museum, where the first Bugatti factory was established.

It was time to move on, so we left the vineyards behind and rode back into the city.

Bye, hotel (ps excellent booking on that one, Christine)

S-burg love