Paris-Strasbourg

We arrived at Strasbourg in late afternoon. I had planned to make Strasbourg a simple stop-gap before Luxembourg, but that changed due to train schedules. We bought two 24 hour tram tickets and zipped our way to the center of the city. On the way I asked a fellow passenger where to find a grocery store. She quickly rattled off several different places, but good advice comes with a price. It turned out she was homeless and I immediately felt tactless about my question. She said something along the lines of, "I know where to find all the grocery stores, but now that I lost my job and don't have a place to sleep I can't buy food there anymore." Good job, tourist...

To make the most of our money, we bought a loaf of bread, some ham, and a cheap coke. We sat in the middle of a small park adjacent to an enormous fake keg. Hoping for a bite, somebody's black dog [Laura apologizes for the distortion of this photo] walked directly up to our bench and sat patiently; it even gently pawed Laura's leg in an attempt to win her over. Despite my most earnest efforts in French and English, I could not get the dog to leave. (While reflecting later I decided that the dog must have been German.)

I booked a room at an inexpensive hotel. I had no idea where to find it, but since I am a frugal person I reserved a room anyway. (I found it humorous that the hotel's name was "Best Hotel". That leaves a lot of room for subjective opinions if the person is not familiar with the actual 'Best Hotel'.) Before leaving the park area I saved a small map of the hotel's location. I knew it would not do us much good, but I hoped it would be better than mine and Laura's usual "look at maps whenever we see them at a bus stop" method.

We finally made it to the right location. I would have felt I had made a grievous error due to the copious wait we endured were a family not waiting for the same bus. The bus eventually arrived and we got on board. About half an hour later we happily got off at the incorrect stop.

I realized my error, spat out a few gros mots, and proceeded to walk towards a pizza place in our vicinity. A shady looking man was smoking a cigarette on the porch, so we went inside to look for somebody else to disturb. The man running the place had a phone in one hand, money in the other, and a full line up to the counter. Realizing the futility of my desire to solicit him, I motioned to Laura and we stepped out onto the porch. Upon stating, "Bonsoir, excusez-moi monsieur," he immediately extinguished his cigarette and listened attentively. He hailed one of his friends who was about to deliver a pizza, whereupon the two began a Schlieffen-style exchange about how to find the hotel. The directions were perfect, though disheartening due to the number of kilometers we needed to traverse to recuperate from our choice of the incorrect bus stop.

Though we were completely lost, Strasbourg was a breath of fresh air compared to Paris. The German architecture was interesting and the typical French graffiti was nearly nonexistent. The neighborhoods reminded me of subdivisions in the U.S. Laura insists that I say we saw a cute little hedgehog walking across the street as we walked to the hotel. It turned out that the bus we had taken passed by our hotel.

I have learned that when traveling one must appreciate the best and accept the worst. Unless you are a rich individual with a good guide, tourism is a tough gig.

We fell asleep to a French quiz show in a room much larger than the one we were compelled to use at the airport several months ago. The next morning, we took the bus back to the center of the city, and admired the Palais Rohan as well as the amazing Strasbourg Cathedral, which was finished in 1439. We walked around for about another hour, encountering interesting street signs, shops, and entertainers before ultimately making our way to the train station. I gobbled a pretzel and a beer while Laura downed an espresso, and off we went once more.

Next stop: The diminutive domain of the Grand Duchy - Luxembourg.