It has been the end of an excellent three day stay
in Strasbourg.
A small history and geography lesson for you. Strasbourg
is now in France. It is the capital of the Alsace region. Strasbourg has alternated
between being part of Germany and France. The result of being part of both
countries has had a profound effect on Strasbourg culture. This was an old rich
city, and being on the Rhine, it was an important port. Today the city is very
well connected by road and rail and though there is an airport, you are better
advised to fly to Basel and take a short 70 minute train ride into Strasbourg.
Today Strasbourg is an important city. It is the
seat of several important European institutions such as the European
Parliament, the Council of Europe, the International Institute of Human Rights
and many more. Historically, Strasbourg was important too. Joanes Gutenberg the
man who invented the printing press either lived here or invented the press
here. There is some confusion on this topic
The most beautiful part of Strasbourg, the city
centre, is an island called Ill Grande. This island has some 27 bridges
connecting to the rest of the land. The whole island was declared a World
Heritage site by UNESCO some years ago. So, it is well worth visiting.
So what is Strasbourg like? It is in some ways like
Ghent and Bruges in as much as it has a lot of waterways and like them, this
too was an old rich city. Strasbourg is full of extremely beautiful well
preserved buildings. The Petit France quarter is gorgeous. The wooden pillared
buildings with white walls and pretty flowers are captivating. Tourists like us
cannot but take photographs. This was a really beautiful area.
The Cathedral, which for many years was the world’s
tallest building, is magnificent. To a large extent, you cannot appreciate the
scale of the Cathedral as the area around it is `developed’. What I mean is
that unlike most structures of this size the Cathedral is no open space around
it. So you literally stand right in front of it. Taking photographs is
difficult as the camera cannot capture the sheer size of the structure when you
are so close.
You do have to take a boat ride around the city. You pass a series of locks. In some the boat goes up and in others the boat goes down. Quite fascinating. It
is quite nice and the boat takes you to the area where the European Parliament
is located. The architecture here is totally modern. I do not have a problem
with this. One part of the city has modern architecture while the rest is
classic. The two styles are not mixed.
Strasbourg is extremely pretty. I mean really
pretty. With Bruges, Ghent, Heidelberg it ranks as a really pretty place.
Bologna and Toulouse were nice too, but they cannot compete on beauty and
prettiness with Strasbourg.
This is a must visit. All the photographs are like
picture postcards. Here are a few. Too much of a good thing is bad.
Very Pretty.
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