Tuesday 10th September
Last night was exceptionally quiet, even the birds didn’t wake up until 8.30 this morning. Our plan is to cycle into Strasbourg today and the cycle routes and flat countryside make it so easy. Add in that every motorist will stop for you at the crossing points and just like at home you can ride through red lights.
This is where we locked the bikes up so we could have a stroll around. This building is the Old Fish Market. The river/canal runs all the way around the city.
Germanic half timbered buildings are everywhere.
I know the photo is a bit blurry but I couldn’t help taking a photo of this shop. Three bladed knives, combat knives, knuckle dusters and mace spray along with Samurai swords and very dangerous looking claws and the like. Wonder why we don’t get shops like this back home.
More old buildings, this is in the main cathedral square. Hundreds of tourists milling about or being shepherded by flag waving tour guides.
Almost our first view of the cathedral itself.
It’s so big you can’t get it all in. The carving is amazing. When we arrived there were very long queues to get in so since it was nearly feeding time we thought we’d come back when the rotten old tourists have gone.
This is where we had our lunch, we tried the place nearest to the camera and after 5 minutes without being served moved next door.
And this my friends is what beer of the day looks like. This is also what €15 of beer looks like, Lucy hasn’t seen the prices yet which is why she is still smiling. Lunch itself was a couple of flammenkuches, basically very thin pizzas without the tomato topping and served on wooden boards. After yesterdays nuisance of not having any change I now have a pot in Frankie to keep all our coins larger than 20¢ so I ended up with just about a Euros worth of shrapnel left in my pocket. When it came to paying time I had the choice of giving our waiter nearly a Euro or €5 tip. Difficult decision.
The cathedral is 142m high and was completed in 1439.
Eventually we made it into the cathedral and other than the stain glass windows was a bit of a disappointment.
The large rose window was impressive but couldn’t se why the long queues.
Ove in the far corner was this impressive column with the 12 disciples.
And then we found the cause of the queues. This astronomical clock, the third of its kind since the 14th century, this one was built in 1842. At 12 noon every day the statues near the top start walking around, banging drums and the cockerel top left crows three times. Just below the statues is a revolving moon which shows the phase of the moon, below that is an orrery showing Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn rotating around the sun, next down is a clock showing local European time as well as the solar time and then down at the bottom is a large rotating earth with solar and lunar calculators either side.
Eventually we found the European Parliament in Strasboug.
Great big building not being used at the moment
There you are, all three sides.
On the way back we spotted a Russian Orthodox church.
And our homing beacon, a water tower built right beside our aire. Moving on in the morning, North or South, we’re not really sure. Need to find a beer shop soon, I accidentally ran out and all I’ve got is that dodgy 6% “whisky”.