Strasbourg: Reconstructed Memories

The pictures from the trip reconstruct the memories of the journey for me (and you), more than anything else.  Not only do buildings, faces, and places, but entire towns and cities get lost in between folds of memory and absence of photographic evidence.  To avoid losing the small city into such an abyss of forgetfulness, I’m dedicating this post to Strasbourg.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera when we visited Strasbourg, but I was so taken by the city that this is probably for the best since otherwise I would have worn out the battery too early, and even now I can vividly recall its narrow avenues and gently flowing waterways.

To find out more about the history of Strasbourg I would encourage you to go to the wikipedia article.  The city has passed between France and Germany several times and has a festive and unique regional character that is not quite German or French.  Additionally there are many beautiful photos of the medieval city in the article.

The morning, as often was the case, was spent on an unmemorable walking tour of Strasbourg, which Mom and I ditched early to get some coffee and explore on our own.  Featuring more pink sandstone, a beautiful old town, a new government district containing several important EU buildings, and a large university, I had a great day exploring Strasbourg.  After getting coffee, Mom and I headed for a stroll along the canal that encircles the old town.  We then explored some of the historic university on our way to the botanical garden, which, of course, happened to be closed that day.  I’m not sure how gardens come to be closed, but I think it may have been for construction purposes.  Afterwards we headed back to the city center to have lunch and then retraced the steps of the tour we had missed, getting slightly lost, and finally finding what is called petite France.  It was a beautiful part of the city where two canals converge around an island populated by ancient-looking willows and dreamy medieval buildings, with their colorful shutters and flower boxed windows, filling the space with bucolic charm in the center of a modern city.  It was a pleasant moment we spent gazing upon petite France.

We were free to catch different busses departing from the city to our boat docked on the German side of the river, so I stayed into the afternoon, exploring a large park, part of the suburbs, and finishing my excursion with a walk along a canal for a ways.  Worn out from walking, I made it to the bus just as the first drops of rain were falling and remained on board for the duration of the day.


You can retrace my steps by looking at the tabs on the map below:


View Strasbourg in a larger map