Europe 2023 December 17-21 Strasbourg & Colmar, France
After an overnight stay in Frankfurt, we headed to the train station at the airport to begin our journey to Strasbourg France. Strasbourg is famous for their collection of Christmas Markets, so we decided to spend a few days soaking up the holiday spirit in this beautiful town. Blaine booked 3 nights at the Hotel Leonore, a small boutique hotel located in the center of town. We got a taxi from the train station to the hotel. They had to drop us off about 100 yards from the hotel since the central part of town is restricted for cars because of the Christmas markets.
We arrived too early to check in, so after securing our bags at the hotel we walked to a couple of the different markets. There were really a lot of people, but it was fun just exploring, soaking in all of the sights, sounds and smells. Jeri had a Vin Chaud (hot red wine with spices) to take the chill off. Although Strasbourg is not as cold as Finland, it was close!
The next day, our first order of business was to get our clothes cleaned. We found a shop that would do the laundry for us, so we trudged halfway across town, only to be told the amount of clothes was too small for them to do. Ugh! The funny thing is, there was a self serve laundry just down the street from out hotel. The good news is that we found a few more Christmas markets, and the pier where the canal boat tours were located.
After loading our clothes into the washing machines, we walked to a kebab shop a few storefronts away to have lunch. Kebab restaurants are our go-to place in Europe for a quick, delicious meal. Jeri can have her vegetarian kebab, and Blaine gets his beef kebab.
Laundry done and bellies full, we walked back to Pier Batorama Rohan Place to book our canal tour. We took the 45 minute tour, which provided a history of the city as we sailed slowly through the canal.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF STRASBOURG - A settlement at the current site of the city of Strasbourg has existed since the Bronze age due to its excellent geographical position at the crossroads of waterways and overland routes. In 12 BC, this settlement became the main outpost of the Roman empire in its defense against the Germanic tribes of Northern Europe and it was named Argentoratum. Following the fall of the Roman Empire the town began a resurgence under the new name of Stratisburgum and its political and economic growth started in earnest. In 1262, the town broke free from the ruling bishops and the citizens of Strasbourg gained it the status of free imperial city. During the Middle Ages Strasbourg continued to grow in prosperity and importance due not in part to the building of a large bridge over the river Rhine which placed Strasbourg at the heart of northern European trade routes. Duties levied on numerous commodities enabled the city to develop in strategic importance, and in order to gain support from the city the emperor granted it tax exemptions and privileges giving the city further independence and power. In the 15th century, when Strasbourg became a free republic, it attracted free thinkers and reformists who took asylum in the city and helped the city to grow culturally. Towards the end of the 16th century, Strasbourg was caught in the middle of the warring countries of Northern Central Europe and internal political battles, which culminated in the eventual annexation of the Republic of Strasbourg to France in 1697. This brought about a new found prosperity and cultural revival to the city. The period during the 18th and 19th century brought further turmoil to the city and ended with the defeat of Napoleon III. After a six week siege on the city destroying many buildings and monuments it became part of the German empire only to return to France shortly after World War I in 1918. World War II again caused mass destruction in the city and the aggressive occupation by the Germans shaped the city once more with its germanization policy. After the end of World War II Strasbourg regained its status as the crossroads of Europe when in 1949 it was chosen as the headquarters of the Council of Europe. Since 1979 it has been the seat of the 15-member European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights since 1994
The next stop on our Christmas Market tour is Colmar. We had booked 2 nights at Le Columbier, which proved to be a mistake. When we were at the train station in Strasbourg, we bought our tickets to go to Colmar, and we also tried to buy tickets from Colmar to Luxembourg for Friday 12/21. We found out there were no seats available on the only direct train from Colmar to Luxembourg on Friday 12/21. We would have had to make connections in Strasbourg and Metz if we wanted to travel on the 21st. Nope! Our only option was to book the tickets for Thursday, which meant we would only stay for one night in Colmar.
After arriving in Colmar, we took a taxi to the hotel. Le Columbier is another small boutique hotel, located in the heart of the city. Once again, our room was not ready when we arrived, so we spent the next few hours exploring this charming little town. Besides all the Christmas market stalls, one of the main attractions was the Ferris wheel. In our wanderings we discovered a nice German restaurant, Schwendi Bier u Wistub. Blaine finally got his veal Wienerschnitzel with spaetzle. Jeri had a delicious bowl of onion soup, and a veggie plate.
