Strasbourg

Yesterday I took a day trip with a few friends to Strasbourg, France. Shanna had to work, so it was just me and two friends. I'd heard good things about it, so when the opportunity to go on a USO trip there came up, I jumped on it. We left on the bus from base at 7am and got there shortly before 10pm. The trip normally would take an hour & a half by car, but the buses can't go faster then 100 KM/h, we hit traffic, and by law the bus has to stop for a 30 minute break for every certain amount of hours traveled.  The weather that day could not have been more perfect...sunny and 70 degrees.

The day was broken up into two parts. When we first got there we were given a walking tour of the city, including Le Petite Notre Dame cathedral shown below.

We were also shown the building where Marie Antoinette used to stay, the statue to Johannes Gutenberg (the inventor of the printing press), and other parts of town.

When the walking tour was done around noon, we were given about 5 hours to walk around and see whatever we wanted.  The town was beautiful...I took some pictures, but the majority were taken by the two friends I was with, so once I get them I'll add them to the album I put up.  We had lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant, then we walked around some more.  I came across one store called "Beers of the World".  The time was about 1:30pm, but a lot of stores (this one included) close from 12:30 to 3pm.  Maybe for a lunch break, or siesta...I have no idea.  So I looked through the window and saw three cases of some fantastic American MicroBrew.  Rogue Chocolate Stout, Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, and Smuttynose IPA.  IPA's are one of my favorite styles of beer, and it's not a style you find in Europe, except for maybe parts of England.  Even then it's not exactly the same thing.  So to find two cases of IPA's in a hole in the wall store in France blew me away.  It was a LONG hour & a half wait until 3pm when it opened.  When it finally did, I ran inside and grabbed the first box...and it was empty.  All three boxes were empty.  They did have a single 12 oz bottle of a beer from Dogfish Head (but not 90 minute), so I bought that for 1 Euro.  It was like being told as a little kid that you have to wait until 7am to come downstairs and open presents on Christmas, only to find out there is no Santa Claus and no presents.  Oh well...the search continues. :)

After that we picked up a few souvenirs, met our tour group back at the bus, and headed home.  Strasbourg was a beautiful city and we'll definitely be back.  Supposedly they have a huge Christmas market that starts in November, so Shanna & I will probably head back for that.

Click here or the picture above to see the pictures.  There will be more pictures coming as I get them from my friends...when I do, I'll post an update blog to let everyone know.