Down the Rhine Day 3

 We actually arrived in Strasbourg late yesterday afternoon and spent the night tied up in dock. Today we were able to bike around the city of Strasbourg with our guide Monica. Our bikes were not up to the standards we are use to but we made due. Strasbourg is a city undergoing change. It is focusing on decreasing car traffic within the city core and stressing public transportation and Bicycles. The goal was for 2 million cycle rides into the city this year which seem likely to succeed given they are at 1.9 million trips already.

The Cathedral in Strasbourg was the tallest structure in the world when it was completed. It is quite something give that construction started around the year 1000 and was finished in the 1400s.  The pictures do not convey the scale and fine detailed work. It is truly amazing to see. The inside height is 107 feet, and the tower rises 466 feet up in the air. We complain about supply chain issues now with construction, but imagine that it took longer to complete than the US has been a country. Imagine the cost overruns…

Some other interesting areas in Strasbourg include little Berlin. This is where the Germans built a large number of buildings in the late 1800s that give the area a very German architectural feel. 

Other structures in town are the EU parliament and the European court of Human Rights. The EU parliament building is intentionally left somewhat unfinished with the idea that as other countries join more construction can be done to add to the building. The European court building is fashioned on the idea of a scale of justice. It might be hard to see in the picture but that is what the building is supposed to represent. We did a biking tour and got to see these and several other sites in the morning.

This afternoon I went back out on my own hoping to ride on the Eurovelo 15. The EU is working on developing several large bicycle routes through Europe with Euro-velo signage. We rode on a stretch of route 15 this morning and my goal was to ride out a while on the route this afternoon Unfortunately I missed a turn and spent the next 7 miles wandering around trying to refind the route. Finally after giving up I discovered I was back on the trail.

 Euro-Vélo 15 around Strasbourg is quite beautiful riding. The Euro-Vélo 15 route is about 744 miles along the Rhine river from Amsterdam to the source of the Rhine in Switzerland . I would love to cycle it some time. Ila not quite so much.

Tonight we had dinner at the chefs table. It was a wonderful 7 course meal…no one course seemed like very much food but in total 7 courses was quite a bit of food by the end. The food was wonderful but we feel very full.

So while our guide kept us on track this morning… this afternoon I was definitely Not Quite Lost.

Dale and Ila