Rhine River Cycling: Day 4 Strasbourg

Day 4: Strasbourg

Another beautiful morning, fortunately, a bit cooler than yesterday.  The ride this morning was about 32 miles, but flat, flat, flat. We were docked at the port in Strasbourg and it took only a few minutes to be out of the city and into beautiful farmland. We passed through fields of wildflowers,

Fields of thistle

Poppy fields dotting the landscape

and small quaint towns

Bike yoga

At around mile 25, Steffi was waiting with bowlfuls of unbelievably delicious strawberries at a small farmstead.  We would polish off a bowl, and she'd keep refilling it.

Steffi supplying strawberries to the troops

Fantastic strawberries

Don

Sue 

Laur and Sue

Erdeberre stand

Support guide and strawberry "pusher", Steffi

Our guide, Nusa

The bridge in and out of the city ran across the river through a park.  This bridge is ONLY for cyclists  on one side and pedestrians on the other.  Reminded us of Boston.

Cycling and pedestrian bridge into Strasbourg

City tour of Strasbourg in the afternoon.  Strasbourg is the capital city of the Grand Est region (Alsace), in northeastern France, and has been disputed territory for centuries.Strasbourg is one of the de facto three main capitals of the European Union (in addition to Brussels, and Luxembourg)

The city center (Grande Ile) was, in 1988 designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, for good reason.  The old buildings are beautifully preserved,

   

and the canals that run through the city creating the island of th city center give a very Amsterdam'ish look.

Walking along one of the canals, we spotted a group of kids practicing white water kayaking in the sluiceway of a dam.

Our guide was picking on Rick (good naturally)

Sampling chocolate macaroons (indistinguishable from Passover macaroons!)

Statue of Guttenberg

The Strasbourg cathedral, or Notre Dame, was built between 1176 and 1439.  Its construction is from sandstone and rock from the Vosges Mountains, giving its pinkish-brown hue.  It was the tallest structure in the world for 227 years (from 1647-1874) after its lone spire was completed.

Notre Dame of Strasbourg

The cathedral's south transept houses an 55 foot astronomical clock.  We waited around for about 15 minutes until the stroke of 4, when we (and many others) had expected a great show, ala the L'horlage of Prague.  All we got was a short "tinkle".  We found out later that the big show is once a day at 12:45.  Go figure.

L'horlage in Notre Dame

Palace of Strasbourg

Some of our group stopped for ice cream and to rest before it was time to bus back to the floating hotel.

Ice cream at a cafe

We found the ubiquitous giant ice cream cone, and Jeri couldn't resist.

Jeri standing in for Molly

At dinner this evening we sat with a couple from San Diego who turned out to be a retired general dentist.  Nice evening swapping dental and travel stories.  He is an avid surfer, and I couldn't resist my story about my friend Dave and my foray into the world of surfing in Hawaii a couple of years ago.

Tomorrow, a short ride to visit the city of Heidelberg.