Strasbourg and our Life in a Fruit Basket

Sunday morning, sunny, 28C. It was Roland's first real weekend and we were in the mood for another - less purposeful (no laundry today) - road trip. Today our trusty four-wheeler carried us to Strasbourg, capital of Elsass in France.

It's about fifty klicks away, and roughly fourty minutes later we arrived downtown, claimed a lovely shady parking spot under some sycamore trees (free parking on Sundays), and walked down to the Grande Île, the big island in the river Ill, the historic center of the city and a UNESCO world heritage site.

Naturally it is a place that is overflowing with tourists. There are lots of museums and churches to visit but the day was just too beautiful to be spend indoors. On the right there is the Cathedral of our Lady of Strasbourg, a thirteenth century roman-catholic church, and until the late nineteenth century at 142 meters the tallest building in the world.

It is a Gothic monster, and is impossible to be captured by camera. As per Wiki it is still "... the sixth tallest church in the world and the highest still-standing structure built entirely in the Middle-Ages."

It is for sure an ugly piece but impressive nevertheless.

We walked around, admired the architecture of past centuries, and enjoyed the breeze at the river front.

We couldn't decide on settling in one of the many restaurants though, because the prices on the menus were ridiculous. For two simple meals plus beverages you would have to bleed an average of 40 to 50 Euros. No thanks!

Eventually we found a small convenience store, grabbed some sandwiches and pops and were stuffed for less than 10 bucks.

La Maison des Tanneurs - the Tanner's House is one of the central buildings in the Petite France area:

The area is full of half-timbered buildings, and their fronts are often decorated with flowers, mostly Geraniums.

Tourist boats were carrying loads of passengers around the island. Sometimes they have to pass a wooden water gate to gain about a meter elevation. The ship barely fits the canal. The process took about five minutes, and then it carefully continued its journey, gently steered around a tight corner by a skillful operator.

For the way home we chose the byways and meandered through fields of fruit trees, grains and vineyards.

There were apple trees, pear trees, black and red cherry trees. There were fields of strawberries, raspberries and currants. And best of all grapes growing from here to the horizon.

 You could tell, this area must be one of Germany's fruit baskets.

And in the midst of it one of the many little worship places to pray for a good harvest, and to give thanks to the power(s) that be.

A one cylinder Deutz tractor from the 1950's still fully functional.

Of course we had to stop at one of the many fruit stands to pick up some cherries, blueberries and strawberries, and a jar of organic homemade strawberry jam. This will make for some fine vitamin intake back home. Our lives are going to be darn healthy with all the good local produce around.