Strasbourg, France

The beautiful Ill river winding through the city of Strasbourg, France.


Seated on the French side of the German-French border along the river Ill Strasbourg is France's 9th largest city and seat of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.


The Strasbourg Cathedral



This was a last second trip for me this weekend as I read about it and got the last remaining ticket two days before the trip. We started off viewing the 4th tallest church in the world, simply named The Strasbourg Cathedral. Inside the vast church is one of the world's biggest astronomical clock which simply tells of the position of the sun and moon and other astronomical statistics. Exactly at midday (1234) the clock came to life with characters with symbolic meanings. While watching it, it reminded me of a giant Coo-Coo-Clock.


The Astronomical Clock housed in the cathedral

After the clock show we took to the river in a large tourist boat. It was a quick way to see the city but afterwards I realized I could have walked the entire river and got better pictures (which I did later). It was enclosed so all the pictures that I took had a bad reflection on them and thus unusable. The boat ride was relaxing as it came with an audio guide pre-programmed for English speaking tourists. The interesting part came when the level of the river raised and lowered sharply and the only way safely maneuver the boat was to drive in to a lock like the Panama Canal uses. This lock opens in one end to allow the boat to enter. It then proceeds to fill with water (or remove it) to the new level and the front gate opens so the boat drives right out at the new water level.


Once the tour was over I set out on my own to go and look at the places I just saw and recaptured them with the camera. Some of the Cathedrals were two far from the river to even get look at them from the boat so I was glad I walked it instead of being satisfied with the boat trip.