Strasbourg

We began our trip from Colmar to Strasbourg hoping to make a few stops along the way and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The first place that we stopped was in Sélestat, at the Biblioteque Humaniste. This library began as a private collection, but was eventually donated to the city. It's full of incredibly beautiful old books that show the evolution of humanism, so it encompasses so many of my favorite things: old books, history, and beautiful architecture (the building is gorgeous). It was also incredibly quiet, and we were the only people there at the time that we went, which made looking at the exhibits really nice. The books are under glass and then covered with velvet, so you feel like an explorer uncovering discoveries at every turn. I would recommend stopping here if you ever find yourself in Alsace and like old books.

The Biblioteque Humaniste

The next place that we stopped was not as pleasant, but historically important. I had studied in Germany for nine months collectively at that point, and had not yet been to a concentration camp. We had heard that part of what was so fascinating about the Natzweiler-Struthof camp was that it was such a horrific place in an incredibly beautiful location. And beautiful it was, up in the mountains, with an absolutely gorgeous view. The experience was of course very intense, but I was glad to have gone. Here are just a few images of the camp, to give you an impression:

We did have one more impromptu stop on the way to Strasbourg, and this one was very happy. I am somewhat in love with all thing Dr. Oetker (a brand that makes every imaginable baking ingredient, as well as some other food), and thus was incredibly surprised to see a Dr. Oetker factory on the side of the highway in the middle of rural Alsace. Who knew that something so German was made in France! I got so excited that my dad got off at the exit so that we could drive by and take a picture. As I hopped out of the car and did so, the Dr. Oetker employees waved and smiled back at me. Dream come true!

Dr. Oetker factory in Alsace!

After this brief detour and a lot of traffic we arrived at our bed and breakfast, in Mittelhausen, about 45 minutes outside of Strasbourg. We stayed at the Hansel and Gretel, which is in an adorable house covered in vines, with really sweet cats, and an adorable couple. The husband does research at the university and the wife is an artist, so the house is wonderfully decorated. She comes from the area and so speaks a regional German, and we had fun communicating in German and a teensy tiny bit of French. We also used German to talk to Annette in Elsenheim, and it was fun being somewhere where English wasn't that helpful. It's amazing how much you can communicate across languages.
Our room in Hansel and Gretel had another adorable alcove for me to sleep in, and our breakfast each morning included some sort of treat that Liliane made from scratch. One morning it was a plum tart, and the next a delicious apple crumble.

Chez Hansel and Gretel

My little alcove

Once we finally made it into Strasbourg the next day, I quickly fell in love with the city. Within half an hour there I had decided I wanted to live there. I don't know what it was, whether it was the canals, the cathedral square, or the fact that everything was decorated for Christmas, but I enjoyed our time there immensely. Strasbourg had declared itself the "capital of christmas," and it was easy to see why. With what I believe was 12 Christmas markets and decorations everywhere, it truly felt like Christmas. Even if there was no snow. We had a crêpe at one of the markets and some vin chaud, or hot wine, which is essentially french glühwein. It was not my favorite, as it seemed sweeter somehow than the German variety, but still felt very Christmassy.

Decked out for Christmas
 

I wanted this pretzel-santa so badly!

At the Christmas Market in front of the Cathedral

Cathedral

Restaurant on a canal

My dad in the Petite France area of the city

This is the house I want to live in

Christmas at night

We explored the city in the morning, and spent the afternoon in the Historical Museum, which chronicles the history of the city of Strasbourg. It was an incredibly well put-together museum, with interactive exhibits and a free and extensive audio guide, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city. I think learning about the history of the city definitely helped me to appreciate the atmosphere that we enjoyed while there. We spent that evening in the Museum of Contemporary art. They had a really interesting exhibit on the supernatural in European art, but it was so incredibly large that we couldn't make it through the entire exhibit, especially after having already made our way through the permanent exhibits. It would have taken at least three hours to see properly, and we were getting hungry. Part of the exhibition, however, was a display of important and/or famous old books that referenced death or the supernatural. I had a small freak out after seeing the Malleus Maleficarum, and spent an enormous amount of time trying to read all of the information (which was only available in French and German). After the museum we headed back to the city center, where we had a delicious dinner with a very entertaining waiter. After a brief moment where we thought we would not be able to get to our car in the parking garage below a mall that had closed, and some adventures with doors that locked from the inside, we finally made it back to Hansel and Gretel.

The next morning we stopped by some of the EU parliament buildings on our way out of town, but didn't see too many of them. We hadn't called ahead to schedule a tour, and we had to get to Luxembourg before it got to be too late. The EU buildings are in an entirely different part of town than the other touristy sites, so we hadn't made it there the day before.

That's it for this installment! Later this week: the finale of my trip with my dad and Lisa (Luxembourg and Belgium), and a weekend in Amsterdam!