The port of Kehl, Germany, was our gateway to our visit to the city of Strasbourg, France. Only a fifteen minute bus ride away from the port, Strasbourg is the second most popular destination in France - the first most popular destination being Paris. The entire central 'island' city of Strasbourg, the Grande Ile, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We started our day with a 9am bus departure from the AMAKristina. Our plan for the day was to participate in an extended guided walking tour of Strasbourg, walk through the Grande Ile with ad hoc stops, have lunch in the city and return back to the AMAKristina around 4pm. A pretty full seven hour schedule. Walkers in our group had an option to return to the ship for lunch, but we wanted to make to the most of our visit by staying in town.
Our bus dropped us off at a Stasbourg park, l’Orangerie. There, we started what seemed to be a brisk walk to the
Cathedral of Norte Dame. This walk took us past the European Parliament
Building, Square Tivoli, Place de Bordeaux, Place de la Republic, Palais du
Rhin, University Library, Opera national du Rhin, Place Brogie, into the Petite
France area of town, Place Saint-Thomas, Place Gutenberg and, finally, up Rue Mercier
to the Cathedral of Norte Dame. The walk didn’t allow much time for narration and certainly no interior visits.
As it was, we the timing of our walk brought us the Cathedral just in time to gather for watching the Cathedral’s Astronomical Clock hail 12:30pm.
This clock is the third clock at the Cathedral. The first
ran from about 1352-1572. The second clock ran from 1547 to 1574 until a lightning
strike ended its operation. The third clock was built between 1838 to 1843 and
was designed by Jean-Baptistery Schwilgue. Each of the three clocks have a bird
figure that flaps its wings, opens its beak and crows at 12pm (well 12:30pm). Within seconds, a circular diorama of the four-ages of man rotate, 12 apostles take a turn on another rotating diorama, angels strike a bell. figures representing the seven days of the week rotate, a globe rotates and a death figure strikes a bell. Quite a bit of activity and I might have missed describing one or more functions.
Ok, why 12:30pm you might ask and not 12:00noon? From my readings, the clock activity is based on Strasbourg solar time, which runs 30 minutes later.
Leaving the clock, we walked back to Place Gutenberg for a
light lunch at Jennette et les Cycleus. We ordered a lunch of quiche with salads and a fruit tarte for dessert. Fully satiated, we walked back to the Petite
France area to find Pain D’Epices, for a bag of ginger-lemon bread pieces.
Along the way, we stopped to wander in the Cathedral of Saint-Thomas.
As we left the Grand Ile, we stopped to tour the The Alsatian Museum. This museum provided an opportunity to view artifacts
from the 18th and 19th century Strasbourg living. Furniture, toys,
kitchenware, religious items, tools were displayed. The museum was spread over
three buildings. While that would seem to suggest large display rooms, it was quite
the opposite. It seemed that our museum coincided with a larger visitor group. This made it difficult to see the many display cases and items and the temperature and humidity soon became somewhat
oppressive.
Returning to the AMAKristina, we rested a bit and then attended the Captain's Gala Dinner. This dinner marked the near ending of our Rhine River cruise. There was only one more port stop before the AMAKristina arrived in Basel and we depart the ship for a rail trip through Switzerland.
No comments:
Post a Comment