Germany 2007, Day Twelve

Day twelve 14th June

After seeing just how busy the roads were the previous day and having all the instructions we need for the bus, we decide that going into Strasbourg by bus is a better option than using the scooter. Its about a one mile walk to the bus stop but its not a bad walk along the river. It is just starting to rain as we arrive in the town centre and the No21 bus just getting ready to leave, we hop on and pay €2.50 each return. There is plenty of room on the bus until we get to the train station, from there the bus is very full until we get to the centre of Strasbourg.

We had no water with us, we were supposed to get some from Kehl centre but as the bus was ready to leave when we arrived, that didn't happen, so the first thing we needed was a shop. The first one we found by the cathedral wanted €4.00 for one bottle of water, I would rather die of thirst than pay that much for water, so on we went. We passed a land train ready to do a tour of the centre, Dot wanted to get on but I wanted to get water fist, so we let it go, eventually down a side street we got a large bottle for €0.80, quit a difference.

We headed down the side street to the river/canal that rings the old centre of the city, to sit and have a drink of water, fortuitously for us, this was where the tour boats were leaving from for trips, we got tickets and hopped straight onto one that was about to depart.

Its usually a good idea, if you are new to a town or city, to go on a scheduled tour if possible, be it an open top bus, boat or land train, you can get lots of useful info, orientation and can save visiting places that are not really worth it.

The boat trip does a complete circuit of the old city, via cannel, river and a couple of locks and we did find parts of the city we would like to visit latter on foot.  In fact lots of places looked worth a visit but we only had a day.

 

Off the boat we headed for the Petite France district, the old pretty part of the city, we walked along the cannel retracing the route of the boat tour. As we were taking photos of a lock full of children in canoes the skies turned black and there was a clap of thunder, we turned and headed for cover, the cover just happened to be a bar.

We made it in just as the heavens opened, we got sat down and ordered two beers, the waiter said he would bring two large glasses of the local beer. As there are many breweries in the area, I though we might get something special, we did but it wasn't the beer, that was very ordinary, it was the price about €11, I had forgotten that drinking beer out in France was expensive but this was something else. The really sad thing is, we paid that much for the beer and can not even remember what it was called also, it was so very ordinary.

Within minutes the sun was back out and we made a swift exit from the bar and continued our exploration of the old town. We spent a long time looking around, there is a lot to see, we got sandwiches for lunch and we crossed a covered bride that had three different levels. Much later after a very long look round, we headed for the shops, then in a large shopping mall, looked again for a PC shop and routing software but still no joy.

There was a highly recommended bar, that we kept a lookout for but by the time we got round to it, we were out of cash, so we had to give it a miss. We eventually walked all the way round the old town and ended up back where we started, as the weather is looking dodgy again and as it was now tea time we hopped on the bus back to Kehl.

It rained all the time we are on the bus back but luckily stopped as soon as we got off. We were going to have a look around Kehl and have a drink but as the rain was holding off we made tracks for the site. Made it back dry but after a long day walking I couldn't be bothered with cooking, so we got something in the site restaurant and had a few drinks as well. Later we where going to sit outside the van but it started to drizzle so we moved inside but not before I had talked to the Scottish couple next to use who highly recommended Luxembourg, claiming that on top of all other reasons to visit, was that fuel there was only €0.60 there. 

 So again we changed our plans, out would go Trier and in would be our first ever stopover in Luxembourg and we planned the route on paper accordingly.