Black Forest (II): Strasbourg

We caught the train from Karlsruhe down to Offenburg, and then jumped a second train to Strasbourg. The name sounds German, but it's actually just over the border in France.

During WWII, the population of Strasbourg was evacuated and the city was empty for 10 months. That was probably the smart move. I've seen what it's like overrun by hordes of Germans.



Strasbourg labels itself "the Capital of Christmas", and even post-Christmas when we visited there were markets scattered all over the city.

That's What I Said

In addition, it's cute as a button. The town is dominated by a massive cathedral, so we slogged our way up a narrow spiral staircase to the top to see the view.

The centre of Strasbourg is completely surrounded by canals and is a World Heritage site. It has a bit of a Bruges feel to it.

There was no snow, but the river was very full. The benches in the shot below stick out of the water. The path is completely submerged.







For dinner, I had a duck stew with potato and chestnut. Germany, you're going to have to lift your culinary game.

Black Forest (I): Karlsruhe

In the holiday between Christmas and New Year, we travelled to the Black Forest region to explore.

If you're anything like us, the phrase "Black Forest" conjures a couple of mental images: cake, fur trees, and of course, cuckoo clocks.

Called it!

We also expected the region to be buried in snow, but we were wrong there. It was cool and rivers were full, but we only saw a few wisps of snow.

The trip turned out to be better than I expected - there are a lot of interesting sights in the area. We based ourselves in Karlsruhe, which was probably the least exciting option, but it was central for travel and saved us some money.

Only Interesting Building in Karlsruhe