France to Luxembourg and back to Holland

On Sunday night we spent the night in Strasbourg France and stayed at a Comfort Inn hotel. I was so excited to visit this city when I first learned we were coming. A few years ago I had penned a short story that took place in Strasbourg. Obviously, I had never been to Strasbourg at that time, which meant I had to do some research on the city. I don't even remember now why I picked Strasbourg for my story...it must have been a random thing. But now, here I was...in person!

After checking into our rooms we stayed up, had some wine, took pictures, visited, and apparently made some noise! The front desk called and said someone had complained. Okay, party was over. Brett and Erin went back to their room, and so Lynn, Julie, and I decided to wander the streets of Strasbourg.

It was a little late at night, but I think we expected to see more activity. Strasbourg was like a ghost town this time of the night. We may have seen three moving cars and 6 warm bodies.

The next morning, however, the city came to life and was bustling with people, cars, and trains! Brett informed us that Strasbourg was one of the permanent European capitals, the other being Brussels. I also learned from my own research that New York, Geneva, and Strasbourg are the only cities in the world which are home to international institutions without being national capitals.

I was up early, as is my nature, and took pictures  from the street in front of the hotel. Once the rest of the gang was up we checked out of the hotel and went searching for a place to get coffee and a bite to eat.

 As we sat in the little restaurant having our breakfast, Lynn suddenly realized she didn't have her purse! Panic time! Actually, I was panicking more than Lynn was. She had stopped to take pictures and couldn't remember if she put her purse down, or if she even had it with her. We went back to the car and found the purse in the trunk! Whew!

After leaving Strasbourg our next destination was the wine region of Alsace which is located on the eastern border of France and on the west bank of the upper Rhine. This was such a fun trip! We ended up taking Brett's car up on a mountainside on a road that could barely be called a road! We stopped at one point to get pictures of the view below, with all the vineyards blanketing the countryside.

Eventually we found a winery where we could taste some wine and then buy. I think Erin and Julie bought several cases! haha

Our next stop was Luxembourg! It has a population just under a half million people and has an area of just over 2,500 square kilometres or around 1000 square miles....not very big. It is ruled by a Grand Duke and is the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy, which basically means that the head of state is a Duke or Duchess. There are no sales taxes here, either. We parked the car at a garage and proceeded to walk around. But it was soooo cold on this night and it didn't take long for all of us to agree that we needed to find a place to eat and warm up.

Finding a place to eat wasn't easy at first, but we did finally find one.

..the "La Boucherie". The restaurant had a cow theme...everything from the wine glasses to the napkins to the condiments had some depiction of black and white cows on them (these were obviously holstiens)! But the food was pretty good, as was the wine. Brett ordered some escargot (snail), and as I watched the others sample the slimy little creatures I thought I might get sick. I have tried pretty much every kind of food and delicacy but always swore I would draw the line when it came to bugs and snails. So what the hell happened??? Something triggered a compulsive urge just to say "what the heck...go for it"! Before I could give myself the time to change my mind I stuck my fork in the last remaining snail and chewed it up! Hmmmm....it wasn't too bad, as long as I didn't think about what it was I was masticating.

We left the restaurant and visited a little shop with chocolates and wine. I bought a bottle of Luxembourg wine, and I think Erin did, too. Geez...Brett's car was full of wine by this time. After some funny experiences in the parking garage (being scolded about smoking, and then being scolded about kissing [Is public kissing illegal here? haha]) we were off to NL and back to Brett's. Tonight it was Lynn's turn to drive...and she has no room to talk about me driving fast on the autobahn! Talk about a lead foot! haha Lynnie has one! But we made good time getting back to Eidenhoven.