On Saturday, October 14th we drove to Strasbourg, France. Yes, we DROVE to France. It is still hard to get used to that! Strasbourg is just over the German boarder, southwest of Heidelberg. It was less than a 2 hour drive. Strasbourg is an amazing and beautiful city! We LOVED it! We crossed the Rhine into France. Strasbourg sits on the Ill River, where the Ill flows into the Rhine. It was first settled by the Romans and is full of history. From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Archbishopric Strasbourg and it is home of the amazing Strasbourg Muenster.
We parked and then stumbled upon a beautiful church - St. Pierre. This church had an amazing sculpture in the front - in honor of a hero of war - a little strange to us for the main focus of the front of a church but it was beautiful!
This is the oldest working monastery north of the Alps. This is the monastery courtyard.
Strasbourg had a distinctly "French" feel. It was different than German small cities - even though it spent most of its "life" switching from being German to French - back and forth (several times even in the 20th century!).
We walked toward our goal - the large Strasbourg Muenster and the Petite-France district. As we walked we came across a small festival in one of the city squares. There was a live band, food (we bought French baguette and French cheese) and wine. We had a small "picnic" for lunch.
The famous "Petite-France" district. This region of Strasbourg is along the river and is full of beautiful, old French homes and shops. It was amazing to walk along the small streets! Strasbourg is famous for a special type of cake - baked in a special pan that resembled a bundt pan.
The petite France district lies along the Ill River and is just beautiful and quaint! Very romantic!
This is Staint Thomas Church. Also amazingly beautiful. A church on this site dates to the 6th century. This particular structure dates to the early/mid 1200's.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this church is its famous Silbermann organ. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Schweitzer both played on this organ which dates to 1740.
We walked on toward the Strasbourg Muenster. The platz surrounding the Muenster is beautiful. This building is quite famous - the Maison Kammerzell. The restaurant walls in this building are covered in painting. It is really quite beautiful!
The Gothic Strasbourg Muenster is amazing. You just can't come close to comprehending the immensity of these amazing buildings except in person but here are some pictures anyway...
The Strasbourg Muenster was completed in 1439, at which time it became the world's tallest building. During the 1520's the city embraced the teachings of Martin Luther and Strasbourg was important in establishing Protestantism as an accepted denomination in southwest Germany, although the Muenster later became Catholic again in the late 1600's.
Just visiting these amazing churches are "holy moments" in and of themselves. But to add to the experience, so many times when we have been visiting these amazing churches, choirs will form at the front and sing several hymns. The acoustics of these buildings is amazing and the music of even a small choir echoes in the whole church. These moments are magical and we are so thankful to these traveling choirs for being willing to share their music with others!
Sculptures like this one can be found in every side room of these amazing churches!
Probably the most famous feature of the Strasbourg
Muenster is its astronomical clock. The clock is behind the kids here and reaches the ceiling! We watched it turn 2PM and small mechanical figures move, ring bells, etc. It is wonderful!
Strasbourg is wonderful! We hope to return - it is worth a second visit!
