Travels with Boo: Change of Plans: Straßburg/Strasbourg, France

We arrived in Baden-Baden, Germany right around dinner time yesterday. Our hotel wasn't anything special, but our room was over a pretty creek:

We walked to a restaurant across the street from the hotel, and enjoyed a delicious dinner: schweinenschnitzel (pork) for Boo and me, and wienerschnitzel (veal) for John. I like veal, but baby cows. It's like the only moral code I have on food, ever. So I'll take a bite, but I won't order it. It was pretty darn good though, especially with a little lemon.

Our napkins had boars and elk.

Oatmeal/multigrain bread with chive butter. Yum.

I couldn't finish it (I ate a huge, delicious salad first), but it was good.

The best part of dinner was my dessert, which I wasn't even going to order. Kürbis (pumpkin) creme brûlée with nutmeg (I'm guessing) ice cream. YUM. John's apfel (apple) strudel wasn't good. It is looking like we aren't strudel fans because we have yet to like it anywhere. One funny thing was the waitress said I spoke German well. No, no I don't, but I did appreciate her being nice. I think it's because I can pronounce the words as they are supposed to sound, but I certainly can't say more than a greeting, please and thank you, and whatever food I want to consume.

We waddled home and went to sleep. Well, John and Boo did. I've got a cold or something. I'm not stuffy but I'm achy and can't get comfortable sleeping, so I stared at the wall until like midnight because wifi in Europe SUCKS AT EVERY HOTEL. It is always, without fail, not working at night. I don't get this.

Next morning: after a decent breakfast, we dropped John off and started planning our day.

Baden-Baden is known for being a German spa town, and I was looking forward to swimming with Boo at Caracalla-Therme, a fancy spa resort thingy recommended by a German friend.

Unfortunately, it turns out that children must be 8 (I'm guessing eight, because the woman said "seven" but held up eight fingers). Total bummer. I asked if there were any other options in town, and she wrote down a place called Bertholdsbad. After an hour of driving around trying to find a parking spot anywhere ohdeargawdplease, we arrived to find out we couldn't swim until 1pm, which was after we were supposed to pick up John. *sad trombone sound* Also, to compare Caracalla-Therme to the new place? Like going from Cartier to a gumball machine for some jewelry. Total letdown. To Boo's credit, she wasn't happy, but she took the bad news well.

Time to make a new plan. No way was I about to move the car again, so we walked in a pretty rose garden next door, which was nice and Boo really enjoyed.

Here: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6nneranlage

Boo took this picture!

After about an hour or so at the park, John was done with his plant tour and whatever else, so we started walking back to the car. Just before the car, we came upon the recycling guy doing his thing. Maybe it's just me and a four-year-old who thinks it is cool, but it's my blog so you have to deal.

Basically the recycling guy has controls in a box like a huge Atari remote around his neck, which he uses to control a large arm that picks up the bins of different-colored glass to then break open like an egg over the separate compartments in the truck. I'm putting a short video on Instagram as well (travelswithboo).

Once we picked up John, we spontaneously decided to head to Strasbourg, France for lunch and a stroll (about an hour in the direction of home). We are so glad we did!! One of my favorites so far.

Strasbourg is right on the border of France and Germany and was in an Alemanic-speaking region, hence the German name in a French city.

The city is known for its Gothic sandstone cathedral with an astronomical clock (there are also several other medieval churches throughout), and its Petit France District with beautiful old architecture. Strasbourg is also kind of a big deal, since it is the seat of the European Parliament.

After parking, we knew we had to hurry to grab lunch before everything closed, as it was already almost 1pm, and lots of places close well before 2 until dinner time. We stumbled upon Au Petit Bois Vert (The Small Green Woods), and had a wonderful meal. I ordered cod with mushroom risotto, Boo had some sliced ham and roasted potatoes, and John had duck breast with pear and honey sauce.

No idea what was on the cod, but it was really tasty. I couldn't finish my meal, and was sad to let such good risotto go to waste. Fortunately, Boo stepped up and chowed it down.

The duck was tender and perfectly cooked. We checked the restaurant on Trip Advisor later, and found out it is ranked 498th/1,149 in Strasbourg, so I wonder what we missed, as it was quite good.

Now, time to explore! We walked by what can only be described as a "Poop Mummy" (okay, that's all I could see) sculpture outside the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

We crossed a cool medieval bridge that had old gargoyles and statues to admire inside on the walk:

From Wikipedia (including the next picture):

The Ponts Couverts are a set of three bridges and four towers that make up a defensive work erected in the 13th century on the River Ill in the city of Strasbourg in France. The three bridges cross the four river channels of the River Ill that flow through Strasbourg's historic Petite France quarter. The Ponts Couverts have been classified as a Monument historique since 1928.

We crossed another bridge and were in the Perit France district:

I thought this building was cool. The third top window is painted on.

Strasbourg has a pretty vibrant shopping district, including lots of cool food shops. I picked up a backpack for our future UK adventure at the end of October, and Boo got a scarf with dogs:

It started getting really dark and it was hard to take good pictures.

The shoes on the right used big fluffy cow hide in the middle... interesting.

My single complaint about Strasbourg (France in general has crappy traffic) were the cyclists. They were scary with a child. We kept our hands locked on Boo's to be safe as they zoomed in and out of people super fast and on both sides of the roads/alleys/sidewalks. No thanks.

The cathedral was breathtaking. I loved the circular stained glass window, which is a symbol of Strasbourg (you see it on signs everywhere). After much hemming and hawing, I ended up getting a mini version to hang in a window. No regrets.

I couldn't get the entire cathedral in one picture because it is so tall. It was the tallest building in the world from 1647-1874! Today it is still the sixth-tallest church in the word and the highest extant structure built entirely in the Middle Ages.

So much detail!! It took from 1176-1439 to construct.

The cathedral was really dark, couldn't get the best pics.

To the right of the back of the church is its astronomical clock:

I was excited because it was a few minutes to 4pm, so I figured we would see the clock in action. Whomp whomp. The Angels dinged their bells four times and that was it. I guess the 18" figurines of Jesus and the Apostles form a procession at 12:30pm, and that's the time to be there.