Atelys Hotel Strasbourg

I started the week in Geneva because of work. During my weekly Skype call with my parents, they mentioned my brother would be leaving for Paris the next morning. Nice of him to tell me! I called him but couldn't get a hold of him, so tried again in the morning. By the time I was awake on Monday, he was in bed for the night, but luckily he woke up and answered the phone. He told me he had a free day on Wednesday with no plans so this would be a good day for us to ...

... the ambience of the town is a site in itself. We walked from our hotel near the train station and crossed a bridge over a branch of L’Ill River, which surrounds the historical center of Strasbourg. We checked out some stained glass in St. Pierre’s, we went into a Virgin Records (an interesting experience in another country), we walked through Place Kleber, and we eventually found our way to Place Gutenberg. Gutenberg moved to and lived ...

Hablar de Estrasburgo es hablar de la Gran Isla en la que se asienta su centro histórico, abrazada por el rio Ill, afluente del Rhin. Es uno de los cascos medievales mejor conservados de Europa y su catedral es una de las mas altas del mundo. La recorrimos en barco por sus canales y paseamos por el barrio de la Petite France, el mas pinturesco de Estrasburgo y el que tiene mas canales.

... tarte flambée contains only bacon and onions. We decided to take it to the next level where they also add cheese as a topping. It was delicious! We completed our meal with French beer, Kronenbourg, which is everywhere here (though I have drank it in Canada as well). After lunch we started our second audio tour but were tired of walking long before it was completed. We had visited many important buildings outside of the ...

... am SO glad that I speak French, although I don't always speak it as well as I think I do. I've found that I can always make myself understood, but that I produce varying degrees of amusement and annoyance on the faces of the people I'm speaking to. Comprehension is often much more difficult, for some reason. But I'm very proud of the fact that, while some people will automatically switch to English to talk to me, many people will keep ...

We caught the wrong train and wound up in Gengenbach. While we were waiting for a train back we met a lady who told us the town had a beautiful old-town section. So we went discovering again. After a good look around we stopped at a pub while we were waiting for the next train and got talking to the owner. Turns out he'd been to Australia on holiday, so we had a good time talking to him until it was time to go.

... expensive, so we walked down to McDonalds, I got a 1 euro milkshake, and used the internet for free there for over an hour. It was nice to be able to use the internet freely, and not just during class time. We then came back to the hotel, talked to couple people, and got ready for bed. All my pictures are up to date, so don't forget to check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/amberlee446 . I know that there are over 2,500, but they're good!

... blockade
-all the tolls (~30E one way)
epic excursion to the Zenith (highway, pointy fence, cow ****)
Queens of the Stone Age at the Zenith
-missed 2/3 of their 1.5 hour set
-small venue
tucked in by 12 (sneaking in through the window of the hotel due to max 2 per room)

... cold. One of the highlights was when we went to Cafe Grand Rue. A funky cafe with unique decor and a huge selection of desserts in a big display case. One of the servers gave us a "tour"/explanation of the various desserts. It was a tough decision as everything looked so delicious. There was chocolate cake, apple tart, more tarts, different kinds of cheesecake, various accompaniments such as meringue, creme anglaise, etc. We opted ...

... shops had ones that were either too touristy in design, too big or too small, or were too expensive. I finally found some shops though that had traditionally Alsacian pottery, particularly the casserole dishes for a good price. I ended up buying two of them: one green and one blue, both of them with a stork motif and with some geese/ducks, flowers and leaves painted along the sides and lids. For those of you unfamiliar with the Alsacian ...