Day 2

Strasbourg/Offenburg

Krista:

Wake up ready for our first full day in Germany…. Only we decide to spend it in France!. We get on a train in Offenburg Germany to ride about 15-20 minutes across the border to Strasbourg France.

Jackpot!!!! Unbeknownst to us, it’s the Heritage festival. This means that there are street vendors everywhere. Free entrance to the local attractions. A full city ready for exploration. But “Ooops”, I wore the WRONG shoes for walking around town. Aaron and I had to run into a little pharmacy to buy boxes of bandages. Luckily we happen upon, or more like Kim disappeared into, a nice shoe store with some PUMAS just my size (that would be children's 4.5).

 

Thank goodness because the hike to the church was not minor. We stopped at an open air cookie shop that sold only Christmas cookies (we bought a bag). We also stopped in some Christmas stores as Strasbourg is KNOWN for Christmas – there are tons of Christmas stores open year round!!!

We stopped at shops galore until the boys had finally had it and told us to meet then at the church. At the church we lit some candles and walked around. It was beautiful (dark, cold and stark) but beautiful.

  

We all sat and enjoyed some wine (Matt had Bier). And that is where we were introduced to Spatzle (okay, I think maybe I drunk ate some off of Keith, Barb, Kim and Jenni’s dinner the night before but that doesn’t count). It was amazing. Aaron had the spatzle and meatball which was melt in your mouth good and I had a mozzarella, tomato salad that was so-so. Jenni and I (and later Kim) shared some Pinot Blanc from the Alsace region.

During lunch we contemplated a boat ride. All in agreement, we finished up and headed to the riverside (or canal-side) and attempted to get tickets. Unfortunately, the boats were booked for hours so we decided against it and instead agreed that we should make our way back to the train station.

On our way back, Jenni finally broke down and bandaged up her poor feet that had begun to blister from all of our walking.

It would have been terribly out of character if we had not decided to stop for a drink (after our drink). We found a nice little bar with sidewalk seating and HUKAS!!! A drink turned into a few and a huka with peach tobacco! We all smoked a little (matt smoked a lot). Much laughter ensued!

 

This time, for real, we made it back to the train station and back to Offenburg. And would you believe it, right as we were departing the train station, we see another Huka bar with an appropriately Indian motif. Jenni can’t help herself and buys Alex a Huka. We then learn it is called a She-Shaw. More drinks.

At this point we think it’s a great idea to go back to our favorite place, Alcatraz. Have I mentioned that we are with the best possible group of travelers (recap: Kim Villegas, Jenni Kaufman, Krista Schweiss, Aaron Schweiss, Matt Heil, Keith Schweiss, Barb Schweiss)!

After a few drinks at Alcatraz we decided to head home to the Hof. We weren’t ready to go to bed yet (of course) so we sat in the dining room which became our nightly ritual and asked Monika to serve us some brotte and cheese. What we actual received was bread with cream cheese spread with slices of cheese on top of that.  Aaron’s german was off apparently and I was confused but it was my perfect meal! After a few more wonderful german beers/german wein we decided to call it a night.