Sight-seeing in Strasbourg!!!!

This is the second part to the trip. We made it to Strasbourg and this is what we saw:

Thanks to our lovely room balcony, we had a perfect view of the market from Place Kleber

 
 And this was our nice room in Le Hotel Kleber. Very nice, cosy, and warm. Perfect for our stay.

 We decided to call it a night, after the Chateau we saw in the previous post ( which you can see here). The next day we went exploring. We had to go see the Cathedral Notre Dame because it had an astronomical clock that still had working parts from the 1500s.

Very majestic, huh?

Inside we saw the clock:

The apostles pass at the top everyday at 12:30pm. The figure of Jesus blesses them and the rooster at the very top crows three times. (I have to admit, even though it's really cool that the clock is still in working order and apparently will remain so until the end of time, the sound the rooster made was like a strangled cat and I couldn't help but laugh a little to myself.) Oh well.

The cathedral is well known for it's rose window. And, you can definitely see why here:

I love this.

And I just thought the organ was pretty so here's a pic of that.

Afterwards, we were definitely hungry. I happened to write down some places recommended from our guidebook and lo and behold! We found Bistro & Chocolat near the cathedral. It's a little vegetarian/vegan bistro. So cute and the food was fantastic!

 

We both ordered a hot chocolate. However, we had forgotten that here in France, they give it to you in a bowl. It was good. Not too sweet, just perfect.


Then came the food: vegetable paella and a potato and carrot burger. Can we say scrumptious?

(Hungry yet?)
 After a wonderful healthy meal, we continued our sight-seeing.

A hotel window with moving polar bears

 Had to go into the alsacian museum.

 Yup, the regional fashion has large bows as hats. The French Alsacian women were fiesty ones too. When Strasbourg was taken over by Germany in 1850 something, they wore a little rosette of the French colors (red white and blue) on their bows. And, another tidbit, most Alsacian wedding dresses were black until the 1920s. The museum was very much worth it. I love history and French culture. Perfect blend on a rainy day.

Courtyard Christmas Tree

 Making our way back to the Cathedral, as there was a nice Christmas market there, we stopped to see a few window displays.

I think Mr. K is hungry here.

No wonder! Look at those yummy kougelhopfs and bredles! (mini bundt cakes and cookies) Miammmmmm!

 At another window, we saw cute trees and snowmen (?) So pretty.

We were serenaded by La Famille Patchounharouf et Les Gentils Barbares. A cool street band with a gypsy/jazz/French feel. Or as Mr K put it: crazy French men with crazy instruments. They were good and we bought a CD of theirs! Never saw so many people dance in the streets. It was fun.

Yes, the far guy on the right is playing a cardboard box. It added to the feel of the music.

After that we went on to see La Petite France. It's an island in Strasbourg, famous for it's half-timbered houses. Very Germanic and French. Here is a taste of what we saw.

Christmas decoration on a thread store.

Staying dry.

A little lady was able to take our photo on the St. Martin bridge. We tried so hard to stay dry and warm. We are wearing so many layers under our jackets here. Wet and cold do not mix well, but the sights made up for it all.

 

Smile!

That's all we saw...during the day! I'll have to do another post for the city at night!

To be continued...