Have been using Strasbourg as a base for exploring nearby regions....Strasbourg per se doesn't have much to offer apart from an imposing cathedral and a couple of museums. Given that it is situated in the geographic centre of Europe, the European Parliament is based here. However, it is in the heart of Alsace region which is famous for its wines (pinot gris/noir/blanc and riesling). Ofcourse, the regions dogs go by the name of Alsatian (now the penny drops?).
On my second day at Strasbourg, I took a random train to Ribeauville. According to LP, it is a beautiful village. They were totally wrong. It is an EXTREMELY beautiful village. They also forgot to mention that the train station is 5 kilometres from the village. When I asked the station master where the village was, he politely told me that it is "1 km away". I guess he didn´t want to break my heart by telling me the truth. But the walk was totally worth every calorie spent. It was through lush green fields and vineyards with an ocassional church or village in the background. The gently rolling Vosges hills with slowly settling mist completed the circle. After passing through fields and having inconseqential meetings with horses, chicken, dogs and storks, I finally reached Ribeauville. It totally took me aback.
Growing flowers and decorating balconies and windows with them seems to be the sole occupation of the people in this village. I have never seen so many flowers in one day as I saw there. Everywhere one walked, one was literally attacked by flowers - in windows, from balconies in narrow streets, in shops...everywhere. And this was supplemented by colourfully painted buildings and houses. In between the houses one can get a glimpse of the three 12th-13th century castles in the background hills. I took a hop off/hop on tourist train that took us round the entire village. The driver, who looked 100% like Gerard Depardieu's Obelisk did a commendable job of driving the 'train' and its 4 bogies through the narrow lanes of Ribeauville. Having got an idea of what all I wanted to see, I then leisurely ambled around town, admiring the countless wine shops (some places sold wine and vegetable together!).Ribeauville has 3 grand crus (Kirchberg de Ribeauville, Osterberg and Geisberg). The grapes of the region also provide Pinot Noir/Gris/Blanc and Riesling. I visited the beautiful but deserted museum on wines. The lady manning the museum asked me if I had any specific queries regarding the Alsatian wines or the wine making process. I politely declined and she shrugged her shoulders. Obviously she had not dealt with a wine-illiterate person earlier.
During lunch, an extremely attractive flower girl walked in and went to all tables with couples. The lady at the table would would pout to her husband/lover/fiance who would be forced to shell out an exorbitant amount for a small bouquet. Obviously the flower lady never came to my table;)
Boring history/culture lesson coming up: Ribeauville is known as the city of minstrels and trobadours. A king of Ribeauville once helped a minstrel in trouble who repaid the king by getting all his trobadour friends to come and play there. Since then ( i.e. 600 years back), there is a medieval festival that takes place here on the first sunday of every september when musicians from all over Europe descend upon this village and totally change the atmosphere. That would be an interesting time to visit Ribeauville. The region also has lots of storks. Many houses in Ribeauville had special nests built for the storks. It is said that these storks migrate to sub-Saharan Africa (Mali and Mauritania). Why would anyone want to leave such a beautiful place. Sadly I had to too.
Strasbourg is on the Franco-German border, so one day I took a train into Baden-Baden (Even someone as American as Bill Clinton said "Baden Baden is so pretty that they´ve had to name it twice"). It lies in the Black Forest area and is the playground resort for the rich. The most common sight on the streets of Baden-Baden is an extremely overdressed woman with a hat on her well-coiffed head, pearl necklace on her slender neck, diamond rings on her fingers, LV handbag in one hand and a leash leading to a poodle in another. Poor old me in my jeans was totally out of place! The town has a ridiculous number of overpriced boutiques and extra-expensive restaurants. A not-so-subtle reminder of my third world origins and the weakness of my currency!
Baden-Baden is famous for its Spas, Thermal springs and Casino. The tourist info centre is in 'Tinkehall' which used to be a pumping station. It now has a mineral water spring running through it. The water was warm and a bit salty but drinking it did not covert me to Superman or give me a hot looking companion! I went to the Casino which has the opulence of Versailles - red satin wallpaper, golden statuettes, fountains and chandeliers the size of pianos. It was easy to imagine some of its famous past customers like Marlene Dietrich or Dostoevsky lounging around the poker table. I could only enter in the 'non-office' hours since I was not wearing a jacket and a tie. It is as well....the maximum bet on a roulette table is 7000 Euros!!!!!!!!!
The river 'Oos' running through Baden-Baden is a joke. It is not more than 5 metres wide but right along it runs the most beautiful street (Lichtentaler Alee) and park. One of the most famous hotels of Baden-Baden (and indeed Germany) lies on the 'banks' of this 'river' - Brenner's Park Hotel. There is a rose garden along the river which has over 400 (yes, 400) varieties of roses. All the roses were not in bloom yet their smell and the sight of beautiful dense hills and pretty houses in the background totally blew me away. As if that was not enough - a new rose garden has been built on a terrace which affords beautiful views of Baden-Baden. Now this garden was even more breathtaking - firstly, it had 500 varieties of Roses and had walkways covered with roseplants and marble statues in classical greek style. That coupled with colours I thought roses never had (white yellow and almost all shades of pink/red), the subtle smell of the flowers mingling with the fresh valley air really and the petals strewn on the ground like a carpet made me wish time would stop! (i am not joking). But sadly I had to get back to Strasbourg!
Today was Ascension thursday and the whole of France was closed. So I decided to play it smart and went to Luxembourg (one of the smaller countries in the world). Ofcourse, in my ignorance of Christian holidays I didn't realise that it was a holiday there also. That meant that i could not do the expensive shopping I usually do;) Luxembourg is a small landlocked country with a princely population of half a million. It has beautiful buildings in the baroque or rennaissance style and since it is situated between two valleys it has a very very hill-stationey feel to it. All around there is greenery with rocky cliffs and trees. A river Petrusse runs through one of the valleys completing the picture postcard feel to it. One of the bridges that runs over this river, Adolphe Bridge, had the largest arch stone when it was built in 1903. Church bells were working overtime today (remember Ascension) so that added an aural charm to the visual beauty.
One of the more imposing buildings of Luxembourg is the headquarters of Arcelor now owned by you-know-who. I promptly photographed the new name-sign on the building ;) The Grand Ducal Palace (this is a Grand Duchy remember) had one solitary guard who is perhaps required by his terms of employment to march whenever the church bells ring. The poor guy had a really busy day today! And in between he had to stand stony-faced when tourists wanted to be photographed with him.
I generally sauntered around town and had a run-in with a very aged gentleman who was sitting on the table next to mine at lunch. He got up to leave and started wearing my coat. The poor gentleman was confused because his coat was the same colour as mine. His hard-hearing didn't solve matters when I tried to explain his mistake to him in my kam-chalaoo French!
Oh La La
- People take their sweet time in finishing meals. In the time it takes me to finish my meal, people still toy with a cup of coffee (and that is saying a lot considering how slowly I eat).
- The poor canadians still paste a big Canadian map on their bag or their jackets. They hate being mistaken for arrogant American tourists. Who wouldn't?
- Despite my 'knowledge' of French, I use a dictionary while ordering food. Don't know which animal or animal part I might end up ordering
- Have been stopped a few times by the police wanting to see my papers (which is OK considering that atleast they´re friendly). But I wonder why they select me. Either (a) I have a perpetual puzzled expression on my face, (b) I look like an unemployed lout or (c) I look like a terrorist. (a) and (b) are anyways true!
- For me it is a move from one visual meat to another. The Scottish landscape was replete with sheep, the French one with cows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- At the Appenweier train station, I was accosted by a tramp (you know the ones with beards, beer bottles and a supermarket trolley with their worldly possessions). He asked me "Arab?". I didn't react... then he asked me "Iraki? Pakistani?". I still didn't react. Then he tried to invoke my Arabic sentiments by shouting obseneties about America, the most printable of which was "Bush Criminal". Though I totally agreed with him in principle I didn't react to him at all......Thankfully he gave up after a while and left. Maybe I should have had a dicussion with him on American hegemony over a beer ;)
- Since my last visit to France, I have noticed an increase in the local's knowledge of English (though thankfully I have not had much ocassion to use it).
