We checked out of the hotel and walked to Parliment. B had to work for a few hours, but her colleague / our friend N was free, so we met N in front of Parliment. She and I caught a bus into the center of town where we boarded one of the tour boats that provides hour-long cruises along the canal.
Some of the very old buildings along the canal in Strasbourg.
This area of Strasbourg is called Petite France.
A look back on what we passed...
It was good to spend some time with N. I'd met her on a previous trip to Vienna, when B asked me to accompany her to the interpreter's school to play the role of someone giving a speech. N, then a student, interpreted the speech into German as B listened and later offered pointers.
Then on this visit I met N's parents and her brother and have really come to enjoy the company of my new friends. It was a good way to spend my final few hours in Strasbourg, cruising along the canal for a last glimpse of this charming town.
People enjoy walking along the canal.
This man and his dog had different ideas about which direction to go.
The boat takes you past the European Parliment buildings.
One of several churches you see along the canal.
This is one of my favorite buildings in Strasbourg.
Notice the Weeping Willow tree on the left---
Notice the Weeping Willow tree on the left---
Here's another view with the tree in closeup, some students enjoying the sunny morning.
Notice the student in the striped shirt laying in the fold of the tree where it's horizontal.
Notice the student in the striped shirt laying in the fold of the tree where it's horizontal.
I bet hundreds of people have done this over the life of the tree.
After our cruise N and I stopped into a sandwich place, then caught the bus back to Parliment. We visited while she waited for the bus to the train station, and I waited for B to emerge.
There was some concern on B's part that she might have to stay later than she should, which would have made our return trip kind of sketchy...but she emerged on time. We caught a cab to the train station, took the train to Stuttgart, and there B did some shopping while I sat in a Starbucks answering email and sipping a green iced tea, watching the shoppers of Stuttgart stroll by with their bags of merchandise.
We took the train to the airport. The flight left on time and arrived early and we were back at our place in Vienna by 9 PM, me wondering if the time in France wasn't just a dream. But I think that about almost everything I experience.
The Strasbourg central train station, where we always begin and end our visits.
1 comment:
I feel the same way whenever I return home from any place.
Was I really there?
The thing is, whenever you go some place new and have new experiences, they are soon overwhelmed by the reality of daily life. And once again, life gets in the way of living.
But that's just part of it. The creatures of habit we are directly contradict the creatures of curiosity that we also embody. And that leads to the dream-like state most of us fall into when returning from an adventure to the mundane, the familiar.
Which brings me to this:
J my friend, I am NOT looking forward to your permanently leaving us for Vienna. In fact, I dread the very idea. It's not that we see each other all that often, but the times we do meet help me put things in perspective. And I will miss that immensely.
At the same time I am very happy for you and B to finally be together more often than every few months. I have that with S and I honestly want you to have the same thing with B.
But...
Anyway, as a wise rock star once stated - life is a journey, not a destination. And your journey is moving elsewhere, moving into the dream, while mine is staying with the reality I know.
I hope that once you relocate our paths will eventually cross again on the physical plane, but until then the ether will have to do.
:)
In the meantime I look forward to what remains.
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