STRASBOURG: September 12

On the train to Brig and Bern and then on to Strasbourg, which is apparently close to Nancy.  I should probably stop there.  The views are spectacular.  I just left Basel and no one seemed very happy to be there.  Everyone was wearing dark clothing and marching around as though they hate everything about the place.  Maybe it is because it is getting chilly or maybe they are all really happy inside.  I remain the only person in colour.  I suppose it is time to shop for some dark warm things.  I love the clocks at all these train stations.  When I get home I shall make an album of clock pictures once I finish my blurred sheep album.

Arrived in Strasbourg early enough to check out the city centre and the palace.  Truly, truly magnificent.  Sitting in an outdoor cafe, this feels very much like Paris.  I am definitely in France.  Having a bowl of onion soup, Quiche Lorraine and Creme Brûlée.  Some moments give me a wonderful sense of joy and contentment.  This is one of them.  So proud of myself for making this trek.

It's such a beautiful day.  The leaves are starting to fall and feels like autumn.  I went to Old France and then back to that glorious cathedral.  I am feeling comfy and warm in some new threads and though my shoes have taken a beating, they have been rewarded with new inner soles.  It seems the memory foam of the last ones had forgotten it's task.

This trip has been full of nursery rhymes and conjures memories of a beautiful book we had as children illustrated by Eloise Wilkens.  It was part of a Childcraft encyclopedia collection and it never failed to light my imagination.  We read it to rags and I missed it for so long, until the grand invention of the internet.  I found a copy and when it arrived I cried at the sight of it.  Like ours, some naughty child could not resist drawing in it, but as I flipped through the familiar pages, it's magic was still there.  

I have visited Pinnochio, Hiedi, enchanted forests, castles and kingdoms.  Today I am in the land of Hansel and Gretel.  The smell of gingerbread is everywhere and I bought the cats each a little gingerbread man toy.

I stopped for dinner and wanted to have onion soup again, but in my butchering of the French language, ordered a very large vart instead.  It is like a flat bread pizza smothered in cheese and onions.  What a glorious error!  

I bought some new gel inserts for my shoes and are sliding all over in my shoes.  I feel like I am walking on Jello and can't seem to navigate with them.  I stepped into a cab and one of them slithered out of my shoe and on to the road.  The cabbie picked it up and handed it to me.

I'm on the train to Luxembourg now and pondering the inserts. All the mysteries of my world are revealed in pondering and I should do it more often.  It seems I had put them in upside down.  They make more sense now and feel fabulous.

This train sounds like a very angry donkey.

Arrived late in Luxenburg too late to tour, but in time to find my hotel and the nearest bar.  There is always a bar near my hotel and there is always a table for one waiting in the darkness for me.

"Can I get a glass of red wine?"

"Yes, bottle."

"No, just a glass."

"No. Madame, one glass bottle."

"Fine bring me a bottle."

"No glass?"


Wine arrives; one glass of Bordeaux which is pronounced Bottle in Luxenburg.

This place seems a little like Milan.  Lots of high end shopping I am not interested in.  I do love the buildings and it's a glorious place to stroll around in fancy gel inserts.  The bag people here seem to all have dogs.  The dogs look equally forlorn and I don't know if I like the idea or not.