And now on The Mighty Rhine River, Mulhouse to Strasbourg.

(Mid June) Claire has left for a week so we are on our own again..  We now enter The mighty Rhine River, but the canalised part, and to Max’s surprise we find ourselves surfing along, although the speedometer says 10 knot, Max is timing and counting off the Km markers and finds we are doing 15-20 knots and hr.. Cool, eh!!!!

We meet the big boats now, no messing around here.. they have right of way.

This pusher couldn’t get his front barge in through the lock with him, so he had to push it through, then let it go up and wait for the next lock,and pick it up. Total length 220 m,

  Nice bit of wild life with the baby swans.

On into STRASBOURG. A beautiful old city, the old town centre and Petite France, surrounded by water, with beautiful old old houses, lots of flowers and cobbled stoned streets.  Cafes,Bars & restaurants everywhere you look.

Like most old cities in Europe, the centre is given over to cyclists and pedestrian walk areas.( in the rush hour we felt like we were taking our life in our hands, or handlebars!!!!)

 

Bars/cafes along the Canals.        And of course, the ever present Cathedral.

The famous Astronomical Clock,( inside the Cathedral), dates from 16C, & renovated in 1838, with its superb Renaissance decorations, tells the time exactly using scientific theory, along with the stars and moon fazes.

We climbed the 332 steps up to the observation tower to view the city. All the little eve windows in all the steep roofs used to be open to air so the tanners could dry their animal skins,

On our little tourist boat trip we passed by the The European Parliament Building.

St Pauls Church. ( another ABC !!)

The best Bakery in the WORLD,( so the Captainarie says).

 

Even found the famous house decorated in Egyptian style.

We have to admit that the French do plan things well. They have great cycle-ways in the towns, and even the  tram tracks are made aesthetically pleasing with grass..…

There was a 2 day International Stone Masons Competition in the Cathedral Sq. There were stone masons from all over the world, even an auzzie!!!, and they has only two days, and some of the people only seemed to rake 6 hrs. They either were copying from a statue, or pictures, or drawings. We could not even think about how they were judged.

Visited the Palace of Rohan and wandered through rooms that has slept very famous people, like Marie Antoinette and ………………

Then a quick cycle around PETITE FRANCE, and the views back towards the Old City from The Vauban Dam.

   The view of part of Petite France from our boat tour.. just so many lovely flowers. We notice more and more how the French towns use flowers to brighten up everywhere.

The security is never…………………………………………….far away.

The weather in Strasbourg was between 33-40 degrees and just got so hot.  Max really suffered with the heat with the boat was a bit like a sardine can. Parked in the sun, with little breeze, the steel just heated up. 

Claire arrived back from her week away in Cannes & Nice, A meal out and then Lucy & Claire headed off to Chichester (Lucy took a 2 day trip back).

BEWARE,,,,,,,, don’t leave your boat too long.!!!!!  When we arrived in Strasbourg they had one egg, but by the time we left they were sitting on 6 !!.