STRASBOURG

We finally made it to Strasbourg. We tried a couple of years ago, however, the Arzviller Inclined Plane (see previous blog post) was out of order so no route from the west. This year all good. We have negotiated a great mooring close to the town centre. In fact the city and moorings are so good we have booked Soraya in for this coming winter. Trips to Strasbourg anyone? Only 1hr 50mins from Paris on TGV.

Strasbourg is a beautiful city with lots of old timber framed buildings, cobbled streets, as a contrast there are many very modern buildings, fortunately not diminishing the historic areas. A few areas are rather too full of tourists for my liking and of course being on the border with Germany if you are not French you are assumed to be German. There are plenty of areas away from the tourists and it is the home of flammekueche (tarte flambée) and of course Fischer beer. I can see a brewery trip coming up. Can't be all bad.

One of the many, many waterways.

The waterways dissect Strasbourg, you always seem to be going over another river/canal or have a waterside view. We are not allowed to take Soraya into the touristy heart of the town it is reserved for tour boats only. In fact all the bridges are too low and there is quite a flow on the river L'Ill so I'm happy to be moored off centre.

A bit of flower posing!

There is plenty of bimbling to be done with fascinating little streets and impasses. Lots of coffee shops, bars and restaurants selling flammekueche. 

Even my Brompton is getting into the pretty mood.

A great aspect of the city is The European Parliament, joking aside, is the cycle network. Every road has dedicated cycle lanes, most two way as shown below. As the city is flat it's just great for getting around on a bike. Seriously it is the best city cycling network that we have come across. Did I mention the flammekueche?

Margaret on one of the many quality cycle routes.