Strasbourg France Photos

I have finally recovered enough from my jet lag to get back to my blog. Honestly, the older I get the longer it takes to recover from jet lag. Considering my renewed interest in spending time abroad this is really inconvenient. 

I think I posted some thoughts from Strasbourg earlier but didn't post any photos. Well, let's fix that straight off. Here are some photos of lovely Strasbourg in Alsace Lorraine. It is located in northwest France, next to Germany and really close to Switzerland. 

Alsace Lorraine offers great architecture with cobblestone streets, and half-timbered house sometimes painted in soft colors. My intention was just to walk the streets for several days and get in touch with my middle European roots. I wasn't interested in the history, or even the food, just the great looking buildings. 
                              
                                              Welcome to Strasbourg, France. 

There are canals through the city. Here are some reflections at night. 

That's the inside. This is the outside: 

I have no idea what this is about. No signs, no explanations, nothing. However, I did get a sense that this place may be where they store statuary that has is not currently usable elsewhere. I guess it is hard to find a permanent home for whatever these are supposed to be. A lion and a bull? If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. 

Because Strasbourg is on the border of Germany (I could have walked there) the food had a strong Germanic influence. Sausages and sauerkraut is THE regional specialty.
I really wondered what these young Japanese women thought when they plopped this enormous plate of varied sausages, boiled potatoes, and sauerkraut in front of them.

 Another specialty is pretzels. which they take to a new higher level. Voila- stuffed pretzels.

And speaking of food....

                        These represent the four seasons. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall.

Here are a couple of dishes I tried.

This was fabulous.  A salty creme brulee made with foie gras. Served with raisin bread. Remarkable.

A rhubarb pie topped with meringue. Terrific. 

A nice eyecatcher outside a flower shop. 

I hope you like the architecture because my next post, from villages and cities down the road is much of the same.