We left sunny Bordeaux at the beginning of October to head to Germany for a few weeks to meet up with guest of honor, Katie Skordal, at Oktoberfest. (She demanded to be written about with reverence, and as one of five regular blog readers, she might just get it.)

En route, we stopped for a few nights in Strasbourg, which is currently a French city, but has flip flopped back and forth between France and Germany a few times over the years. I’d heard nice things about the city, plus it is in the Alsace wine region and I got excited about the opportunity to try enough riesling to convince myself I like it.

The historic center of Strasbourg is on an island in the River Ill, which is a little offshoot of the Rhine. Le Petit France is the oldest section of the city, with a bunch of canals and lochs running though and around it.

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I did not realize it at the time, but Strasbourg was the first of what would be many Medieval cities in the weeks to come. Get ready for lots of half-timbered houses, or Fachwerk.

We went on a fun food tour and ate some Flammekueche, or tarte flambée – a thin pizza-like dough covered with creme fraiche, cheese, onions, and bacon. Not bad. They make a kugelhopf, which is tasty. I liked the food. A good mix of german (pretzels, sausage, kraut) and french cuisine (fancy pastries and bread).

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Strasbourg has its own Notre Dame Cathedral, with an old astrological clock. The Cathedral was built around the same time at the Notre Dame and is great; made of pretty pink limestone. It was started in 1015 and finished in 1439. I think it should get more credit.

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The Cathedral only has one tower because when they tried to build the second, they realized it was too heavy and would sink the building. We climbed 300 stairs to the platform at the base of the tower, which has amazing city views. They claim you can see the Alps on a clear day. We did not see them.

Watchmen used to hangout on the platform in a little guard house and look for fires in the city. If they saw one, they sounded horns. The watchman were also apparently in charge of keeping time and ringing the bells on the hour, so there are all sorts of sundials.

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Here are a few pictures of the clock. It dates from 1843. It looks pretty cool, but we couldn’t figure out if it actually does anything anymore.

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Strasbourg is also supposed to have a really nice Christmas festival, which I am planning to attend on a quick day trip from Paris. Very excited for all the treasures I will try to cram into my luggage to take home.