Offenburg and Strasbourg

So instead of two days, because of the messed up train times at the beginning of my trip, I only got one whole day for both cities. It was enough time, though!

*BTW, Offenburg is in Germany, about 30 minutes by train from Strasbourg in France.*

I went down to the train station around 10:30 that morning (by bus)and got my tickets for the rest of my time in Germany and a ticket to Strasbourg. I had a little over an hour then before the train left for Strasbourg, so I explored a little in Offenburg.

Tourism is definitely not the main business in Offenburg. I was lucky to get some postcards for my bulletin board. Anyway, I went down the street that was directly in front of the bahnhof (train station), which seemed to be a main drag. It was a nice town. I didn't really know what I was looking at, though.

Then it was off to Strasbourg! When I got there it was about 1:00 so I wandered in the direction of the cathedral, going through the old town. I missed the daily, um, presentation of the astronomical clock at 12:30 but I wasn't too broken up about that. I walked through the cathedral and around the Christmas market right outside it before going to the Palais Rohan. It's pretty big and has three museums in it. The archeological museum is in the basement and has some awesome old stuff in it, mostly from the Alsace region. A lot of it has to do with the Romans. The museum on the ground floor is basically a series of rooms decorated in a lavish style like when it was used as a palace. They also have a great collection of dishware. The art museum is on the first floor (second floor to Americans) and is ok. They have some pretty famous artists, though, like Rossini, Rubens, and Watteau.

After that I had a very odd experience. I went to the art museum next door (the Musee d'Louvre Notre Dame) and had quite the language barrier. I think that the lady was trying to tell me that they were closing in an hour, but at the time I thought she was talking about dates and I was very confused so I just left and walked around the town a bit more. :)

I went back to Offenburg at about 4:30 and caught the bus back to my hotel. Then I had another odd experience. I think this had more to do with the fact that I rarely take buses, much less European buses, but suffice it to say that the driver thought I was an idiot. Oh well.

Once I got to the hotel I arranged for a taxi for the next morning since the buses wouldn't be running as early as I needed to get to the train station. This process involved the receptionist asking me "What time do you want to stand u?" O.o Huh? I interpreted it as her asking what time I wanted to leave and that seemed to work. Then it was off to my room where a surprise awaited me! Check out my pics to see!

Offenburg, Strasbourg