Strasbourg Diary

Finding your travel companions in the middle of one of the world’s busiest airports?

We made it look easy.

Tom’s and Ellyn’s incoming flight from Amsterdam landed a few minutes early at Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 1, giving them ample time to exit their plane (we refuse to use the ugly “deplane” employed by some flight attendants) and follow our instructions to look for signs to Terminal 2, the letter “T”, Long Distance Trains, The Squaire, and Hilton Hotel.l, in roughly that order.

We wanted to arrive at the train in good time, and the nearest and quickest food outlet to our meeting point happened to be a Burger King. What to do but order a quick lunch at one of their computer kiosks.

Thus fortified by their first dining experience in France, the country’s second most popular supplier of le fast-food, we headed for our train.

We traveled as far as Karlsruhe on Deutsche Bahn, and simply walked across the platform to transfer to the train taking us to our first destination, Strasbourg France.

An Uber ride later, we were checking in at the Hilton Strasbourg. No suite upgrades, but both couples were given access to the Executive Lounge, as well as a welcome presentation of petite fours.

Tom and Ellyn were short of sleep. After they’d flown from Durango to Denver to Istanbul to Amsterdam to Frankfurt, with only one short sleep at the AMS Citizen M Hotel, the rooms of which would apparently be more accurately described as cubicles.

They were nonetheless eager to see a little bit of Strasbourg, and we spent some time wandering around a popup-type market.

There are such markets in Strasbourg every day of the week, and they continue to flourish and seemingly to make the investment in these purpose-built vehicles worthwhile.

We also explored the scenic and historic neighborhood known as La Petite France.

Ellyn even sat down for awhile next to Dr. Albert Schweitzer, an Alsace lad who graduated from the University of Strasbourg and went on to achieve greatness.

We tried once and failed to secure a Friday night dinner reservation. Our second attempt succeeded at La Bedaine, The Belly.

Despite a catchy name and a jolly proprietor, we were disappointed by our rather expensive meal.

Most of the Alsatian-style food was comme-ci comme-ça.

Brian won the prize for the toughest piece of beef he’s ever tried, supposedly slow-cooked. Not even the blowtorch presentation helped, and he left half of it uneaten.

We learned it’s indeed possible to be served a not-too-good meal in France, and we look forward to better meals in the coming days.