I had one more full day in Strasbourg at this point and decided to stick closer to the city centre, which is a UNESCO Heritage site.
Strasbourg, like most other French cities, has a lovely and impressive cathedral. This one happens to be rather Gothic, and according to Wikipedia, was the tallest building in the world at one time!
Inside Notre-Dame de Strasbourg
Inside there’s a rather intricate astronomical clock.
Takes a ticking and keeps on ticking... wait, that's something else
Outside the cathedral is one of Strasbourg’s biggest Christmas markets. I found this little village at the foot of a giant Christmas tree in the center of the square. The Christmas market sells all the usual suspects (vin chaud, Christmas decorations, pain d’épices) along with some Alsatian specialties: bredle (the ones I bought were like cinnamonny gingerbread) and bretzel.
An adorable little village of light!
That basically wrapped up my séjour in Strasbourg, although I had to take a picture of this outside the train station before I left the following morning:
Typically Alsatian? Storks and Christmas markets
Storks are to Alsace as orcas are to BC. My roommate told me that they are known to build nests on chimneys… unfortunately, I only saw these plastic ones.
I couldn’t help but stare at that large clock in the cathedral and think, “Hmm…the Temple of Time.”
I thought, “Benjamin Button.”