October 14, 2018 – Strasbourg, France

COctober 14, 2018 – Strasbourg, France
When I woke up this morning we were already docked in Strasbourg. I decided to go to breakfast at 7am. I joined a table with a couple from Minnesota. I was getting up to leave when I saw Carol who rushed over to say “I couldn’t find you. I even had the maid look in your cabin.” Now, that is friendship! I assured Carol that I was OK,
Shortly after we headed out on a walking tour of Strasbourg with a local guide. Gabriel was the guide for my group. He is a native of Strasbourg and very funny. First we Took a team to the center of the city. We walked around for almost 2 hours. He told us history, funny stories, and even talked politics. Strasbourg has switched between being a German or French city eleven times in its history. The people think of themselves as Alsatians rather than French or German. The city is beautiful with buildings dating from the 14th century to the 21st century. Our final stop was Notre Dame cathedral. Since it was Sunday, tourist access inside the cathedral didn’t start until 1:30pm. We went to the Notre Dame museum where they have moved many statues and stained glass windows from the cathedral as repairs or replacements were made. It was fascinating to see them up close.
Next we found a restaurant on a side street to eat lunch. I had a rosti dish consisting of shredded potatoes, creme fraiche, smoked ham, egg, and cheese baked in a cast iron pan. Carol had tarte flambe Alsatian style. This was like a pizza but with a cracker like crust topped with a white cream sauce, onions, and Munstemr cheese.
After lunch we went back to the museum because I forgot to return the audio tour player. Oops!
Continuing on we went inside the Cathedral. It is very big but also very dark.
We decided that we were done and took the tram back to the boat.
After dinner tonight they had dancing where we had to guess which of eight songs would get the most dancers. On most songs only 8 or 10 passengers would be dancing but the whole crew showed up so there were many more people on the dance floor. Carol was very good at the Electric Slide and the Macarena.
Tomorrow we have a morning bus tour in Alsace.