Strasbourg, France in July

Chris read our June blog and laughed at the title as he didn't think it a quiet June. I guess I forgot that he traveled more than I did. This month, for the third month in a row, Chris yet again, went to the USA. This trip led him back to SLAC and San Jose. He went to a seminar in honor of his adviser who past away not long after we left the US. Chris gave a talk at the seminar and met up with former colleagues. He stayed at Grandma Joan's house and had a wonderful visit with her. He packed in his week visiting as many people as he could, enjoying game night where he got to see a group of our friends like old times.

While he was in California, I was keeping busy at home and work. I went for a walk around Munich one Saturday for something to do. There is always something going on in Munich. I am always amazed that there is always some street festival or parade, or park festival going on. This day there was a Gay Pride celebration. There must have been a parade through the city because of all the confetti and paper on the streets. Then in Marienplatz there was a huge crowd of people eating and drinking and dancing. There was a huge stage set up and a concert going on. There were booths of food and drinks. It was quite a production. There were several people dressed up for the occasion. It was not what I expected to come across on that Saturday but it did make me smile.

A week later, now that Chris adjusted to the time zone once again, we went off to Strasbourg, France to meet up with Derek, Hazel, David, and Shannon. We had a wonderful time being with Chris' family and touring the Alsace region of France. We stayed at Gunstett, a little village about 40 minute drive outside Strasbourg. The house we stayed at belonged to the owner's grandmother. It was built in 1750 or so. It was a nice house and newly renovated, but we had to get used to the low ceilings! Around the village was several farms and at the edge of every field, was a crucifix. We figure it is to bless the harvest.

I stayed only until Monday night since I had to go back to work and didn't officially have any days off left. Chris stayed there until Wednesday night. On Sunday, we drove through the vineyards of Alsace from one village to another, all old villages. It was beautiful. After figuring out the wine tasting is not actually at the vineyards but at the people's homes in the town, we found a place. The lady was very nice and with her broken almost fluent German and Shannon's and our German plus David's French, we were able to understand. We were the only people and we sat at the only table in their bottling room. We tried several wines and bought some bottles. The wines were all white. It is the only color grapes we saw as we drove around as well. I guess it is white wine for us.

We drove up to a Monastery at the top of the mountain. It had a gorgeous view. You can see the different small villages amongst the vineyards in Alsace.




Monday we went into Strasbourg. It was a busy day walking. We visited the cathedral. This cathedral was known to have the oldest surviving stained glass windows. We visited Little France, an area of Strasbourg that is old and very French. Strasbourg has changed hands between Germany and France so many times, it is so confused. People speak both French and German and you see influences of both cultures. We took a boat ride around the city. It was nice for we got to sit and see the city from the water's perspective and get some history. Chris' favorite is that it took us to the EU buildings.