{"id":652,"date":"2012-10-06T20:34:27","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T00:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/?page_id=652"},"modified":"2014-10-25T11:51:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-25T15:51:30","slug":"rhine-moselle-cruise-dsay-9","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/prstevens.stonehippo.com\/blog\/rhine-moselle-cruise-dsay-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhine & Moselle Cruise – Page 09"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up and out at 9 AM on Day 13 of our cruise. Said “Good Bye” to our ever present swans. and boarded our color coded buses for Strasbourg.<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>Before going downtown, we took a boat cruise on one of the Canals that circle Strasbourg. \u00a0All 130 of us got on this sightseeing boat. \u00a0Unfortunately the sound system was not good and Mary Ann and I missed a lot of the trip narrative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>We did hear that the history of Strasbourg in the Alsace Lorraine region has been a difficult one:<\/p>\n

:Up until 1870 The area was part of Prussian Germany.\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1871-1914: Alsace-Lorraine is part of the German Empire<\/strong>
\n1914: WWI and this area is hit hard.<\/strong>
\n1918: Alsace-Lorraine appears to be back in French hands.<\/strong>
\n1939-1942: Back to German control<\/strong>
\n1942-1945: WWII and this area is hit hard again. Still listed as German\u00a0<\/strong>
\n1945: Back to France<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Sometimes the Alsacians must not have \u00a0know what nationality they were.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, we did see several interesting sights along the canal:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Canal house boats made from obsolete river barges. Nice digs:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fancy canalside residences and office buildings:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Attractive water front restaurant:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An interesting public sculpture:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, an occasional glimpse of the Strasbourg \u00a0Cathedral between the buildings:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We finally came face-to-face with the facade. \u00a0It was awesome! It was so huge, a photo couldn’t encompass the whole front of the Cathedral. Everyone was dwarfed. It was so closely surrounded by buildings and it was so massive,it was impossibe to photograph.<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the Strasbourg Cathedral<\/strong>\u00a0or the<\/strong>\u00a0Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg.\u00a0\u00a0Although considerable parts of it are still in\u00a0Romanesque architecture<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> it is widely considered\u00a0to be among the finest examples of high, or late,\u00a0Gothic architecture<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Erwin von Steinbach<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0is credited for major contributions from 1277 to his death in 1318.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At 466 feet, it was the\u00a0world’s tallest building<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0from 1647 to 1874, when it was surpassed by the\u00a0St. Nikolai’s Church, Hamburg<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Today it is the sixth-tallest church<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in the world and the highest still-standing structure built entirely in the Middle Ages. Pretty impressive, eh?!!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are hundreds of statues in the facade. One, pointed out to us by our city guide, was “The Devil”. Here he is complete with snakes for hair and toads\u00a0clinging to his back.<\/strong><\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/strong>He doesn’t look like such a bad guy. \u00a0No horns,no tail, no bat wings. \u00a0just a nice tasty looking apple to offer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The interior is equally as awesome:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Here are some of the dimensions of the Cathedral. These numbers may seem dry. It’s the feeling of hugeness that overwhelms many first \u00a0time visitors:<\/strong><\/p>\n