Our Saturday in Strasbourg started out a rather cool at 1 degree at 9.30am but we’d obviously acclimatised as we didn’t feel too cold. Everyone had woken up by 7.30am and after breakfast and the application of many layers we head out, ready to explore more of Strasbourg. Our wander the previous afternoon and evening had left us keen to see more of this very pretty city.

Off to the Old Town…

The walk from our apartment in the Orangerie neighbourhood took as through some lovely gardens and past the university, where the nearest tram stop was located. This was a walk we did countless times during our days in Strasbourg. The trams were pretty efficient and it was a quick 10 minute trip into the Grande Île and only a bit longer into the train station.

Despite being out early it was already busy in the Grande Île. It was Saturday and only 11 days until Christmas so Strasbourg was a popular place to be.

We’d walked through these streets the previous night but they looked very different in daylight.

There were so many beautifully decorated windows and local tasty treats the kids were keen to try. We wandered into the Old Town, along with about a million other tourists to explore the beautifully decorated streets. The bears, penguins, Santas, elves and other stuffed creatures kept us amused. There were so many decorations it was hard to know where to look.

Strasbourg has many cobbled streets that link squares, all of which seemed to have a market and plenty of decorations. Many also had churches and cathedrals. We found Strasbourg’s Notre Dame pretty easily and sadly the astronomical clock was closed but it was still an impressive building.

Despite it being only mid-morning you could barely walk down some of the streets with all the tour groups, who’d hopped off their boats for the day. Strasbourg is known for it’s markets and decorations and being the Capitale de Noël (capital of Christmas), and the crowds certainly proved it. The Notre Dame area was tour group central. All the streets surrounding this area were full of restaurants, Christmas markets and fabulous decorations.

The themed stuffed animals were very cute and the kids, particularly Zinnia, loved looking at at them. Being France the array of delicious pastries in shop windows was also making us hungry!

The decorations were very clever and so different to those in Cologne and Paris. You can see why people rate Strasbourg as one of the most festive places to visit at Christmas. There were at least 12 different markets and no mistaking the Christmas spirit with all the decorations on buildings.

We wandered through many of the main squares. Most had restaurants and cafes, where we imagined the outdoor seating was much more popular in the warmer months!

The crowds were pretty crazy in some areas, there were so many tourist groups we could hardly walk down the streets. Yet if you wandered off the main tour group route it was easier to explore the pretty streets and buildings.

Petite-France by day

We had briefly visited Petite France (also known as Petit Venise – little Venice), the night before. This neighbourhood is known for it’s half-timbered houses, canals and covered bridges. It was stunning by night with all the lights and still water reflecting their colours, but looked just as pretty if totally different by day.

The crowds of tourists had definitely made their way here, so it was often hard to navigate down the narrow paths with people, strollers and tour groups going in both directions. The buildings were very pretty and there were plenty of restaurants and hotels in this area and none of them looked cheap!

It was still pretty cold and were definitely needing our gloves and the hand warmers today. We were all somewhat glad we weren’t in that water as it looked absolutely freezing. There was some emergency services guys in the canals doing what looked like practice for a swift water rescue, in the freezing water of the canals. They had a lot of layers of wet-suit! This provided quite the level of entertainment for the kids as we watched.

The Petite-France area is very different to other areas of Strasbourg and the architecture much more German. We were enjoying the mix of German and French culture, food and architecture in this City.

The canal tours of the Grande Île are very popular. The kids were again very keen to watch the boats go through the lochs. It was fun watching the water being pumped in so the boats could move up but it was a rather freezing wait as it happened. We weren’t sure it looked any warmer on the boats!

Calories for the cold….

Everyone was well and truly feeling like we need a break from the cold. It still hadn’t made it above 2 degrees and the sun was yet to make an appearance. Apparently calories were in order so we found a cafe for hot chocolates and Chocolat Viennois, which had appropriate amounts of cream for the kids.

This was followed by some quick scoffing of chocolate filled donut balls from Monoprix we had in our bags, before we hit the next round of markets.

Unlike in Cologne, each market had less of a distinctive theme but some did have more crafts and others more food. With 7 weeks of travel and limited bag space we hadn’t been buying too much from the markets but were always on the lookout for some local souvenirs we hadn’t seen elsewhere.

Exploring….. for cheese!

The temperature had improved to about 3 or 4 degrees and we had plenty more streets to wander so we head off with Zinnia trying to find her favourite decorations.

Kim and Anto found a cheap supermarket in the old town and went on a cheese buying spree. Astrid had gone to assist, and the rest of us stood out in the street being cold and getting rained on. After thinking it had actually warmed up a bit we were now revising that stance. They did eventually emerge from the Norma supermarket with entire backpacks full of various cheeses.

We battled the ever growing crowds and head back towards Notre-Dame and the nearby trams. People were queuing to get into restaurants for lunch so we voted on heading back to the apartment and tucking into some of that cheese.

After several hours wandering around we head back to our apartment for that cheesey lunch with fresh baguettes. The kids also devoured a salad, obviously missing the fruit and veggies from home! We think Kim and Anto might have been trying to stock-pile cheese before our impending Swiss Alps time where food is significantly more expensive in Swiss Francs. That would be if the cheese lasted that long with hungry kids around.

Off to Orangerie

Soren now had the cold I had from the start of the trip in Paris, and wasn’t feeling the best and wanted some warm and rest. The other 2 kids were also feeling a bit weary from all the walking in the cold so voted for some quiet time in the warm apartment with Kim and Alan who also wanted a rest.

Anto and I were keen to go out and do some exploring, and head out to the nearby Parc de l’Orangerie which is in the Orangerie neighbourhood we are staying in. There are many beautiful houses here so it’s fun to wander the streets in different directions.

The Orangerie Park is Strasbourg’s oldest park and is spread across 26 hectares. It might have been the depths of Winter but there was still a fair bit of greenery and plenty of interesting trees to look at as we wandered along the paths that looped through the park.

There were quite a few Christmas decorations around and a few playgrounds. We thought the kids would enjoy looking at the park so hoped to come back later during our stay if we had time.

The park is very pretty even in Winter, and we could imagine it would be amazing in warmer weather. The water definitely didn’t look very warm today but we found some swans who captured our attention. They were rather friendly and were being hand-fed by a local who knew them.

Anto did say hello, but we were not quite as exciting as their local friend who knew exactly what they liked to eat.

We decided to continue our exploring of Strasbourg, and wandered to the student neighbourhood near the university, which was far less pretty but did have another cheap supermarket with lots of local Alsatian food options. After loading up our backpacks with the next couple of days local fare we were back to the apartment to see how the others had enjoyed their afternoon rests.

Cold, rainy but festive lights

Everyone was keen to go back into the Grand Ile to check out the amazing lights again. The city area looked so totally different by night and there was no shortage of festive spirit and decorations in Strasbourg by night. Luckily it was well and truly dark by 5pm so we put plenty of layers back on and took a tram into the old town.

If we thought the crowds were bad in the morning they were worse at night, you could barely move and we were lucky we didn’t lose any of the kids. Every street had different light displays and we discovered new ones we hadn’t seen the night before.

We walked up and down many of the same streets we’d visited during the morning, with our eyes fixed upwards to admire all the lights. There were a few spots of rain but that was less of an inconvenience than the sheer number of people out enjoying the markets and decorations.

Strasbourg at Christmas time is definitely spectacular by night and we can see why it gets it’s name Capitale de Noël !

An Alsatian dinner..

Despite all the pretty lights, after an hour or so we’d had enough of the crowds, cold and rain, so caught the tram back to our quieter neighbourhood with a plan to go to the restaurant opposite our apartment that had been taunting us with their tarte flambée since we arrived.

As we didn’t have a booking the waitress (we are assuming owner) gave us a disdainful response and then eventually found us a table.

She then gave me some very disappointing looks when I ordered her tarte flambée sans lardons. Even though they offered a vegetarian option without the bacon she obviously didn’t want anyone to order it! Luckily the local Christmas ‘boot beer’ was good, and the kids had interesting and good kids meals with additions of grenadine in their drinks – very French! My tart flambée did arrive sans lardons and was good. Anto had a good pork dish and Kim and Alan also enjoyed their Alsatian fare.

After all the walking during the day we decided to indulge in dessert so crème brûlée and fondant au chocolat it was with some weird ice cream for Zinnia as part of her kids meal!

We all voted this was one of our favourite meals in Strasbourg and it was a mere 5 metre walk back to the apartment, even though we did have those 4 flights of stairs up to contend with!

We are enjoying Strasbourg, it’s a beautiful city and it has an excellent mix of the best of German and French cuisine. It also has very cycling friendly infrastructure and if it wasn’t for the crazy Christmas crowds we would have hired city bikes to get around. It’s definitely on the list of places to come back to though and do some more riding!

Up next…..

A crazy and busy day in the beautiful town of Colmar. If we thought Strasbourg was busy, Colmar on a Sunday at Christmas time took it to a whole new level. It was exceptionally beautiful though and had some amazing Christmas markets, and a few rides for the kids.