Strasbourg

Strasbourg

During my Erasmus mobility in Saarbrücken, a friend of mine, who happened to also be an exchange student in that period, came to visit me. Our plan and goal were to travel together in the nearby region. Because we didn’t have a lot of money to spend, we had to figured out how we could see as many places as possible on a low budget.

I was living in Saarbrücken and my friend was an Erasmus student in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She was the one who decided to travel all the way to Germany so that we could meet. She took a FlixBus from Ljubljana to Strasbourg (France), a city where we were going to meet on Sunday morning as I was coming here with a FlixBus too, but from Saarbrücken.

How we got to Strasbourg?

From Saarbrücken to Strasbourg the cost of a FlixBus ticket was around 7 euros and the journey lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. On the other hand, for my friend who was travelling from Slovenia, the cost was 30 euros and she stayed in the bus for 12 hours with 2 hours transfer in München.

Strasbourg was a meeting and starting point of our trip.

And because it was not just any Sunday, but Sunday’s Easter, we had to celebrate properly, so we knocked chocolate eggs in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The Notre-Dame Cathedral

We couldn’t get inside the Cathedral because, Sunday being, the usual catholic service was happening momentary, so we just walked around the Cathedral’s square to admire and photograph it from various angles.

Seen from outside, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg built in the Middle Edges was looking huge in comparison to those surrounding it and for this reason, the cathedral has become a landmark that could be seen from almost any area of the city.

The red-pink walls with many Gothic-style ogival windows were exalted heavily to the sky keeping our eyes up very often. The main portal of the west facade was dominated by a Gothic rosette, figure sculptures and many small and delicate architectural details specific to this style. In every part of the construction, stained glass windows were present embellishing the look of the building even more.

Petite France

After we’ve finished looking at the Notre-Dame Cathedral, we decided to get to know the city's streets.

Some friends of mine who had already visited the city a few weeks before recommended me to go around l'Île-de-France (historical centre) to see the old buildings and streets of the city.

Using Google Maps, we started walking alongside the river Ill crossing from time to time beautifully made bridges and looking at the nicest Alsatian houses with white, red, blue or green walls, visible wood structures and small wooden windows decorated with multicoloured flowers.

Everything appeared so romantic and photogenic!

Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporaine de Strasbourg

Later we went to Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, a museum which I really wanted to see.

The construction of the museum has caught us at first. The main hall in which we entered was tall, long and very luminous due to the walls and the glass ceiling. Among the works which were displayed here was an old red crushed car.

On the left and right there were galleries displaying different kinds of artworks from paintings belonging to Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Vassily Kandinsky, Theo van Doesburg, Max Ernst to engravings signed by Albert Durer or sculptures created by Giuseppe Penone and Auguste Rodin.

“Le Penseur” carved out by Rodin impressed me the most. The sculpture was a masculine nude figure that seemed to have sat down to think and contemplate. The body of the thinker was a massive one with a strong muscularity despite his static position.

The whole expression made me think of a situation of resignation from which man should think of a way out. The feeling that I got while experiencing the artwork was even more emphasized by placing the sculpture facing a window through which it could be seen both outside and inside.

Barrage Vauban

When we finished seeing the museum, we headed towards the nearest bridge facing us and so we came to see a very beautiful city view.

Soon we realized that we are not actually on a bridge, but on a dam, namely the Vauban Dam.

The viewing terrace on the roof of Barrage Vauban offered us a wide panorama over Ponts Couverts and Petite France quarters. From here, we could see the Notre-Dame Cathedral too and many other buildings. We also went inside the construction where we walked the whole internal corridor and by doing so we crossed from one bank of the river to another.

The day was sunny and because of that we wanted not to stay inside museums, but outside as much as we could exploring the city by foot.

The green areas

Botanical Gardens of Strasbourg University and Parc de l'Orangerie were our next destinations. The park was quite big and very nice trim with many alleys, trees, a waterfall and a beautiful lake.

It was afternoon to sunset, so this time of day gave us a warm perfect light for shooting some portraits, landscapes and selfies. When it got a little bit cold, we started walking out of the park and looking for a place where we could have something to drink.

On the bank of the River Ill we found a pub that runs both on land and on the boat. We chose to have a drink on the boat because we wanted a more unique and interesting experience. Even if it was late, an espresso was extremely welcome after a day of staying active.

The end of the trip and the beginning of a new one

The FlixBus that was going to take us to the next French city was about to leave soon, so after enjoying a little break in the pub on the boat, we headed quickly towards the bus station.

We were about to get to Metz in 2 hours, where we reserved a room in a hostel to sleep until the next day when we were going to visit this city too.

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