Thursday, 23rd May – Basel to Strasbourg

We left Basel early this morning to make our way to Strasbourg. Usually we opt to avoid highways where possible because there is more to see. A good example is this church in a little town called Dessenheim – the Saint-Léger Church.

There are wild flowers everywhere at the moment as it’s the beginning of Spring, we picked a couple of these orange poppies as we drove in to Neuf-Brisach.

Neuf-Brisach is a fortified town in France intended to guard the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire. Today it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We parked in the free parking space just inside the city gate and enjoyed the very short walk to the centre of town. Apart from seeing the town square and buildings on the way, we found a bakery that sold many pastries and couldn’t resist buying an apple turnover for morning tea.

Another little town we came across was Illhaeusern on the L’ill River. These pictures don’t do it justice, standing on the bridge and overlooking this town was like being in a postcard.

Our next stop was the Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg. We managed to get some great photos as we drove closer leading up to the castle. Trip Advisor reviews indicated that it wasn’t safe to leave the car in the parking lot, apparently there had been a lot of robberies. We managed to jump out and take some quick photos without leaving the car.

That apple turnover was teasing us in the back seat so we found a random village for our coffee stop.

After doing some washing at a local laundromat we checked in to our Strasbourg hotel. We caught the tram (conveniently located across the road from the hotel) in to the Old Town, getting off at Broglie.

We made our way through Kiéber Square.

Gutenberg Platz

Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

Museum of Decorative Arts

We found a great spot to stop and look out over the Rhine River.

The Gate at the Old Strasbourg Hospital

St Nikolas Church

With weary feet we caught the Tram from Homme de Fer to République, seeing the Palais du Rhin and gardens as well as the National Theatre of Strasbourg, before making our way back to the hotel.