A Day Full of Surprises

Strasbourg, France and the Alsace Region

By Ann Parenti

This day is what I will call the twisted tour. When we arrived on our bus for the walking tour of Strasbourg, our guide, Marteen, was very well-versed in the area’s history and how to maneuver in and about the city. Due to some unexpected road repairs, we had to take a surprise alternative passage to get to our desired location, and she became our human Google map for the day. We toured the city and saw the famous Strasbourg Cathedral, which has a history you may want to explore by watching the movie “Monuments Men.” During World War II, Hitler planned to turn the church into a monument to the German people. In preparation for this, the stained glass windows were hidden in 74 cases and stored in a salt mine near Heilbronn, Germany. They were rescued by the “Monuments Men,” Fine Arts and Archives section of the United States military, and returned in 1945.

Besides these beautiful stained glass windows in the Cathedral, there is a fabulous Astronomical Clock with sculptures that animate at different times of the day, including the 12 apostles, the figures representing the stage of life, angels, and more. The clock today was built between 1838 and 1842, based on the engineering of a previous version dating to 1352, and operates to this very day.

As we attempted to return to our bus, we found out there was no bus waiting for us. Once again, our guide Marteen came to the rescue and solved the mystery. She spoke with some policemen who told her about a traffic accident on our bus route. She returned to inform us that the bus was indeed on its way and was among the first to arrive from the traffic delay. We were all relieved to see it approaching. Going back to the boat, Marteen and the driver had to maneuver an alternative route to avoid the area of the accident so we would not be late. Marteen, once again, saved the day!

Later that same day, we took another guided tour through the Alsace region. We did the Alsatian Wine Tour with a group from our cruise boat and were taken to a family-owned vineyard called Robert Blanck that had barrels dating back to its original days of 1732. It was an incredible tour, and we tasted five of their finest wines. After the tasting, we had an opportunity to stop in another location where we could walk through an actual vineyard.

When we all got back on the bus, I heard screaming from the back of it. A young man I spoke to at the wine tasting told me he owns a vineyard in Sonoma, California, and proposed to his girlfriend in that field of vineyards. He was waiting for the perfect chance throughout the entire trip and felt the vineyard was the appropriate place to do it. Of course, she said yes and showed everyone her ring once back on the bus, which caused screams of excitement. After a day of many twists and turns, I am happy to say it had a storybook ending. For the next adventure, we are ready for anything now!