Country Hopping

Today was forecasted for thunderstorms so rather than do what we had planned to do we decided to head into France and have a look at Strasbourg - the French/German border is only 17 kms away and Strasbourg is 65 kms give or take from Baden-Baden.

Having arrived in Strasbourg and parked the car we ventured into the city. Our first impressions were not that great as everything looked drab and/or dirty but as we moved away from what was the central tram stop for the city we came to the main pedestrian shopping strips which were decidedly more attractive 

There are surprises around most corners and here it was coming across a lock used by the sightseeing boats

and a building (Tannery building but now a restaurant) constructed in 1572

Standing on the bridge straddling this waterway we had an excellent view of which we think is the old town area

and adjacent to the bridge is a Christmas Shop absolutely filled to the gunwales with all manner of Christmas decorations

After walking around the city for a few hours it was back to find the car and return to Baden-Baden which should have been a breeze but not unsurprisingly for us turned into a mission as we tried to follow the GPS instructions to get out of Strasbourg and onto the A35.

We ended up going around in 1.5km circles as when we came to the motorway junction the GPS was not precise enough to get us on the correct on ramp and we did a circle around part of the city before trying again and failing!

On the 3rd occasion we got it right and got back to BB in one piece.

It takes some getting used to the fact that you can be in a country first thing in the morning, drive a short distance and be in another before returning to where you started all in the space of a few hours.

Both this unplanned day trip and the Black Forest disaster of two days ago may well have played havoc with expected mileage and spend on diesel.

Kms now driven 547

Kms now walked 62.7