FRANCE - 24 Hours in Strasbourg

Around 1.5 hours along the line from Reims is Strasbourg the capital of Alsace and a city which has a German influence due to its location right up against the Franco-German border and the fact that over the centuries Alsace has been ruled by both countries.

Over the years I have seen several stork's nests on my travels around Europe patrticularly in Southern France and Northern Spain. Alsace is famous for its storks and large numbers nest in the region each year. Because its May, the time of year when the birds are tending their young, there are lots of storks around Strasbourg at the moment. As is usual with wildlife these pictures don't really do them justice but I can assure you I saw several nests that had chicks in them,

The city itself is very walkable and the old historic quarter of timber framed buildings sits on an island in the River Ill just before it flows into the Rhine.

There is also another Notre Dame Cathedral, this time one that has one of the biggest astronomical clocks I have ever seen. It operates on both National Time and Local Time - the local Strasbourg time being half an hour behind Central European Time. CET is calculated from a meridan near Prague and as Strasbourg is roughtly half way between Prague and Greenwich this accounts for the half hour difference. As far as the clock is concerned, local time takes precedence, so all the action - chiming, moving figures etc - happens on the half hour rather than the full hour. It has a pertetual calendar and every New Years Eve calculates the dates of the movable feasts like Easter for the following year using the Comput Ecclesiastique mechanism.

All pretty impressive stuff.

One set of hands showing National Time, one set showing Strasbourg Time.
There is a similar multi handed clock in Corn Street in Bristol showing London (Railway) Time and Bristol Time.

Legend has it that this chap cast aspersions regarding the skills of the Master Mason and the structural soundness of the cathedral during its construction. The Mason therefore carved him in stone to forever stare at a pillar in the cathedral waiting for it to fall down!

FRANCE - Bubbles lots of bubbles

I'm back in France for the beginning of this trip, in the wonderful city of Reims - Home of Champagne - and the first big question is "Why have I not been here before?" It's only around 45 minutes or so by TGV from Paris and so easy to get to, yet is not packed with tourists.

Even without the bubbly it would be a great place to visit. The main sight is the Notre Dame Cathedral, which is a Westminster Abbey type building, as it's the place where the French Kings were crowned. It has some stunning stained glass, both ancient and modern including some by Marc Chagall. 

Chagall Windows

If you know your Anglo French history - which many of us don't because its not really covered in school - you will know that during the Hundred Years War the English laid seige to the city of Orleans in 1429. Then along comes seventeen year old Joan of Arc leading an army who somehow sent the English packing many believe by divine intervention. This then led to a chain of events that cumulated in Charles VII being crowned king in Reims Cathedral with Joan of Arc at his side. Don't worry folks, us nasty English got our own back, burning Joan at the stake in Rouen two years later. She is of course now a saint and France's patron saint at that.

Joan d'Arc Chapel

The city itself contains many grand buildings but it is important to remember that the Cathedral and a large part of the city were severely damaged during WW1 so many buildings have been reconstructed.

The city's wealth of course comes from the "liquid gold" made locally - Champagne. Many of the Champagne Houses offer visits, where they will explain the production process whilst taking you around the cellars carved out of the chalk rock on which the city stands, where thousands and thousands of bottles of Champage are maturing.

I visited Taittinger, one of the largest Champagne Houses but it's still family owned with the current members of the Taittinger family being fourth generation. I joined a group for superb tour of their cellars where there was quite a bit of graffiti carved on the walls because of course as well as storing Champagne they were used as a place of refuge in times of war.

Carving on the wall of the chalk cellars

This was followed by a tasting of Brut Reserve and Prestige Rose - well you have to really don't you? It would be rude not to taste the product!

In the gift shop they had a range of Taittinger products including a Methuselah (equivilent to 8 bottles) at €470.

This is definitely somewhere to return one day, as I now want to visit the other "Champagne Towns" of Epernay and Ay.

BULGARIA - And Home

This is just a quick post to confirm that I have reached home, once more.

The trip has been amazing - Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - 6 countries, 6 languages, 2 alphabets, 5 currencies.

Three new countries, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria (although I did technically once put my feet in Slovakia on top of a mountain straddling the border in Poland!)

In fact if you add that I left from England and travelled through France and Belgium to get to Germany then its 9 countries in the four weeks I was away.

Any one of the countries or cities I have visited, I would strongly recommend for a visit - even Bucharest (although not for too long there!)

I will leave you with some pictures from late yesterday afternoon. The coach back from Rila dropped me outside the Presidential Palace just as they were about to change the guard.

Until the next trip - take care!

BULGARIA - Rila Monastery

It's a couple of hours drive south of Sofia on the road to Greece to get up into the Rila Mountains to visit the Rila Monastery, but it is well worth it. I went on a formal day tour but we were given 2.5 hours at the Monastery after having had a quick 30 minute introduction to the site by the guide.

Its the largest and most well known Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria and was founded by St Ivan of Rila during the 900's. The current buildings date from the 19th century and the church houses not only the relics of St Ivan of Rila, but is also the last resting place of Bulgaria's last king, Boris III. Whilst Builgaria aligned itself with Germany in WW2, Boris was not cooperative with many of the demands from Germany, including the deportation of Bulgaria Jews. Boris died after visit to Germany in 1943 and it is widely believed he was posioned whilst there.

The monastary buildings cover a large site up in the mountains, unfortunately low cloud and rain meant that I did not get the big green mountain backdrops to my pictures, but here is a selection.

 

BULGARIA - Serdika

After the strangeness of Bucharest, it is nice to be back to just wandering around a vibrant European city - Sofia (incidentally pronounced Sof-ia not So-fia). Serdika is the Roman name for Sofia and this becomes very apparent around the Serdika metro station, which is right in the city centre. Like Athens and Thessaloniki digging down just a few metres reveals a lot about the city's past and like those two cities, Sofia has had to build its metro system around the archaeological remains. Serdika metro station is a station cum museum with a large area that is just part of the commuters daily journey and an area which is a paid for museum.

This is just outside the station

Yes this is part of the metro station

The statue of St Sofia herself stands on a pedestal in the city centre that once held a statue of Lenin. The guide that led the walking tour this morning, said the statue is very controversial not least because the Orthodox church complained she shows too much cleavage!

The city is heavy on churches ranging from the oldest St George's which is surrounded by large government buildings as the Communists wanted to hide it from view - to the massive St Alexander Nevesky Cathedral

St George's

St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

The government buildings are nowhere near as brutal as in Bucharest. The Bulgarian parliament building now flies a flag from where historically there would have been a red star. I was also relieved to find the uniformed National Guard outside the presidential palace as we haven't had any men in funny clothes yet this trip.

Parliament Building

Presidential Palace

Sofia is unusual in European capitals in that it has no river running through it. The Romans built the original Sedika on this site because of the hot mineral springs, The water still bubbles up through public fountains in the city and for a hot spring it is pleasantly tasteless without the usual sulpherous odour and taste.

All in all Sofia is a very pleasant, walkable city with lots of well maintained parks and squares and a lively atmosphere in the evenings. Very a enjoyable place I would highly recommend.

ROMANIA/BULGARIA - Does it get any better ?

Today has been a great day during which I undertook the 10.5 hour journey from Bucharest to Sofia and its what travel is all about.

The 1011 departure from Bucuresti Nord is an unusual and interesting train. It consists of just 3 coaches, the three coaches belong to three different operators and they go to three different destinations.

The rear most is from CFR Calatori the Romanian State Railway and is taking mainly Romanian holidaymakers to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast resort of Varna. In the middle is an air conditioned sleeper belonging to TCDD the Turkish State Railway which runs to Istanbul.

The last coach is a rather run down, graffiti covered coach belonging to the Bulgarian State Railway which runs through to Sofia. I joke with people that the graffiti is an integral part of the construction because it helps hold the rust together.

Actually despite the outward appearance of almost all Bulgarian railway stock, the insides are really very comfortable. We won't talk about the toilets though!!

I was sharing a 6 seat compartment with a couple from the Netherlands and a couple from France, the French couple having met whilst at university in Exeter. We chatted, exchanged travel stories, moaned about our respective governments and reminisced about the Olympics in both Paris and London.

The Dutch couple surprised me by saying "We love Phil and Kirsty, we watch them every week". The French couple were really up to speed on our Post Office trauma, with "Mr Bates V The Post Office" having been broadcast in France.

They were great people to spend a day with and in the great tradition of travel, people I have shared a day of my life with but will probably never see again. I would also add that the scenery during the last couple of hours of the journey as the train worked its way through the Balkan mountains was also amazing.

Arriving in Sofia we all went our separate ways - although the other four were heading to Istanbul later in the week - I am jealous now!

It was around 9pm when I arrived at my hotel, so nothing to report on Sofia so far except it was buzzing when I went out to find something to eat and look at this Metro pic - looks very smart.

We do have the funny letters here though - the Cyrillic script will be a challenge, but like everything else that is one of the joys of travel. More from Sofia tomorrow.