If there were just one thing...

to bring you to Strasbourg, it's likely to be history, but it really should be the Cathedral. This was my first glimpse of it.

You walk past open-air book bazars all the time in Strasbourg--heaven! 

The streets and alleys around Place Kleber

A dream come true... Strasbourg

You spend a lifetime reading about Alsace-Lorraine, Franco-German wars and a city at the crossroads of a resource-rich region--Strasbourg--and then you finally have a chance to see it--a chance you never expected. Neither my words nor my photos are going to do this experience justice, but you can still see for yourself.

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The first batch are from the very imposing Place Kleber, which it turns out is home to many welcoming bookstores and turns off into very inviting alleys!

A cruise through the Biesbosch National Park

It was hard to know what to expect from Biesbosch. We heard there was some water and a boatride, all non-strenuous, which has become an important appealing feature anywhere. This is what we found at Biesbosch National Park: water, river islands, grass, reeds and foliage, narrow twists and turns and an air of Kerala backwaters meet the Prairie. Very nice! It really brought home to us the ecological diversity of this very small country, the Netherlands.

The photos follow the route of the boatride. Enjoy!