The Magical Adventures of Jennifer and Steve: Strasbourg

As I write this, I am sitting up on the sun deck, soaking up the sun, drinking tea and eating pain au chocolate (just as good as Pan Chancho’s). This morning was a canal tour around the old town Strasbourg. Like Colmar, Strasbourg changed hands between the French and Germans four times, so the city, culture and food are an interesting blend of the two. Once the canal tour was finished, the group set out to a walking tour of the old town. However, Jennifer and I did not join them. We another agenda: Operation Orange Jaipur.

The tea that Jennifer loves is only sold in France, so we had a mission to get some. Our first stop was the tourism office to find out the location of grocery stores. Armed with that information we set off. Our pace was quick in anticipation of the tea that had been just out our reach for the past week (and to exercise our legs, as the walking with the tour groups is slow). We stopped by a patisserie for some pain au chocolate and continued on. The first store didn`t have any but the 2nd store did. We cleared out their entire stock on the shelf. We asked if the had more in the back, but they did not.
With the successful completion of Operation Jaipur, we breathed a little easier. We also stopped at a local sport store to pick up some boules, the French version of bocce ball; now time for lunch. We decided to stay in town instead of going back to the ship. A traditional dish of the area is called Flammekuche. It is an onion tart with bacon, basically, the German version of pizza. I tried some at a local restaurant, Taverne Kohler Rehm and Jennifer had foie gras (one of her favourite things). Walking through the old town, we saw great old buildings, and a really big church. We caught a shuttle bus back to the ship.
It’s now after dinner. We spent parts of the afternoon up on deck and some relaxing in the lounge drinking tea, chatting and playing Fluxx. The weather was on and off. It would rain for a bit then get sunny all afternoon. Jennifer and I played our first ever game of shuffleboard and she won. I see a rematch in the future. During dinner, we set out for our next port, and should arrive by around 10:00 pm. Dinner was really good again, and I finally managed to take a picture. Jennifer started out with escargot and I had warm goat cheese on a bed of greens. We both chose the same for the rest of the meal: French onion soup, roasted lamb for the main and crepe suzette for dessert. Of course, wine throughout. During dinner conversation, one person told me that I look and sound like the singer Paul Simon. I told him I usually get mistaken for George Clooney.
Tomorrow we have a full, all German day. The town of Speyer (pronounced more like schpyer) is scheduled in the morning and an optional excursion to Heidelberg to see a castle and its surroundings. Every night when we come back from dinner, we a little treat on our pillow and a schedule of events for the next day, including a history of the place we are visiting. All very seamless and comforting (and allows us to be fairly lazy – as really all the planning has been done for us).