Travels In Alsace

We met Jim’s new toy-train friend Holger from Ulm, who drove us in his Daimler to Mulhouse. There, we spent time at la Cite du Train, the largest train museum in Europe. Hundreds of trains from the start of French rail travel, in the 1850s, until the present, occupy the huge halls of the museum. Not only does the museum feature the history of the train’s development, but also there are thematic arrangements of trains (luxury travel, trains during the Resistance in WW II, etc). Technical buffs like Jim and Holger knew much about the individual trains and consider real trains to be the prototypes for their models. We had lunch at the museum, though the restaurant was swamped with visitors which the staff could not handle very well. After we saw more trains, we asked Holger if we could go to the Castle at Haut-Konigsbourg, the most visited tourist attraction in Alsace. It was not a long drive back to the chateau, but the site was also overwhelmed with tourists, since it was a holiday (Ascension, a legal holiday in France.) The huge Medieval castle included a steep walk up a mountainside, since the castle is almost 800 meters above ground level. Views from the top levels are amazing, particularly the far distant Vosges Mountains. After we left the castle, our new, lively friend Holger drove with us back to Strasbourg and we enjoyed dinner with him at the Restaurant Le Stras.’--Dan