CHRISTMAS IN STRASBOURG

Everyone talks and writes about the Christmas markets in many European cities.  Among the oldest of those markets is the one in Strasbourg, France.  So we decided to check it out to get us in the spirit of Christmas...market style!  We only stayed Tuesday-Friday which ended up being long enough to see what we really cared about seeing, shop more than we needed to shop and fill our hearts up to the brim with Christmas spirit!

The train was, as always, a relaxing way to begin the trip.  It took about two hours to get to Strasbourg then they have trams within the city to get you to the City Center.  Our small, quaint hotel, Hotel Guttenberg, was right in the midst of the activity, which was wonderful!  As on other short trips we've taken, my trip advisor (David!!) got us a hotel in the perfect location...a quiet street off all the "action" streets.  We were on the top floor so our hallways and our room had some slanted ceilings which proved interesting for us...we both needed to be shorter people!!!!  We both felt as though we were stooping half the time.  And the bathroom was TINY!!!!  But it was new, clean and nice and met our needs....we weren't there that much except to sleep.

These gals were in the lobby of our hotel!!!

Here's our room and bath..cozy, huh???!!

I'm definitely an out-of-the-window watcher (#thinkrearwindow!!!) so I loved seeing the patio on the bottom picture though I never saw people there.  But what a lovely place to have in an apartment.  Much of the time there was also smoke coming from the chimneys...kind of cozy!!!

I love rooftop pics-see the balcony/patio on the right??

We spent most of our time strolling...we went through the markets multiple times.  At night everything was lit up,  and I felt I'd been dropped at the North Pole or in a Hallmark Christmas movie!!!  I've never been anywhere where so many of the businesses were decorated...and decorated very elaborately.  It was a magical place!!

All the lights were phenomenal and gorgeous!!

We found the markets to be pretty much the same once you'd made the rounds.  There were many stalls of various kinds of foods,  many stalls of ornaments and vin Chaud (hot spiced wine!) was everywhere!!  We were hoping to find some unusual Christmas items, but most were trinket-like, craft-like or just things we weren't interested in.  That said, we strolled through the markets many times because the atmosphere was so wonderful.

One thing we also really liked was a street brocante on Wednesday.  There were quite a few separate stalls with people selling old, vintage goodies.  I really love this!  I didn't find any real treasures, but I did snag some vintage ornaments and some old skeleton keys.  From there we strolled on and found some antique stores (another fav of mine and even David's) where we picked up a few more vintage ornaments.  Along the way, we window shopped (I found a Christmas throw pillow I later went back and bought!!!!), admired outside window decorations, and had lunch at various cute places.

Perfect weather for strolling

Loved this antique store and went in several times!  I just needed more money!!!!!

I loved these windows!  There are chairs hanging from the windows!!!

A cute little cafe where we ate lunch outside-a croquet monsieur and hot chocolate!

There were many churches around the city but, unfortunately, most weren't open to the public. I was frustrated by that since most of the churches in Paris are open and we, as you know, frequently (almost always) go in and enjoy the quiet.  There were two, however, we were able to visit.  One was a church that houses both Protestant and Catholic worshippers.  There are two distinct entrances at L'eglise Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux, one for Catholic services and one for Protestant.  Sadly, the Protestant community has become so small they no longer meet here so that side of the facility is used for concerts, seminars etc.  We were able to speak to the young woman who helps manage the scheduling for those events.

This is the Protestant side-beautiful, old architecture-sad it's not used for worship

The Catholic side is still used for worship and we were able to walk in and see where they worship.

The Catholic side-beautiful and serene

This same evening we took a boat ride around the city.  The boat was covered so the cold weather wasn't prohibitive,  and it was a relaxing break from all the walking!!  They had an audio in various languages so it was very interesting to hear about places we'd already seen (and even been into like churches) or go past places we had walked past and learn more details.

We tried to see the inside of this church the next day-not open!!

This was a huge tree we walked by during the day then later saw on the boat ride

In the center of the market area was a huge, beautiful church, Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg.  It had this towering steeple that lit up at night and it seemed a quiet refuge in the midst of all the brightly colored markets and the noise of all the crowds.

Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg

I loved the hanging Advent wreath

We finally got a chance to go in after reading about a creche scene they have each year.  It was wonderful!  It had been set up on one side of the sanctuary and walked you through the Nativity story from Gabriel coming to Mary to Jesus being presented at the temple.

Here's Mary getting the news

Mary greeting Elizabeth

In Bethlehem and the shepherds

The visit by the wisemen-interesting baby Jesus is a toddler which is more accurate than the wisemen coming to Bethlehem at His birth

Simeon sees Jesus and blesses God - Luke 2:25-35

Surprisingly, or not, people seemed to have a reverence as they passed these scenes.  Maybe, like me, they felt the reality of Christmas and the birth of Jesus.  Or is that my "Hallmark" mindset???!!

Following a Dublin-pub dinner (a much too-young crowd for us, but fun and good food!!), we strolled the dark, Christmas lit streets as we had each night.  It was probably my favorite time of day because it was peaceful, the lights were beautiful and it was a nice time to reflect on the day.

Would I care to return to Strasbourg some other time??  Probably not.  But it was a fun few days,  and I'm glad we were able to visit this city that becomes so magical at Christmas.   Then it was home...and Christmas in Paris!!!!