A Jolly Holiday with Mary!

Today was wonderful! It was just amazing seeing Mary again and being able to pick up like we hadn't not seen each other since last May! We started out the day by almost missing breakfast at the hostel, but a nice guy let us in even though we had technically already checked out and didn't have our keys as proof that we were guests there.

Then we walked over to the island that is the olde towne of Strasbourg and saw the cathedral. We stopped by the tourism office first to grab maps and see if anything cool was going on in the city and then we hiked up to the top of the cathedral (not the very top, because it's being redone, but we were very high up there. It was good weather for that again, so it was great for picture taking and general viewing. Mary and I were able to leave our own special mark in the guestbook of the cathedral tower.

We were able to go and see the astronomical clock for free since it was Sunday but it was only sort of working (the lights went off for a while randomly). It was cool to hear the announcements in French and German.

Then, the plan was for us to go on the riverboat tour, but it was closed for high water, which somehow turned into "haeut Haeuser." Whoops. A small reversal of syllables and combining French and German makes for funny sounding words. Another indecisive lunch followed, but pizza baguettes turned out to be quite delicious.

Also, today was the main filming day for an up-and-coming new feature series on Animal Planet... okay, not really, but Ducks In Action will be a huge success. Especially the special editions.

The afternoon instead of going on the boat tour was spent at the Strasbourg city museum where it was heartily emphasized that Strasbourg has always considered itself an independent city and that the people from Strasbourg are the best ever. Made me laugh.

We then ended up going to Flan's for dinner, which is apparently the place to go for flamenkuche(the sort of creme-based pizza tart) where our neighbors left a few pieces of their dessert banana-chocolate one and since the tables were so close, we were able to sneak a piece.

Then back to the hostel to pick up Mary's bag and check back in for Julie and I (we ended up in the same room as before!) and we went to the Bahnhof together to say goodbye. After much picture-taking, the night train left with Mary safely ensconced in her compartment like in Harry Potter.