Adventuring with MaryLou: December 24, 2022 Boat Cruise, Roland & Violette, baeckeoffe

December 24, 2022

We went on a river cruise….maybe it was more like a canal cruise. The old Strasbourg was built on an island so, of course it’s surrounded by water. Now the water is controlled by locks and walls and gates. We took a glass covered boat and listened to the history of Strasbourg in English. Every seat was filled! It was so crowded. Here is a photo of m ‘n’ Fabi….

I took a pano pic of another boat. Going around a curve in the river. It’s kind of fun. Zoom in if you can.

Here are some of the buildings. (They were taken through a window.) I love Alsatian architecture. Didn’t I already say that?

When we went through the locks, people stood at the railing above us and watched. Fabi said , “Are we animals in the zoo?” With the pic of the locks, the gate is opening and you can see the building straight ahead.

At one end of the canal, we saw the Parliament buildings for the European Union, Yes, Strasbourg is the capital of the EU.

This if the first building. As the EU grew, they built one across the water.

I couldn’t get the whole building in these two photos. It’s sooooo big.

In the olden times, before people could enter the city, they had to pay a tax before they raised the gates.

This building was the administrative offices for the river business; then it became a kind of syphilis hospital; then a prison; now….. I forget.

Strasbourg was one of the first cities in Europe to embrace the ideas of the Reformation so there are many old Protestant churches. Now, all of France is mostly a secular society. I can’t tell the difference between the Protestant Churches and the Catholic Churches. They all sound the same—clang, clang, clang, clang.

After we returned home, we had some time before Roland (Fabi’s brother) and Violette came. When they arrived, Violette was introduced as Odile. OOPS. Everyone quietly calls her Violette because everything she wears is purple. Hmmm. Interesting.

So, they came. And we…..ATE! Of course. First, l’apéritif.

I thought it was caviar on little pieces of bread, some red and some black, but I was told it was similar to caviar but not caviar. OK, it was faux caviar. Pretty good. We also had real champagne.

For the next courses, we sat at the table, which had a festive look.

Second, foie gras. We ate it on either bread or épicé gateau…. A kind of mildly spicy gingerbread. It was a very interesting taste. I had two. It was served with these little jelly-like balls that tasted like jellied salt. I have no idea what it was. It complemented the whole foie gras experience. Sorry, no pics, but if you zoom in on the table, you can see the plate with foie gras.

Third, we ate the baeckeoffe. A kind of stew? with 3 kinds of meat—beef, porc, lamb, and potatoes and herbs and other stuff like onions, leeks, garlic.It cooks for four hours.

Fourth, we ate an amazing array of cheese.

Fifth was the dessert of sherbet, little meringue cookies, little nut cookies, little chocolate cookies, and of coure, Fabi’s bredele. (little cookies). Sorry no photos of dessert.

Yes, we drank wine with each coure. It was after 11:00 when we finished. (We had to take breaks between courses in order to go on.)

(OK, this is out of order again.) Before we ate, we opened presents. I gave presents. Then Sarah gave Fabi presents. One was a painting that she had done herself and the other was a quilted table runner/wall hanging that Louise, Sarah’s mom, had made. Sorry, I have a photo of only the painting. I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of the quilted piece!

After we gave everyone presents, Fabi gave me a shawl and a real French beret. Sarah got a scarf and a real French beret. Here we all are modeling our “Frenchness.”