I was worried about my bag. My day bag for this entire trip had been the white My Neighbour Totoro over the shoulder bag I bought in London last January. During the year one strap had begun to rip (even though it is leather or faux leather), but I got it fixed. It was only as I was leaving London this time I noticed the stitching on the other side of the strap had began to come off. I thought it would be ok as long as I was careful. Since then it had been slowly undoing itself. It was on this morning that the under side of the strap had finally peaked out. I was now very worried. I tried to make the bag as light as possible and hoped it would be ok until I found a leather worker to fix it.
We set off towards the south canal. On the way we passed a market, still being set up. I love food markets. I love the cheese stalls,filled with blocks of cheeses of every size and shape and colour. I love the meat stalls, covered with a curtain of hanging sausages. I especially love the fruit and veg stalls. Every type of produce piled high in big crates. And the smells. One of the best parts of walking through the freshly grown wonderland. The clothes stalls don't interest me as much. Further we walked.
There main square was deserted in the early morning sun. Shop were setting out stands of postcards. The river was likewise empty. We bought tickets to the 9-30am river tour. The boat was long and short, roofed in curved glass. Each seat had headphone and a choice of languages.
We picked window seats, which wasn´t difficult being so early. I was feeling strangely lethargic all of a sudden. I had no energy and didn't feel like being enthused about every thing pointed out to us. I must have looked it to. Twice Josh asked me if I was ok. I tried to pay attention to the tour.
The head phones talked about the history of Strasbourg and each bridge as we passed under it. There were vaguely interesting details about prisoners having last meals and such, but not edge of your seat stuff. It was only half way through the tour when I finally woke up and started paying attention to the view outside. Actually it was a swan that did it.
I was staring out the window and saw this white swan floating past. The white swans always kind of interest me, being so different from the black swans we get back home. By then we were outside the European institutions; the Euro counsel and tribunal of human rights and the EU parliament.
From then I took photos and paid attention. We passed by the damn we had seen a day earlier, plus we passed through the canals of Petit France. There was torture tower with a harsh reputation. And a story. The head torturer, after years of service, was accused of blasphemy. He was sentenced to have his tongue cut off and then a beheading. The new torturer knew of all his good work in the past. As a professional courtesy he beheaded the man first and then took his tongue. Much better I think.
After the boat trip we found the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. This is the way an art museum should be. There was a maze of white rooms. Each was dedicated to an artist style or an artist. There was post-impressionism and Fauvism. There was realism. A room for Kupka and a room for Kandinski. A room for surrealism. I had good fun walking around them all. I quite liked the realist room and the Kandinski room.
The contemporary art section was interesting, but didn't hold my interest for long. There are only so many times people can paint a canvas in a single colour before it stops becoming new and daring. Your´e not doing anything new by it any more. I also noticed how all the art films in galleries have the same music in the background. It doesn't matter what the visuals are, the audio is always the same ominous composition of two or three notes over and over again. Not that I don't love it, because most of them are great anyway.
After the gallery we realised we hadn't eaten the Kuggelhoff. So off we went to find a bakery. Our prayers were answered by a lovely large bakery with so many delicious looking things. We asked for a kuggelhoff, but something else caught our eyes. Little fruit shaped marzipan. Alright, not exactly a local food, but they looked amazing. We got a small bag of mini fruit pate d-amande. We were quite pleased with ourselves walking back.
We got back to the hostel. I decided something had to to be done about my bag, lest I have to carry it the rest of the trip. So I got out needle and thread and started to sew into the leather. I tacked back and forward for the whole depth of the strap, right through the lining. It was much sturdier now. It would last the remainder of the trip.
We ate the treats we had bought while we skyped family and friends. We updated some photos. Then laundry. Which I really really needed. Clean, freshly laundered clothes are nothing to be taken for granted. It was at about this point that about 30 british teens came to the hotel in an enormous tour group. Suddenly there was English everywhere. It was nice.
For dinner we ate beef ravioli and ratottoullie. Then we made our way down to the small bar in the hostel. We sat and talked to the barman. He was an Egyptian computer technology student from Alexandria, in France for the last 5 five years. Both his English and French were very good. At the bar we were accompanied by some of the English students. Some were 18 while others talked about fake Ids. We enjoyed a quiet drink and listened to their conversations.
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