Friday, 16 June. Offenburg

Today I decided to be a big, brave girl and catch another train, hopefully without anything going wrong. Off I went to the station and bought a return ticket to Strasbourg. The lovely girl at the station, who spoke excellent English, kindly printed details of return trains for me as I told her I had a habit of making mistakes with trains.

Off I went to Platform 4 and there was a two carriage train which clearly said it was going to Strasbourg. I stepped down into it and waited as it wasn’t leaving for half an hour. It gradually filled up and just before we left a young man sat next to me. We got talking on our half hour journey. 

His name is Prosper Qhubs Sithole and he is a Michelin chef who has just won an international competition for making an omelet. He showed me pictures and it was pretty impressive. He comes from Zimbabwe but has recently been working in Botswana. He was on his way to Luxembourg as it looks like he’s been offered a job there. This young man is definitely going places in his career. He has already studied and worked in many countries, including Australia. We had a great conversation and if the rest of the day had been awful I would still consider it a special day. I now follow him on Instagram.

To make things better, we arrived in Strasbourg with no problems - not surprising as the train only goes between Offenburg and Strasbourg with a few stops in between.

What I hadn’t thought about was how to find my way, as I was in a different country and my German internet didn’t work there. No sign of any tourist information in the station so I just set off down a road. I soon came to a Best Western Hotel so I went in to ask where I might find a city map. The lovely lady at reception not only gave me a map but also marked the best way to the Petite France area.

In Petite France the river has split into a number of channels that used to be home to tanners, millers and fishermen. Lots of half timbered buildings, outdoor cafes and tourists and all very picturesque. I did a lot of wandering on cobbled streets and a bit of sitting in shady spots. 

I finally decided that I should visit the cathedral, just for Anne, and headed in that direction. I was a bit disappointed until I realised I was only halfway there and the edifice I was looking at was a Protestant church. The cathedral, once I got there, was definitely cathedral sized and very Gothic looking. It took nearly 300 years to build and is constructed of pink sandstone which looks black and menacing now. The stained glass windows are very beautiful.

By now I’d had enough and decided to head back to the station. I was impressed that things were well signposted in Strasbourg. If I hadn’t had my map the signs would have got me back to the station without too much bother. When I got there I saw that a train was leaving for Offenburg in a few minutes from the same platform we came in on. This was platform 25 which was sort of an afterthought about 50 metres beyond platform 1. 

The train brought me back to Offenburg with no problems other than sore feet and sweat dripping off my nose and hair. Stopped for my usual ice cream but had a less fancy one this time (but with an embarrassing amount of whipped cream) and sat in a different area which I didn’t like as much. My phone tells me that I walked just over 11 km today so maybe I’ve earned a slack day tomorrow.