Strasbourg, France

June 24, 2025

To return our peak passes and catch our train, we woke up at a startling 6:45am. We did get 10 Francs back for returning the pass, and we made our 8:06am train to Visp. On this train, we also shared cars with a primary school field trip! Kids were around first or second grade, and they eagerly entered public transport, found a seat, and then started talking with their classmates. Oddly enough, it sounded like they were speaking Spanish. I know a little Spanish and was picking up on certain words, but I also still question what I heard and what they were actually speaking considering where we were. Nevertheless, the idea of taking an entire school (there had to have been at least 50 kids) on public transportation that has very specific times baffles me. Props to all the teachers! 

On this ride, I caught a glimpse of my one and only highland cow as we sped past a farm, a brief but exciting moment.

It took many connecting trains to finally get to Strasbourg, France, our next destination. At this point, we were pretty burnt out. We had walked through so many cities all promising the same thing: old rocks (in the forms of buildings, churches, and art). We were tired. We checked into our AirBnb and quickly realized it and our next apartment in Paris didn’t have AC. We were very annoyed as it was HOT. 

We decided to wander about the city (which was pretty and something I think we would’ve appreciated more had we visited it earlier in our trip), and decided to check out a wine cellar cave. We did a small self-guided tour and admired wine barrels from hundreds of years ago. We also visited a cathedral too. Again, this would’ve been more exciting had we not seen numerous cathedrals in our previous stops. Along this wandering, we also stopped for gelato, where a “homeless” man asked for aid, so I gave him a high-protein granola bar. (I have homeless in quotation marks because we watched him have a full blown conversation with someone he knew in line for gelato and appeared to be doing fine and not in need of any sort of aid, and then immediately after, he came to us with puppy dog eyes and a “woe is me” voice inflection asking for money.) I don’t think he was thrilled that the granola bar didn’t equate to cash, but regardless, I helped how I felt comfortable.

For dinner, we headed back to the AirBnb and ate at the restaurant that was connected to our AirBnb. I got a steak and Jeff got a burger, and to have a meal where protein was the focus was amazingggg. I hadn’t had a meal with meat as the main dish since Venice. And that really had been the only meal that didn’t include carbs as the main entree. It was truly delicious. 

We went back to the hot apartment, showered, slept with the windows open, and tried to get restful sleep. Outside our window, people dined until well after 11pm, laughing and talking. I put my Loop Quiet earplugs (maybe one day they’ll sponsor me lol) in to try and dull their noise so I could sleep, and they did help. The late dinners truly are a part of life in Europe. And normally, I would support it. But this night, I was just tired.