A Walk Through Historic Strasbourg // France

Happy Monday friends! I hope that you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was incredibly delightful and restful. I hope that each of you were able to fill in lots of moments of joy throughout the weekend!

Today I am so excited to share about a walk through historic Strasbourg that we took while we were on our Rhine River Cruise on Viking Cruises at the beginning of this year. If you missed my post last week on a brief history of Strasbourg you can find it HERE! That post also shows some beautiful shots of walking into the historic area (which is also a World UNESCO heritage site) if you are interested. Again you can find it HERE!

We were so excited for the opportunity to spend time in Strasbourg. As I mentioned in my last post, this was one of our favorite days of the entire trip! If you haven't been to Strasbourg before I hope that you will add it to your trip bucket list because it was simply lovely.

I just loved walking throughout the city, taking in all of the buildings with the beautiful architecture, the colors, and the atmosphere.

One really neat thing was that because we were in Strasbourg on December 31st there were still touches of Christmas decorations everywhere. It really added to the charm of the city to see all the beautiful European decorations and the Christmas greens. Of course I say that and I would love to go back and see it in the Spring with all of the flowers. I imagine it is gorgeous anytime of the year!

One of the things that was really neat was that because of the time of year we went we found that places weren't really that crowded. I definitely didn't feel overwhelmed by tourists and there were lots of opportunities to interact with the locals which was really neat.

This restaurant looked absolutely beautiful still decorated for Christmas. I stopped to take so many pictures of this place because it was just so charming. As I was taking pictures my tour group continued down the street and the owner of the restaurant stepped out and I had a few moments to talk with him. He shared that loves the ambience that the Christmas season invokes so he has started to leave up all of the greens year round along with white lights. It was so neat to hear a few quick stories about his restaurant that has been in his family for several generations!

After talking for a few more minutes I hurried to catch up to my group who was making their way to Place Saint Thomas. (You can see a bit of the church in the background in the above picture.) Place Saint Thomas is so neat with several stories that I will be sharing more about on the blog this week!

As we walked I almost felt that each street grew more and more quaint and adorable.

I just love all of the artistic and architectural touches throughout the city.

And I know that I have said this before but all of the different shutters on the houses all throughout our trip were just so beautiful! Don't you just love these on this red-brown building?

As I mentioned in last weeks post, Strasbourg was the first city with the printing press invention due to Johannes Gutenberg. While historical records are a bit spotty, we do know that Gutenberg lived in Strasbourg for a period of time until 1444. It is believed that he lived in the St. Arbogast parish. It was in 1440 that Gutenberg is believed to have unveiled the secret of printing based on his research. History didn't record much but we do know that in 1448 he took out a loan from his brother-in-law that is believed to have been for a printing press.

By 1450 the printing press was in operation and a German poem is believed to be one of the first things that was printed. In 1452 Gutenberg conceived the "Bible project" as he was said to have nicknamed it. Some historians believe that Gutenberg actually was working on two different presses simply because he regarded the Bible project to be holy and needing a separate press. In 1455 Gutenberg completed his 42-line Bible which became known as the Gutenberg Bible. At the time approximately 180 copies were printed.

As I sit here typing on this blog, considering my work for the week in front of me for upcoming book projects and writing deadlines, I am simply amazed. I think about my books that have been published and the ones that will be published in the future. I think about my life as a full-time blogger and author and how far we have come since 1455. It was humbling to stand there and look at the statue dedicated to a man who changed the world with his ideas and concepts.

It truly makes you stop and reflect on the way that each of us have an opportunity to change our world for the better. To look beyond what has never been done. To dream big for the future. To hold onto hope that there are always miracles to come. And to believe that things we do today can have a long-lasting legacy on generations to come.

As we continued walking down the beautiful streets of Strasbourg we looked up and could see the tower from the Strasbourg Cathedral. (If you go on this Rhine River Cruise with Viking and take this tour this is where your guided tour with Viking will end- at the Cathedral).

Our tour guide walked us to the Strasbourg Cathedral and as we approached the Cathedral the bells started to play. It was absolutely magnificent. You can hear (and see some of our walking tour as the bells played) on my instagram feed HERE. I literally stopped and had tears running down my cheeks. It was simply amazing.

After the tour my mom and I attended French Mass at the Strasbourg Cathedral (which I will share more about this week) and it was simply beautiful. After Mass we went and wandered more of the streets of Strasbourg, ate at a cute French restaurant and spent time just soaking up the atmosphere and being together. It was such a beautiful day and we were so grateful for the amazing experience.