Au revoir Strasbourg (Guten Abend Munich)*

Hotels are already beginning to lose their charm. The walls are like paper here; gratefully, the only embarrassing sounds are from the baby next door. The library at BNU was a profitable. Interestingly, there were lots of debates about resetting the Strasbourg Astronomical clock with the advent of time-zones in the later part of the 19th century. Up to that point, the clock was on local time calculated by the Strasbourg Observatory. With the new time-zone, that was half an hour slow. Great debate ensued, since the clock was ‘astronomical’ it was strongly felt the clock should show ‘true local time.’ The issue surfaced again during WWI with the introduction of Daylight Saving Time.

Research finished up around 2:00 p.m., leaving about three hours to wander the city in alternating bursts of sunshine and rain. Check the picture of the kayaks in the river, there was a flotilla of them negotiating the lock.

TGV trains are wonderful fast and smooth, although just like VIA they do run late. Arrived in Munich later than expected. Just a culture shock from Strasbourg, which, although very cosmopolitan, still has a bit of small-town atmosphere. Leaving the Bahnhof in Munich, you immediately land in the tawdry area of town. And yes, it’s Oktoberfest and the streets smell of beer and are crowded with men in lederhosen and women in dirndls.

Oh, the glass thing in the picture is the new Central Station in Strasbourg. Instead of demolishing the 19th century Beaux-Arts station, a glass shell envelopes it and creates an additional passenger area where the street used to pass by in front.

Time for bed, but there’s a movie on TV – have no idea what it is, but it’s Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, and they're in Germany and fighting bad guys. Rather odd coincidence.

*apologies to Anne-Marie MacDonald.