Mom and I decided to make a lunch and take it to L'Orangerie, a good sized park just on the outskirts of downtown Strasbourg. It's just a block away from the European Parliament building, so I thought we could see that as well.
The original plan was to take a bus, tram, bus directly to L'Orangerie. But then I was like, "well, the tram stop isn't far, we can just walk, rather than get onto the bus." Then we changed our minds again and decided to go to the Parliament first, and then to L'Orangerie. Bad idea...
We got to the Parliament building just fine. Then we ended up walking allllll the way around it to try and get a bearing for where we were. Which never really happened. We ended up getting stuck in the same general area for about...20 minutes. Just walking in circles and pointing in every direction, and ruling out every direction.
Let me pause for a moment and tell you just how very much I hate standing in front of a landmark, people (French people) milling around, and looking so blatantly touristy and American, with your nose pushed into five different maps and pointing all around you...not fun. No sir...
Finally, after getting a bit frustrated, we just decided to get onto a tram that would take us to a bus that we knew would take us directly in front of L'Orangerie (this seems like a big deal...hopping from tram to bus to bus to tram...etc. But it's actually very convenient and easy. The French just know how to do public transportation the right way!).
So we hiked back to the stop we'd gotten off before, and got on the tram. The next stop, was a stop we had been standing at 20 minutes ago, scrutinizing and comparing the tram's map to our map. This was my first moment of, "wow...I feel ridiculous."
Then, we rode this for maybe...two more stops and got off, hopping onto the bus. This was about four stops...four stops that were about 20 feet away from each other. As I was watching out the bus windows, knowing our stop was next, I saw L'Orangerie. This was my final moment of..."wow...I feel really ridiculous."
We had only been around the corner from it! Just unable to figure out where to go because we couldn't see around the large Parliament building. Oh well...now we know not to try to find L'Orangerie from Parliament. The funny thing about the whole situation, is that after getting there, and seeing how to get there, we still can't figure it out on the map!
Lesson of the day:
While trying to get somewhere, figuring out your tram and bus stops is the easy part. The second you step off the platform...your lost.
We enjoyed our lunch while sitting on a bench in a rose garden. Then we got up and wandered around the park. We found a waterfall, and a really awesome gazebo. The ceiling was painted to look like etchings. It was really neat. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the inside. But if we ever go back, I will.
After walking for a bit we sat and read for awhile. Soaking up some late summer sun. As we sat, a bride and her new husband came with their wedding party and a photographer and took pictures. They took some standing inside a weeping willow leaning out over the pond. Her dress was beautiful. Creamy chiffon, tapering in the front to accentuate the flow of the material.
About 5 minutes after they arrived, another newlywed couple came through with their photographer. I guess we chose the best place for taking wedding photos in Strasbourg!
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