We took our time rising, but eventually made a 1100h start for our trip to Strasbourg, after saying goodbye to all the dogs and cats (and of course, our hosts). We tried to stay on backroads for the trip to Strasbourg, for better quality scenery and also to avoid trafifc congestion on the Motorways, given that today had been declared a Code Red day (when lots of French people either start or end their summer holidays). The traffic in our area was not too bad, but the Google Maps directions on my phone usefully diverted us around a couple of areas of congestion due to accidents on the main roads.

We arrived at Strasbourg at around 1400h and fairly quickly found our destination at the Europe Boat Trading Port de Plaisance, where we were to meet up with "old friends" Phil and Kathy Tyson who also have a Piper Barge.

After a slow chatty lunch and cool drink, they gave us their tram tickets, maps and directions and sent us off to explore the city. We then walked to the Winston Churchill tram station on the C Line, and took the tram to the Gallia station, close to the centre of town. As we crossed one of the many canals around and through the city, we got a good view of Eglise Saint-Paul. While this looked impressive, it was nothing compared to what we would later see.

We continued our perambulation along the cobbled streets, and were generally impressed with what we saw. The only disquieting thing was the number of people in such confined spaces. Having just come from a country where lockdowns, mask wearing and social distancing have become second nature, it was strangely disturbing to be among so many people (mostly unmasked) at close quarters. We silently longed for when we will be able to go into "voluntary self-isolation" on the barge!

As we wandered along, we realised we were nearing one of the architectural highlights of Strasbourg - the Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg. The building is staggering is its size, having once been the tallest building in France. It was so big that I couldn't get far enough away to capture it all in one photo, so I've cheated and included a copy of a photo from a book we bought about the Cathedral. It is unusual in having just one offset spire, but what it lacks in spires, it certainly makes up for with other features, such as magnicent stained glass windows and a beautiful old organ.

We could have stayed at the Cathedral for a while longer, but since we hope to get back here later in the year, we decided to move on and sample some other parts of the city, like the Little Venice area, where many of the canals meet. It is also a great place to look at some of the architectural styles so characteristic of Strasbourg (left below) and one of the few ecluses in the middle of Strasbourg (right below).

By now 3 hours had passed in a flash, and dinner was close to being ready back on Phil's barge Effie. So we headed off in search of the tram station (Homme de Fer) for our trip home. Along the way, we felt rather serene as we passed a little reminder of Australian cinematic history. Dinner on the back deck of Effie turned into a long chatty session, until we decided to call it a day close to midnight.

As we were going through one of the smaller towns, we saw a site that I had heard of but never seen before. On the tops of many of the power poles in the village, storks had built nests, in which they were raising their young. Other storks sat on top of bare power poles, while others sat on rooftops and chimney tops. Quite a sight!