Wednesday, July 10th: Today, we said good bye to Heidelberg and took the high speed train to Strasbourg, France for a guided tour of the European Union Parliament and historical Strasbourg. The ride was about 2.5 hours and Strasbourg is on the Franco-German border. The city has a conflicted history, as it has changed hands between Germany and France several times, going back to the Franco-Prussian war and finally going back to France after World War II. It is also where Gutenberg invented the Printing Press and where hundreds of Jews were massacred during the Black Plague, being accused by Christians of poisoing the wells. It is part of the Alsace-Lorraine border region and it is absolutely beautiful!
Once we arrived in Strasbourg, we had the privilege of taking a guided tour of the European Union Parliament and learned the workings of the EU. What is fascinating is that 28 countries that have had a history of over 2000 years of warfare have managed to put aside their political, economic, and cultural differences to form a HIGHLY progressive, loose form of government that heavily emphasizes human rights, loose borders, and free trade. It does have issues and is not perfect, but it provides hope and promotes peace nonetheless.
Once we finished the tour of Parliament, we took a guided tour of historic Strasbourg, had lunch, spent a few more hours there and took a 90 minute bus ride to Saarbrücken in Germany.
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