Au Revoir, Auto!

Today was the day when we bid farewell to our rental in Strasbourg, France.

Upon researching rental options for a van to travel in, I discovered the cost was significantly lower for a one-way rental to be returned in the same country as it was picked up. For our travels, we needed a vehicle from the south of France to get us to Italy, to Austria, then back up to Germany. With some cost analysis, it was much more reasonable to use a vehicle within Germany for our day-trip to the Black Forest, then return it to a neighboring city in France which was naturally Strasbourg. You never have to convince us to make Strasbourg a stop on our trip!

The beginning of our day was spent close to the hotel and looking for some cough medicine for the kids at the mall. All three seemed to have developed a cough and I wanted to find something to soothe them as the audible coughing was also something we wanted to dampen. No one had a fever but we were hoping to at least ease their throats as we traveled. We finally packed up the car for our day trip to France, and were there in two hours visiting the Notre Dame (in Strasbourg) and picking up various French souvenirs while we were in country.

This was Greg and I’s third visit there together (at least) and we always enjoy the quintessential French decor and Alsatian influence Strasbourg offers. We did not include a stop at La Cloche Fromage unfortunately, because we wanted today as a play-by-ear and not try to make a reservation. But worth noting, the restaurant is worth going back to NEXT time we’re in Strasbourg:

https://www.fromagerie-tourrette.com/en/le-restaurant-la-cloche-a-fromage/

Greg and Claire stopped by La Petite France because it’s a perfect capture of how the city wanted to stay true to France as it bounced between German and French territories through the years, and is always worth appreciating. I picked up Burger King at the train station for the kids, and enjoyed some fried fromage (not quite La Cloche but still…). We returned to Stuttgart via train, a journey that took half the time as it did to drive there. It was air conditioned and our First Class seats made it a relaxing journey back to Stuttgart for our last night there. The rest of our time in Europe this trip would continue to be in this same style, making all of us happy travelers with access to bathrooms and views of the countryside with free wifi, and without having to drive, pay for gas, or pay for tolls.