Day 8 - A Stunning Cathedral

Day 8 – Sunday, Mar 29 – Strasbourg Day – Palm Sunday

[Apologies in advance for the rotated pictures in this blog software. It takes a lot of work to correct them, so you just have to tilt your head for now.]

After another sumptuous breakfast, we departed the ship to board a shuttle bus to take us near the center of the city of Strasbourg, which is surrounded by water and is largely the old town. On the drive we saw several government building related to the European Union – the European Council, the EU court of Human Rights and some other governing bodies for the EU. When the buses dropped us off, we had to walk on a cold, blustery day with our guide to the city center who pointed out various highlights along the way – most notably the so-called half-timbered houses that are so quintessential to the region.

By 10:15am (1015) we had arrived at the grand Strasbourg cathedral, coming down a side street toward the back side of the cathedral. It is the Cathedral of Notre Dame – one of three in France (of course, the most famous is in Paris and there is one more in Rouen, but this is the largest).

As we walked around the plaza to the front of the cathedral we were gawking at the size, the majesty, the flying buttresses (this is NOT a circus act), the detailed ornamentation, … Once in front of the cathedral, we experienced the enormous height of the façade and the ornate bell tower. The detailed sculptures of apostles, saints, important figures and even scenes from the Old and New Testament were stunning.

 

     

We did a little more walking around nearby, but our plan was to return in time for the 11:00am (1100) Palm Sunday Mass. We were told that the service would start outside the front door in the plaza and we would all process into he church behind the Archbishop (I am assuming “Arch” since I cannot imagine a mere bishop for such a grand cathedral).

When we returned at about 10:45am (1045) to stand in the cold on the hard pavement amongst the hundreds of people were amassing outside the front doors which stand about 30 feet tall with each door being 7-8 feet wide. We were all holding our palm branches, and we were told that this was a solemn Mass. People were told that the service would be 1.5 hours, and we were not allowed to leave during the service. I think they were doing this to weed out tourists.

There was a ceremony that included the archbishop wandering through the crowd sprinkling holy water on all of us. Thereafter, with a ceremonial knock on the giant cathedral doors, the bishop walked through the entry as the doors slowly swung open. The grandiose pipe organ burst into glorious music and we all processed into the cold, stone cathedral. Indeed, they locked the doors after we entered – no one in and no one out until it was all done; NO INTERRUPTIONS from pesky tourists or heathens.

For those who do not know, Palm Sunday Mass is a long ceremony, and standing on a stone floor in a cavernous stone building kept us all feeling like we were in a refrigerator. Lots of incense, lots of singing, lots of prayers. We did have some French pamphlets that helped us with some French singing and Mass participation, but of course, we could not understand the lengthy sermon (C’mon, Archie – it’s freezing in here! Can we just get on with it?). Communion was massive (after mass we had to exit the cathedral while they prepared for the tourists to come in at 2:00pm (1400) but not before we took about 10 minutes to absorb the majesty of the cathedral.    

  

We left the cathedral and milled around the square, did some souvenir shopping, etc. in order to kill some time before our lunch reservation at the Maison Kammerzell. It is a very old place that has continuously operated as a restaurant since 1427. {Note: It’s the dark building on the right street corner on the cathedral square.] The food was great, but they were out of the quail special that Steve wanted to try.      

       

After lunch we walked to the famous area called “La Petite France,” which is the very old part of town. Steve stayed on this area in 1992 and was able to find the hotel where he stayed with the same name – Petite France. He also found the restaurant where he first ate snails near the hotel. 

Mark and Steve decided to hustle back to the cathedral to see the astronomical clock (finalized 1843) and the Angel Pillar ( a one-of-a-kind pillar in Catholic cathedrals). The astronomical clock is all run by gears and keeps the time, the date on a large wheel of 365 days, the location of the known planets at the time, the phase of the moon, etc. It even has a special slot that opens on the data wheel every four years for Feb 29^th to appear. The whole contraption is about 50-60 feet high. There are special appearances of Christ and the Apostles at Noon and other figures that emerge on the hour.

As a bonus, Steve saw an inscription near the area where the clock and pillar are. It commemorated the brave American soldiers who fought to free France in WWII. This was very touching given our ultimate goal of visiting our Uncle Ray’s grave in the American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle Belgium. [More on all of that later in the trip.]

   

 

Others went to Gutenberg Square for our meeting point to return to the ship. Indeed, Gutenberg was from the Strasbourg area and invented the printing press in Strasbourg. However, he did not build and implement until he was in the nearby German city of Mainz, which also claims Gutenberg as a local hero. The printing press is of course one of the inventions that changed the course of human history!!

It was back to the ship for another sumptuous dinner and evening of relaxation over drinks and music provided by our resident pianist in the lounge. What a spectacular day!!