Saturday December 12th
ESN had rented a bus to take us to Strasbourg (Straßburg in
German) on Saturday. Strasbourg is 137 km (85 miles) from Heidelberg and lies in Alsace, a
province that has been annexed by many different empires in hundreds of years.
The Prussians took Alsace and Strasbourg in 1871 after winning the Franco-Prussian
war, but come the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ceded the region back to
France. For that reason (as well as being right on the border with Germany), as
a tourist, one can somewhat get away with only speaking German.
Strasbourg is well known for its Cathedral, which surpassed
the Pyramid of Giza in height and was the tallest building in the world from
1647 to 1874. Also the reason why it is nearly impossible to get a picture of
the whole cathedral from up close.
Strasbourg is also the official seat of the European
parliament and the region of Alsace is well known for its wine. However the
tourists in December come for one reason, Strasbourg's 445 year old Christmas
market, at the center of which is its enormous Christmas tree, topping out this
year at 30 meters (98 feet).
There are many reasons to love Strasbourg, however none of
these were mine. Having finished our espressos at a Cafe by the Cathedral, we
saw that there were people waiting to sit so we offered them our seats and left
to meet up with the others.
About half an hour later, I received a Facebook
message, written in French, from a lady unknown. Without understanding a word,
I intuitively and immediately touched my back pocket and did not feel my
wallet. I asked out tour guide if the message meant what i thought it did. After
she confirmed, I ran back to the Cafe and a seated man said "Matthew?"
to me in a French accent while holding my wallet. As it turned out, the people
we gave our seats to saw the wallet and, from my driver's license inside,
searched me on Facebook.
People (me included) would expect that if a tourist lost
something it will surely be gone forever. Instead they went above and beyond to
return my wallet to me. No better time to be reminded of the good nature of
people than Christmas time.
