A Day At The Zoo and European Institutions

As previously mentioned, Strasbourg is the capital of the EU, and home to the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and the Human Rights Building.  Although visits inside these buildings aren’t allowed, you can’t really go to Strasbourg and not check out this “European Quarter,” so I made a plan to slowly walk over to the North-West side of the city where these buildings are located today.  When I asked the guy at reception how long this would take, he laughed and suggested I take a tram because it’s quite far, but there were a few things I wanted to see along the way so I decided to walk there and tram back.

I headed west along Quai Saint-Jean, which led me to Place de la République, a central square in the “German Quarter,” constructed during the Prussian occupation of 1870.  Because this area was developed under German rule (Strasbourg is right at the border of France and Germany and throughout history there have been disputes over ownership, but after WWII it was returned to France), the architecture has a distinctly different look and feel from the rest of Strasbourg.  It was very interesting to wander around and admire the buildings – I’m not an architecture buff, but being in Europe has given me a better appreciation of classical and neo-classical designs, and I’m beginning to see the differences in architectural styles in various countries.

After grabbing some lunch – an interesting dish of meatballs in tomato sauce served with rice at the only restaurant I could find – I wandered over to the nearby University grounds and checked out their free botanical garden.  From here, I headed north on Rue de Verdun, until I got to Parc de L’Orangerie, a large park across from the EU buildings.  Inside the park I discovered a free zoo which is mostly full of Storks (it was here that the Stork was reintroduced when threatened with extinction), but they also have various other birds, monkeys and a petting zoo (which charges an admission fee of 1.60 euros).  Because it looked like the petting zoo was just for kids, I wasn’t going to bother going in, but then I noticed they had donkeys (which are my favourite animal) and I decided I had to go in, no matter how ridiculous I looked (and the guy at the gate totally gave me a funny look but whatever – this might have been the best 1.60 euros I’ve spent so far!).  I spent an hour in the petting zoo and I can’t even describe how much fun I had with the donkeys, goats, sheep, and pigs (although it would have been even more fun if I had some feed, but it seemed they only gave this to the kids!).

I finally left the park at six and walked over to the EU buildings, which weren’t quite as impressive as I had expected (although they look nice and modern).  Tired from all the walking, I caught a tram back to the hotel, and as it circled around, I realized I had only walked to the back part of the parliament buildings and the front was much nicer, but I was too tired to get off!

All in all, I must have walked over 4 kms today, but it was a good walk and I’m glad I didn’t take the tram to the EU buildings because there’s too much stuff I would have missed along the way :)