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Sitting outside the Reims railway station it was evident that the building had sustained bullet and shrapnel damage during the war (the whole area suffered badly at that time). It was spooky to imagine the battles taking place.
After a short slow train journey we arrived at the isolated Ardenne- Champagne fast train station.
We're blown away with the train systems we've used since we began our travels. In fact, yesterday, David was almost literally blown away!!! We were waiting for our fast train and he was looking at a train going in to the distance when "Whoosh" another, much faster, train flew by!!!! It truly was like a flash of lightning and David jumped about two feet in the air. It was so funny to see and wish I'd been able to video it. We're still laughing. Luckily I saw it coming (and going in the blink of an eye!)
We were soon on our own fast train headed towards the French/German border and were there in no time. Again we were surprised to find mile upon mile of broad acre farms, some germinated and some newly ploughed and bare. The farm buildings were neat and tidy and there were silos dotted here and there. It was very pretty in some places where smaller paddocks and areas close to the well maintained towns had rows of ghostly looking trees, all waiting for their spring leaves to emerge. There were some forest sections with a whole range of trees - oak, birch, aspen, poplar, willow. We saw lots of hides at edge of these forest blocks so wild animals must be a problem. At one point it was obvious that hops were grown over quite a large area in season. There was the odd irrigation channel - not sure what was being watered though.
Strasbourg brought us a complete change of architecture. Much German influence is evident because it was a German town before WWll. Wandering around the streets was fun with many retail outlets only just unpacking stock. Can only imagine that they close over the winter months.
Of course there is a cathedral!!! And what a cathedral it is!!! Another huge Notre Dame. The stained glass windows are sensational. The filigree adornments on the outside of the building are so fine. It's difficult to show the size of the building - it won't fit in the camera frame. It's ancient like the other cathedrals we've seen, it was commenced in 1096 and gradually completed over the next four hundred years. It's unusual in that it only has one massive spire topped tower. The 500+ year old astronomical clock inside was fascinating. It not only tells the time, it shows the, day, months, moon phase, positions of the planets and has very cute chimes where a little puppet man walks out with a hammer like gong. See cover pic.
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