TOO MUCH INFORMATION = BANYAK CING CONG: La frontière entre la france- l'allemagne (L'alsace: Strasbourg, Obernai, Riquewihr) et Heidelberg part. 2

Last weekend was quite of a long weekend for most people in Europe, and we decided to go to Strasbourg. This is like the second time i went to the capital of Alsace. The first one was in 2002, with my school, visiting the European Union something (really..i forgot..hehehe.. all that i can remember, i was dazing in the room, didn't even bother to listen to the lecture). And then visiting the European Court of Justice. From my first visit, i got so impressed with the city, it was clean and ...full of young people =) (cheeky!!!)

The second time, it was last weekend, and of course, i was with the gorilla man. We got lucky, we got a nice cheap hotel (next to the train station) at the very last minute (considering it was a long weekend), and it was not just a hotel, but also a hotel apartement, so we can prepare our breakfast and cut off the budget for our trip.

In general, i like the region Alsace, the region of oil (my friend told me that schlumberger, the oil company, was born here, taking into consideration that the region produce oil thus, there is a little bit of richness) and of course, Alsacien Telecom, or Alcatel in short. Everything is different from the rest of France (and the rest of france are also different from each others). They have this German's ambiance, and Alsace is one of the regions in France where they have their own local language (as well as Basque and Bretagne). Well. the house and the food are very alike to the ones in Germany. In this region, we can see a lot of houblon plants, the plant that gives the arome to beer.

We didn't do much of walking in the city, which is normal since the gorillaman is not a big fan of cities. He is more into nature stuffs.Thus on the second day, we went to the border of Germany, next to wissemburg and do a lot of walking in the nature over there. We wanted to do the stroll of 5 castles (they are more like ruins instead of a castles actually), but in the end, we only found 4..(Fleckenstein, Loewenstein, Hohenbourg and Wegelnburg) hehe.. we kinda got lost after the 4th castle in the german region, we couldnt find the sign to go to the 5th one. After 15 minutes of walking, we saw a big castle on the top of the hill, and went through the forest to reach it. It would help a lot to see the name of the castle, and surely there is a blackboard of map of the region for tourists. Turned out it was the 1st castle that we visited, Fleckenstein Castle (didn't even realize we'd crossed the border back to France again).

I love the forest over here. It is full of big and funny shaped rocks. When we met up many German tourists on our way, we were not worry at all, since it meant that we were in the good tracks. And when we didn't see them around anymore, we would know that we were lost. But anyway, being in the Alsace makes me a bit lost since all the names are so foreign for me. Moreover, the alsacians often talk in local language which sounds like german language for me. Well, not to mention that there are many german tourists in the region (especially in the bordering forest, which made us the only french tourists in the region).

The following day, we did touristic thingy; taking up our car and visited some of the old towns and mediaval villages situated in the south of Strasbourg, such as Obernai, Riquewihr (very touristic place) and Hunawihr where we bought 12 bottles of white alsacian wine directly from the producer. The funny thing was, all of the places situated in the route of wine, around hundreds kilometer long, producing the best alsacian white wine.

We also went to Koenigsbourg castle, which was actually build in the year 700 something, but got renovated under the demand of king William II of Prusia, around hundred years before our era, when at that time, his kingdom ruled Alsace and Loraine province.

Going to Alsace was actually a way of learning the history of the battle between the Frenchs and the Germans, who were fighting over Loraine and Alsace province (which then resulted in the war 1914-1918, that brought back Loraine and Alsace to the french). And little do i know, the swedis (under the command of king Gustav... dunno his exact name) were also there fighting a little bit, not sure what the purpose was. Oh good news.. TGV is comming to the Alsace, makes life faster isnt it?

The last day, we decided to cross the German's border (i got so fed up with the french). The day before, I had found out that Heidelberg, a small city next to Mannheim, is not that far from strasbourg. Cool..i can visit my friend there. So there we went... We spent the day strolling from one hill to another and the old city in between. Then we finished the visit by sitting by the riverside.

We were so lucky, the weather was so nice, unlike in South of France where all the Parisian went to (being seduced that the weather is always nice there, they caused many traffic jam all the way till the south of france last weekend..hehehe).

Long weekend kemaren, suamiku ambil cuti, dan kita memutuskan untuk pergi ke Strasbourg. Ini kali keduanya aku kunjungan ke sana, yang pertama sama sekolah dulu, mengunjungin parlemen masayarakat Eropa (kayaknya sih.. banyakan ngelamun sih gue) dan European Court of Justice. Waktu pertama kali kunjungan kesana sih rasanya berkesan banget. Kotanya bersih dan banyak anak mudanya (duh.. mulai centil banget... Cheeky abis!!!).

Secara umum, saya sangat suka Alsace, daerah dimana perusahaan minyak Schlumberger (katanya sih karena di sini ada minyak juga) dan Alsace telecom (alcatel) berasal. Ini adalah salah satu region di Perancis yang punya bahasa lokal sendiri (selain Basque dan Bretagne), yaitu bahasa campuran antara bahasa Jerman dan Perancis.

Di sini kita nginep di hotel yang juga mirip sama aprtemen. Soalnya ada dapurnya, jadi bisa nyiapin makan pagi, bisa irit-irit dikitlah. Dan hotelnya juga gak mahal, mengingat lokasinya dekat dengan stasiun kereta di pusat kota.

Lama perjalanan dengan mobil, Paris - Strasbourg, memakan waktu 4,5 jam (max), dengan kereta 4 jam kalo gak salah. Tenang, TGV bakal ada bentar lagi, dan stasiun keretanya sedang berbenah jadi moderen untuk menyambut datangnya TGV.

Kami gak banyak ngelakuin jalan-jalan di pusat kota Strasbourg, kita malah banyak jalan di hutan sebetulnya. Kami sempet ngelakuin jalan-jalan keliling 5 kastil (tapi yang ada cuman nemu 4, karena pas mo nyari yang ke-5, kita nyasar gak nemu arah jalan). Adapun empat kastil tersebut bernama Fleckenstein, Loewenstein, dan Wegenstein. Sebetulnya sih, mereka lebih menyerupai puing-puing dibandingkan kastil. Hutan di sekitar kastil, bagus banget, kita nemu banyak banget batu-batu yang tinggi, menyerupai menara dan berwarna merah.
Di sekitaran, banyak banget turis Jerman, ngebuat kita menjadi turis perancis satu-satunya di daerah tersebut (padahal masih region perancis). Ternyata orang-orang perancis aslinya lebih suka berwisata ke arah selatan strasbourg. Haha.. lebih kedalem kali.. dasar perancis gak doyan ke luar negeri. Tapi emang, di situ nama-namanya udah banyak yang jerman, saya juga jadi pusing sendiri karena gak terlalu ngerti mereka ngomong apaan. Tau-tau ada anak kecil tanya jalan ke saya pake bahasa jerman, bingunglah saya. Untung si Gorillaman ngerti bahasa jerman, jadi dia yang jawab.

Hari kedua, kita banyak ngelakuin kunjungan wisata à la turis, yaitu bawa mobil, ngunjungin kota-kota atau desa-desa tua yang banyak terdapat di alsace semacam Obernai, Riquewihr dan Hunawihr, dimana semuanya terletak gak jauhan, dan masih terletak di "Jalan Wine", jalan sepanjang ratusan kilometer, yang penuh dengan perkebunan anggur, penghasil anggur terbaik dari Alsace. Di desa terakhir, kita beli 12 botor anggur langsung dari produsen (di rumahnya doi).. mayan, buat ditabung..hehehe.

Kita juga ngunjungin kastil Koenigsburg yang besar di atas gunung, yang sebetulnya dibangun pada tahun 700-an, tapi kemudian di renovasi oleh arsitektur Jerman, atas perintah raja Prusia, Guilliome (William) II, sekitar abad 19. Memang pada saat itu, provinsi Alsace dan Loraine diduduki oleh Jerman. Raja memerintahkan pembangunan kembali kastil ini untuk mengenang kejayaan bangsa jerman di daerah Alsace. Info sedikit, ternyata bangsa swedia juga pernah nyerbu kastil ini, untuk tujuan apa, saya tidak tahu pastinya.

Berada di Alsace memang seperti belajar sejarah pertarungan antara Perancis dan Jerman, yang sekiranya perang dunia I (1914-1918) disebabkan oleh perebutan daerah Loraine dan Alsace antara dua negara. Pertarungan dimenangkan oleh Perancis dengan konsekuensi Loraine dan Alsace kembali ke Perancis.

Hari terakhir, kami sepakat untuk kembali menyeberangi perbatasan untuk mengunjungi teman saya yang tinggal di Heidelberg. Saya udah bosen banget di perancis, dan juga bete sama orang2nya, khususnya administrasinya maka saya ngemis-ngemis sama suami supaya mau ke Jerman. Ternyata Heidelberg itu gak jauh-jauh amat dari Strasbourg, sekitar 1,5 jam pake mobil. Di Heidelberg, kita jalan-jalan di kota, naik turun bukit, dan duduk-duduk di pinggir sungai. Saya suka Heidelberg yang memiliki semua yang dimiliki oleh sebuat kota turis, yaitu kastil (tapi gak masuk ke dalam kastil di situ, udah eneg ngeliat kastil melulu), sungai, bukit hutan, dan juga kota kuno.

Kita beruntung banget, udara yang diramalkan bakal ujan gede di daerah Alsace sepanjang weekend, ternyata gak terbukti sama sekali. Tauk deh orang-orang Paris yang pergi ke daerah selatan (bikin macet total di tol arah selatan), gimana ya, bete kali ternyata di sana hujan. Hehehe.