Haunted Humpday - Strasbourg

Happy Haunted Humpday!

The skeleton crew is joining Marfi at Incipient Wings for some spooky fun leading up to Halloween.  

Ivy and Burt are taking a break this week while I indulge photos of one of my new favourite cities.

You never know who you will meet when you're traveling.

HM and his new friend are gazing up at the awesome Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg. Actually, we visited Vienna and Munich before Strasbourg but I'm skipping over them for now because their big important buildings with the parterre gardens and tons of gilding are primarily Baroque, and all that frilly, light cheerfulness just doesn't go with Halloween. On the other hand, the rest of the city of Strasbourg is so unbelievably cute it puts Disney to shame. 

Construction of the cathedral began in 1015 and was completed in 1439. The spire towers 466 feet over the city making it the tallest fifteenth century structure in the world and it is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Late Gothic architecture. I find it absolute astounding that these huge cathedrals were built entirely by hand - no electricity, no hydraulics - stone by stone, just mallets and chisels and scaffolding. Amazing.  

The interior is almost a textbook example of the cutting edge architectural innovations of 1120. The intersecting ribs of the vaulted ceiling made it possible to reduce the weight bearing down on the walls. This in turn freed up open spaces for windows. During World War II the Nazi's stole all the stained glass and hid it in a salt mine in Germany. Their act of vandalism worked in the cathedral's favor because of the damage done by bombing raids carried out by the U.S. and Great Britain. In all likelihood if the windows had still been intact some would have been destroyed. After the war the windows were discovered and returned by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the U.S. military. Restorations and repairs of the war damage were completed in 1990.

Like most Gothic cathedrals there is a wealth of saints, gargoyles and grotesques embellishing the pink sandstone exterior. Most of the original statuary that survived the centuries has been removed and is on display in the adjacent museum. Modern replicas replace the originals,

      

     

The small rodent-like animal (for lack of a better description) on the left can be seen in the upper left hand corner of the photo above, sneaking down the tracery probably to annoy those two saints. The two testy dogs are located about in the middle, possibly to keep an eye on the unattractive unicorn. 

Before things get too cute, here's one more mad dog. Or is it a bat?

We had decided to visit Strasbourg mainly for the famous Alsatian food and wine. Obviously, we couldn't spend ALL of our time there eating and drinking, no matter how much we would've liked to. Luckily there was plenty to see and do so it was pretty easy to work up a good appetite.

Talk about being spoiled for choice. This is not a place for dieting. 

      

 The only hint of Halloween we came across was in this window of a candy shop. It appears the Europeans may be starting to warm up to the holiday's sweet side. It's a good place to start.  

Pumpkin soup was a staple at most of the restaurants and there was no shortage of pumpkins at the tiny markets that spill out onto the sidewalks either. Check out that "holy" Coke bottle, ha!

Strasbourg is a beautiful and interesting city to explore . . .

with endless streets to wander down . . . 

. . . pretty flowers to admire

. . . picturesque bridges to cross

 . . . and plenty of places to take a break from it all.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

A very Happy Haunted Humpday to everyone!