Well, one last Post to wrap up my visit with the Siblings’ homeland. My heart is full. This trip is one of the best I have ever taken. Already I am thinking about a potential return trip to dig a little deeper. Anyone interested in joining me?
My flight home was scheduled to takeoff at 6:30 am, so I arranged to be at the airport at least two hours early. Well, the Strasbourg airport is very small. When the taxi dropped me off, all the light were on, but nobody home. In fact the doors were locked. So, there I was, at 4:30 in the morning, standing outside the airport wondering what to do. Fortunately, a few minutes later, I was no longer alone. More other travelers arrived and happily joined in the wait. We all watched as the workers slowly arrived to start their work day. Finally the door was opened and we filed in. From then on, the trip home was uneventful, just long.
As I wrapped this blog series, I reviewed my earlier posts. (Oh, painful seeing all those typos that I posted). I found I failed to tell you about the massive Astronomical Clock in the beautiful Notre-Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg. The current clock was built in 1843 and is the third of its kind to stand in this spot, The first clock was constructed between 1352–1354. In the late 1500’s a second, more ambitious clock was built. So it was definitely around when the Siblings lived in the area. The clock mechanism is said to be unique – it includes various dials and displays, such as a perpetual calendar and a display showing the position of the sun and the moon. Each day at around 12:30 (the solar noon of Strasbourg) the astronomical clock goes into action and the automatons will start to move. An angel will sound a chime. Figures representing the stages of life pass before Death, a skeleton holding a scythe, the bird crows and a conga line of apostles issues forth from the clockworks, and passes before Christ.
On this trip, this is the first time that I have written blog posts while traveling. I usually try to summarize my thoughts and photos in small video. I am surprised how much I enjoyed writing a daily blog, so I may consider doing that again. So, to wrap up this trip, here is a link to my summary video.