Last weekend we went to Strasbourg, France. The purpose of this visit was a gathering with members of Jalan Sutra (an indonesian mailing list about food and travel) in Europe on Saturday, 07 May 2005. Since the gathering was on Saturday, we thought to came on Friday and left on Sunday.

After checked in at the hotel (it took 2 hours and 45 minute with the bus ….I slept most of the time ), we went for lunch. After a long walk from hotel to the city centre…..we found this restaurant, Kohler Rehm at Place Kleber. I ate here once, years ago and I remember the seafood they had was very delicious. So this time I ordered sea food again and so did Volker. Actually he chose the same because the menu card was in French and the waitress didn’t speak english at all. But she was so cute she draw us a sea and a boat and then a shell to describe sea food

And…hmmm…hmmm….yummy….

That was the smallest portion of seafood for two person for 31€.

Volker also tried their Kohler-rehm bier

Unfortunately the weather that weekend wasn’t nice…so after lunch we walked a while …a bit window shopping….and after me drolling at the pastry shops all the time, Volker took me into a cafe. We tried cheese cake and brownies….hmm

Afterward we went back to the hotel because it rained…. all weekend….

Saturday ….

The first meeting point of the gathering was in front of the tourism office. After getting know each other…Peter, the coordinator gave us a time table and map of Strasbourg and then we went inside the cathedral together. Next point was sightseeing Strasbourg from mini tram. Again….the weather was cloudy and windy….too bad…but still we all had fun..

Afterward because of the rain we all hurried went to the restaurant Gurtlerhoft which Lenny searched and surveyed for us. The restaurant was in front of the cathedral, very central…and also nice…a pity that we couldn’t sit together…but…we were more than 50 persons, including children . We sat on the corner with Ajie, Alex, Dita and her husband Thorsten. I remembered that I ate here before and also remembered that they really have a big portion. So I didn’t ordered a starter, Volker ordered Tarte à l’oignon. For the main course I ordered one of the specialty from Alsace
Choucroute alsacienne (5 garnitures) , which was Sauerkraut (pickled souir cabbage) with 5 sorts of sausage. I couldn’t eat it all…it was tasty but too much. Volker ordered Baeckoeffe …beef and sausage backed with potato. We didn’t ordered dessert…but Volker, Dita and Thorsten shared a bottle of red wine ( I think it was Riesling). All in all the food was good…a bit expensive but the portion were big….maybe for the next time I’ll share my portion with somebody else… The ambience of the restaurant was also nice and comfy and also full, so I think a reservation there is necessary.

Too bad after we went outside somehow we lost track of everybody else….we even checked inside the cathedral again….but couldn’t find them. Afterward in souvenir shop we met another couple again….but most of the group were gone. The next days Dita told me she was inside saying goodbye to the others…how couldn’t I think of that! I was surprise that everybody went without goodbye which is very unusual for indonesian people even Volker wondered, because usually the goodbyes take more than half an hour but we didn’t think to check inside again

Anyway….Volker and I strolled outside…bought some key chain for my collection and went to a cafe. Afterward, the weather was going bad again so we decided to go back to the hotel. Actually in the evening some of the remaining members were planning to go sightseeing on the river by night with the boat. But, because of the weather we really didn’t had the notion to go outside. So we went to the clubroom upstairs for a while to meet Jo and his family

So the last night in Strasbourg we just spent in the hotel…had dinner and then drink in the bar with live music.

All in all…Strasbourg was nice but not really because of the weather which made us stayed in the hotel half of the time better to go there in summer.

As usual you can check the pictures in our album.