Struck Out

This foggy, overcast, dreary day was not our best travel day. We had planned to visit Staufen, a well-preserved town of about 7,000 residents just a few miles southeast of Bad Krozingen. We had it all planned out, checking out of our hotel, leaving our bags, getting to the rail station having scoped out the right train.

The train didn't show up. The announcement in German was difficult for us to understand, but a bystander who had some English informed us that a labor strike had caused the train to Staufen to be shut down. He didn't know how long. It was one of Europe's infamous pop-up strikes.

We walked about 15 minutes to the Travel Information office. At least it gave us another chance to walk through the big, beautiful park, and to see a different part of town on the other side. The TI staff hadn't heard about a strike, but one got on the computer and confirmed it. We asked about a bus, but she said it would be affected by the same union. She offered to rent us bikes, which we would have considered.

But she also said she didn't know if the strike would spread to other rail services. That put us in a panic, because we had a hotel reservation back in Strasbourg, France in the evening. It would be a big problem if we got stranded in Germany. So we decided to go back to the hotel, grab our suitcases, and get on the first train going north.

There ensued a period of uncertainty and a certain level of discord between travelers. But after spending inordinate time at various rail stations, and taking a break for a Middle Eastern sandwich wrap at a Turkish restaurant while waiting for another train, we arrived in Strasbourg hours earlier than planned and with nothing on our agenda to pass the time.

We bought tram tickets to the other side of town and visited the European Parliament buildings. There are no tours without advanced reservations, so we just walked around outside.

There is also a nice, big park across the street from the EU bureaucratic offices. But we were a bit too tired and a little too cold to enjoy much of it. We did walk by a pavilion that seemed to have some historical significance, but our French was not adequate to decipher the sign.

So we used our tickets to take a bus back to the city center, found a nice warm cafe, and had a drink. We then returned to the hotel for a bit, and used the time to identify a restaurant for dinner. We had a great meal at a Syrian place, because when in France, eat Middle Eastern food, n'est-ce pas?

It was a long and stressful day without a lot to show for it. But at least it wasn't a travel disaster.