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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TypeCoin971793, post: 3274585, member: 78244&quot;]The next day we went to Strasbourg, France. This is another city on the France/Germany border that has traded hands many times during its long history. This shows in the architecture, street signs, and the fact that many of the residents knew both French and German. We first stopped in a small-ish church built in medival times, seen in the middle of the picture below.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864422[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>It was very quaint, and someone was playing the organ, so I found my stay to be very pleasing and relaxing.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864424[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>We wanted to go to the historic district, so we walked down the French road, which was a corridor built in the early 19th Century lined with buildings purely of the French style.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864425[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The French did not exert much of an influence on the architecture until the mid-18th Century. Therefore, the more Germanic the architectural style, the older the area.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864426[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>We finally reached the Cathedral, which was not very hard to miss. This cathedral was the tallest building in the world for several centuries, and it was the first to surpass the height of the pyramids at Giza.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864449[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864429[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the cathedral was closed and was going to remain closed for a couple more hours, so we decided to go to the city history museum. They had a pass you could purchase that would grant you entry into any of the museums for that day, so that is what I got. I soon became separated from my group as I lingered reading about the artifacts when they wanted to go ahead, and thus I became separated for the rest of the day.</p><p><br /></p><p>Upon leaving the museum, I stumbled across a little antique shop right next door. I was hoping that they had some coins, and I found a bunch of hammered/Roman coins in a display case full of metal detecting artifacts. Unfortunately, when I asked if I could buy the coins individually, the owner stated that she would only sell the collection completely intact. I didn’t ask for a price because I knew that it was going to be out of my reach.</p><p><br /></p><p>After that, I went to the city’s archaeological museum, which was well-laid-out in the basement of an 18th-Century palace. There were lots of fascinating items on display.</p><p><br /></p><p>To read more about the history of Strasbourg and the contents of the museums, here is my previous thread:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/another-old-city-strasbourg-france.310347/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/another-old-city-strasbourg-france.310347/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/another-old-city-strasbourg-france.310347/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>By this time, the Cathedral was open so I entered through a side entrance hoping to get in. I was very pleasantly surprised that it was the entrance to climb the cathedral’s tower. For 4€, it was worth it, and the view was spectacular.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864430[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Then I climbed down the hundreds of stairs and entered the cathedral proper. It was huge and beautiful, and there were tons of people there. There wasa minor service going on with the organ playing, so I enjohed listening to that as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864432[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>At this point, I finally caught up with 5 of my friends, and we decided to go to a place to eat. We found a classy Italian restaurant with a special of the day of whole pizzas for 4€. I also decided to buy my first alcohol and try some of the local Alsace wine. The pizza was delicious. The wine I tried was much less so. After fooding, the rest of my group met up in front of the cathedral, and we headed towards our hostel. On the way there, we found a grocery store, where everyone decided that it was a good idea to buy bottles of wine. I got a Gewurtraminer</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864433[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>On the way there, we found a grocery store, where everyone decided that it was a good idea to buy bottles of wine. I got a bottle of Gewürztraminer, which would turn out to be my favorite wine in Europe. When we got checked in at our hostel, the wine started flowing and everyone got crazy, so I decided to stay in my room and enjoy the peace and quiet. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here is my coin from Strasbourg. It is a pfennig minted right after the official mint opened in 1374. The fleur de lis is a motif that is seen on nearly every hammered Strasbourg coin, starting with this one. I bought this one because it was uncirculated and has beautiful toning.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864435[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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