Discover the Heart of Europe 2014, part 5

Friday, January 23, 2015

Sixth day, A day excursion to Strasbourg, France

Thursday December 18th

We REALLY had an early rise today. Breakfast was at 5:45am! We left the academy around 6:30am and made it to Strasbourg around 9:00. We had a visit to the European Parliament. Another branch of government for the EU. There we had a short tour and introduction to the parliament, a Q&A with Reinhard Bütikofer (a politician part of The Greens party), and finally a peek into the last plenary session of the year. Not counting the fact that our guide was a total cutie, I really enjoyed visiting the parliament. I think the cherry on top was attending the last plenary session. We couldn't take any pictures, but here's one from Google so you get an idea.

It was the last session of the year and we sat at the very top and we had a bird's eye view. Each seat had a pair of headphones you could connect and click the station according to your native tongue. I was just really in amazement to be able to witness the way these politicians interacted and voted.

After our visit, we had sometime to ourselves and stroll around the beautiful city. I did some dessert shopping at one of the Christmas Markets, had a delicious lunch in a little posh restaurant, took a historic boat ride around the city (Strasbourg is like Venice in this sense), and then went to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame Strasbourg (where I lit a candle for my family).