Strasbourg - França

There are four great MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY holidays on the planet Earth:

1)    Andalucia,

2)    Tuscany,

3)    Central Mexico, and

4)     Alsace-Lorraine.

That’s how I rank ‘em. The places where you never have to drive more than 45, 60, 75 minutes, and BLAMMO!, you’re in another PERFECT town, or climbing another FANTASTIC ruin, or exchanging hushed ooohhhs and ahhhhhs in the most dramatic cathedral or mosque or monastery. Or seeing some pretty damn decent natural scenery. I mean, if you’re into the whole nature thing. I’m more of a people person.

So here’s one of my peeps, The Doctor, in Strasbourg, by the Cathedral, admiring some very tasty Triumphs.

Top three ways to spot a Yank?

1)      Shorts;

2)      Baseball cap;

3)      Sandals.

Oh, say, don’t feel so bad, you get extra credit if you chose horizontal stripes.

We were trying to determine which Triumph would be the most fun to hotwire for our run up to Luxembourg City the next day.

Aw, fuck, I’ve been spotted, by that little busybody, but the Good Doctor perseveres among the Triumphs, finding the perfect mark.

Here it is, the oddly non-retro TR8. Doctor, what are you thinking.

Along with Amsterdam, Bruges, Venice, and Bangkok, Strasbourg is one of the world’s five great CANAL CITIES. Host to the Council of Europe, and more cross-timbered houses than your childhood Cinderella and Snow White fairy tale imagination could conjure. The white wines are superb – Riesling, Liebfraumilch, and Gewurtztraminer. The cuisine is heavier than Paris or Provence, but tastier than Berlin or Munich. Toile de jute is pig knuckle over spatzle, but man oh man, it is SOOOO much better than that sounds. The Petit France quarter is ridiculously picturesque, and the boat rides rival Les Bateaux Mouches along the Seine for simply spectacular urban views.

I like traveling, of course. I like Europe, of course. But I’m American, whether I like it or not. And sometimes that’s supposed to be a problem. It ain’t in Strasbourg. Sometimes people in Paris and Venice can be prickly toward Americans. Be really polite to them, and the prickliness seems to moderate. Go figure.

But in the rest of Europe, and really, most of the world, I find that while people can hate America, they typically love Americans. We’re not bad, as tourists go. We’re confident, curious, outgoing, good tippers, and sometimes really tolerant and compassionate. Individually, Americans can really rock, even if we collectively suck. The long and short of it is that Strasbourg can’t quite figure out if they’re more German or French or Austrian or Swiss or Italian. So when The Doctor and I sit down at a bistro, order a cold pilsner or a young Riesling, and pretend to be The Margrave of Baden Baden…

…..in a stolen Triumph….

….well…..

….we fit right in.

Nas’drovia. Wait, where the fuck are we? Hell, it doesn’t matter, but that man before you is DEFINITELY the Margrave of Baden Baden.   And he’s in Strasbourg, the most cosmopolitan city in Europe, where everybody’s a margrave. Whether or not they’re from Baden Baden.

O artigo acima é uma cortesia de seu autor, A.C., direto da França para nossa redação.