European History in Three Places.
The Maginot Line, MM Park Museum, and European Parliament
Strasbourg is an interesting town in that it’s small but has a mixed style of architecture. There is a lot of medieval tutor style construction but also more modern brick and older stone. The old town is surrounded by rivers and a at one point a dam was built as a protective measure that could flood the surrounding fields to protect the city. The cathedral is also quite nice, it’s large and made of a distinctive red stone which seems unique. The decorations are all well maintained and it is quite a striking example of gothic architecture. I found out later that at 142m, it is the sixth-tallest curch in the world.
I checked into my Airbnb expecting to relax and spend some time travel planning for the next two weeks only to discover that the Airbnb does not provide wifi. My plans to have a hangout day were dashed and I ended up taking the tram half an hour back to the city to find a Starbucks where I was able to work for a few hours until it closed. It didn’t occur to me that airbnbs wouldn’t have wifi these days. I thought that was a given. True, the last place was agonizingly slow, but it still existed. I haven’t been vetting my bookings and selecting mostly on price and location. It’s because the airbnb is run by an old guy who just loves to talk. Having wifi would give people a chance to escape to their room and be online but he really thrives on talking with guests.
The wifi frustrations continued when Starbucks closed and I spent half an hour outside trying to squeeze out a weak signal to figure out my next move- like where to eat dinner. That ended up being a hole in the wall kebab but at least they had wifi and I was able to buy 1GB of data on an esim for $6.15. By no means was it cheap, I figured it would let me do some trip planning from the Airbnb in the next three days.
It last one night. And not even till midnight.
On top of that, the accommodation bookings are really filling up. I skipped Luxembourg because I waited a day and missed out on booking a hostel and so instead of 35$/night it became a minimum 115$/night. As well, my stay in Cologne was an hour away because the cheapest in city was over 200$/night. It turns out that skipping Luxembourg was a bad play because I ended up with exta days at the end of my trip in Amsterdam and because I wanted a private room, it was 123$/night. So the 100$/night in Luxembourg maybe wasn’t so bad afterall…
I don’t know why I consumed so much data but I didn’t get as much trip planning done as I would have liked and felt minority frustrated. On the flip side, this Airbnb host is very chatty and had lots of tips to share including that there was a 3-day tram pass that saved me 3x1.80euro in Strasbourg and that Germany has a monthly summer pass for all public transit and regional trains for 9 euro, saving me over 100euro. I had to take slower regional trains instead of the express trains but for 9 euro it can’t be beat.
The host also suggested that I rent a bike and take it on the trains to save myself the hour long walks to the destinations. I didn’t end up trying this in Strasbourg because I had no internet to look up bike shops and later felt it too cumbersome to rent a bike and take it on the train.
The Maginot Line is the French fortification built after World War 1 as a deterrent to Germany. It consists of an extend line of underground bunkers and artillery batteries along the French-Germany border. Infamously it was bypassed by the Germans when they blitzkreiged through Belgium.
The Ouvrage Schoenenbourg is the largest such fortification open to the public in Alsace. It retains all its original structural elements and did see action in 1940 when it was bombed but did not receiving any significant damage. After the war it was fully repaired and placed back into service as part of a programme to use Maginot fortifications to resist a potential Warsaw Pact advance through Europe but was abandoned due to France obtaining nuclear arms as a deterent. Later a nonprofit the Friends of the Maginot Line began tours.
The Maginot line is difficult to access. The closes train station I found was Soult sous Forest, an hour walk away. Hunspach is a geographically closer station but I couldn’t find any trains. Ouvrage Schoenenbourg is run by volunteers and so doesn’t have great hours. Most weekdays it is open 2–6pm (entry only from 2–4) and on weekends it is 9:30–12 and then 2–6, again entry only before 4. The reason is that the fortress is quite large and it does take about two hours to see it all. It costs 9 euro for adults. Getting there by walking involved a lot of walking along roads without shoulders and skipping between farm fields. I couldn’t tell if I was allowed to walk on the edge of the fields but it felt a lot safer than having cars scream past me at 60 clicks.
The lady in the ticket office was kind enough to lend me a blanket which helped keep me warm because it’s only 12 degrees 30m below the surface. I’d forgotten to bring a jacket so it was really nice of them to have a blanket. For some reason, no one else was given a blanket.
The underground is split into four sections: the living quarters, power station, command post, and batteries. The tunnels are long and there are a lot of chambers to see so it’s quite a bit of walking. I enjoyed the information plaques but thought all of the guns were much smaller than I expected. In my mind I’d imagined battleship sized guns but these were really small in comparison. I think the most common size was for 35 or 47mm shells. They also looked funny because they had these bulbous barrels which I suspect is for gas management.
The Maginot line infamy was reinforced on the surface. I thought the gun batteries would be on a prominent rise and steep hill but they’re really just a cluster of tiny dots on a gently rising hill. What’s more is that maps inside showed that each battery had a limited field of coverage and few overlapped. Though it successfully resisted bombardment in 1940 it really did seem like it was designed to reinforce world war 1 tench and so it’s easy to see why it became obsolete.
The next day I advanced in history by visiting MM Park. This is a World War 2 museum that has a large collection of uniforms, arms and vehicles.
I’ve never considered myself very good a French. My proudest moment was being able to converse and get directions in Tunisia. At the museum there’s a severe lack of signage or information for what’s displayed and if there is a sign it’s usually in French. I was surprised that I could comprehend the majority and was glad that I understood the language.
The wall of guns was cool to see because they were all bulkier and heavier looking than I expected. Conversely, all of the vehicles were smaller than I expected. I was excited to see several Canadian vehicles and also a little disappointed by the lack of German panzers. They had just one tank destroyer. Most of their collection is non-tank vehicles like half tracks and scout cars.
The tanks they did have, mostly British and American were lined up so that it was possible to see the lineage and see how the models evolved over time. I had hopped to be able to enter and climb on these vehicles but that was not the case. They are strictly for viewing, which I think is a shame.
The museums also kinda strange because they went to the trouble of making a water basin for a German patrol boat for the naval section and have one reconisance aircraft suspended from the ceiling, I suppose for the air section. In the back there’s also an obstacle course but it didn’t seem very difficult and more for small children so I skipped it.
The European Union parliament is in Strasbourg. The building is a circular office block with an oval courtyard attached to an arched wing with the chambers. Inbetween is a nice atrium with tall columns and wires for climbing vines. The cambers are kinda weird. From the exterior it reads as a wood covered sphere but the interior is actually like a flat roof with vertical gaps in it. It’s quite strange to not have a high roof volume that is implied.
Down below on the lower level there’s some good videos explaining how the EU works and interactive displays to learn about the different systems.
Strasbourg is beautiful at dusk and with the sun setting around 10pm there are planets of people who bring a bottle of wine and some dinner to eat at the edge of the canal. Unfortunately I could not enjoy the same environment without having major allergies which persist like a skewer glued into a voodoo doll. But it did make me wish for some picnic with friends. Maybe someday in the not so distant future public spaces will be designed in Canada that encourage these informal gatherings.
Getting to Maginot Line
- The train to Soult sous Forest takes 40 minutes and cost 11.90 euro.
- The schedule departing Strasbourg is 11:21–11:58; 12:51–13:30; 14:05–14:42. Only the middle trains makes sense.
- The return schedule is 14:15–14:53; 16:03–16:45; 17:17–18:09 (bus plus train); 18–18:45; 18:35–19:16.
- After seeing the inside I walked outside to see the mushroom tops above and then just made it back in time for the 6PM train. This included some shortcuts through some farm fields.
Getting to MM Park
- Bus 72 from Republic tram stop goes direct but it’s not on the regular route so you have to ask the driver to drop you off specifically at Gutenburg.
