Strasbourg, France and Europa Park

A few weeks ago, we took a weekend trip with a group of about 14 of our friends. We first went to Strasbourg, France. Located along the border between France and Germany, Strasbourg is an interesting mix of both French and German culture. It is also located along the Rhine River. The city is incredibly beautiful, with picturesque buildings and bridges everywhere you turn. We arrived in Strasbourg late in the evening on Friday. Since we had two very large vans, it took us some time to find parking. As a result, we had a very late dinner at a quaint French restaurant. It took us quite some time to find a place willing to serve us dinner at 11:30 at night! The restaurant that we ended up finding was very chic and cool inside, although the food was just okay. The wine was delicious, but it definitely didn’t help with the exhaustion that we were all feeling. After dinner, we headed straight back to the hotel to get some rest. On Saturday morning, we woke up to rain. Nevertheless, we set out for some sightseeing. We just explored the streets, visited a wine cellar, and climbed the cathedral tower. By the late afternoon, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We took a boat ride to get a different perspective of the city.

After some more sightseeing and photo taking, we eventually went to dinner at a French-German restaurant located in a really cozy restaurant near the cathedral. The menu was a very interesting mix of both French and German food. Our friends assured us that this is what most of the local cuisine is like, given the location of the city bordering on these two countries. The wine was very good again, but the chocolate mousse was definitely the highlight for me! After dinner, we got one more round of drinks, but we didn’t stay out late because early the next morning, we were headed to Europa-Park!

Europa-Park is the largest amusement park in Germany, and it is the second most popular European theme park, after Disneyland Paris. It is located in Rust, Germany, which is only about a 30 minute drive from Strasbourg. Amusement parks are not as popular in Europe as they are in America. In fact, this was some of our friends’ first time ever to one. It was admittedly a bit funny to see 28-year-olds too scared to ride rollercoasters, especially since Americans basically grow up riding them. Before arriving, our friends, many of whom have visited American theme parks, encouraged us to set our expectations pretty low. But honestly, we were impressed. I would say that the park is larger than Kennywood, but smaller than Hersheypark. The theme is Europe (hence the name), so the park is divided into sections which are supposed to represent different European nations. We rode an impressive wooden rollercoaster in “Iceland,” a bobsled-like ride in “Switzerland,” a water ride called “Poseidon” in “Greece,” etc. There were actually quite a few rollercoasters that were a lot of fun. One had several loops and corkscrews, and another had some extremely steep hills. We rode all of the rides with our friends, with the exception of the ride that is similar to Raging Rapids – no thanks to being soaking wet all day. Although, most of the water rides had large body dryers at the end where you could pay €1 to dry off. The park itself was designed really well – every “country” had buildings, rides, and food that represented the culture. It was really cute. However, I do have to say that we caught the last few minutes of a parade, and wow, it was pathetic haha. The American parks, especially Disney, definitely put it to shame. We only stayed at the park until about 6 PM since we had a 4-hour ride back, but we made sure to eat crepes in “France” before leaving.

I’m always nervous about trips with a larger group, but everything went well and I think everyone had a really great time. It was a nice change of pace, and we had the chance to talk to a lot of people who we don’t normally hang out with. The weekend was certainly filled with a lot of laughs, and for that, I was thankful.

Bis Später,
Kristin and Matt