When last we travelled to Strasbourg by boat, our mooring was right in the heart of things just a few hundred metres from the tourist hub, but all that has changed. The boat club is now an environmental parkland, its old mooring space filled with man-made floating islands of wetland planting and other lovely stuff constructed at no small cost for the enjoyment of the residents of Strasbourg.
Fortunately, the pleasure boat port although a kilometre or two from the action, is also a kilometre or two quieter and as a result is a not at all an unpleasant alternative when one is intent on staying for a bit.
We did feel that extra distance though, walking home after a day of mixing it with the tourists, reacquainting ourselves with its World Heritage listed Central Business District, (and this very sentence neatly sums up our chosen method of exploration).
We have discussed this phenomena often with fellow boat dwellers: We are at home wherever our boat lies, and when we walk through a town or village no matter how short our visit we are accompanied by a strange sense of comfort that verges on ownership. In our heads at least we are quite separate from those other mere tourists, not that they would never know it. It’s an odd feeling and one that reinforces itself through the duration of our stay as we become truly familiar with our surrounds. We do enjoy it. A lot.
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