Strasbourg; Sunday, 16 December, 2012

I had arranged, the previous evening, to be able to have a late checkout, so I didn’t need to worry about dropping luggage off, or anything like that, instead after breakfast I headed out of the hotel and over to the university area to visit the city’s Botanical Gardens.

Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that due to “Les conditions météorologiques” the gardens had been closed, until next March! So instead I caught the tram back out to the European Institutions district to have a wander around them in the light.

The massive (and some would say as it’s only used for about 12 weeks of the year – white elephant) of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg is the dominant building in the area. Nearby is the more restrained, although still odd-looking building of the European Court of Human Rights, and nearby the incredibly ugly building of the Council of Europe.

After looking around these I caught the tram back into town and had a little wander round before it was time to head back to the hotel, grab my stuff, check out and head for the station and the train back to Paris.