The Strasbourg Canal

With a lazy Sunday afternoon ahead of me, I had the perfect opportunity to participate in one of my favorite activities in Strasbourg: feeding the swans in the canal! First stop was the bakery pictured at the left, which is just across the road from the canal. A few years ago this was my absolute favorite because of the sweetest old ladies that used to work there, and who used to give me as much free stale bread as I wanted to feed to the ducks. I didn't see any old ladies this time, so alas I had to actually purchase the bread. But the pain au chocolat I had was as good as ever, and much different from the ones I usually had in Paris. In Paris the best pains au chocolat were light, buttery, flaky and sometimes even slightly crispy. Here in Strasbourg the pains au chocolat all have the slightest sugar glazing and are soft and sweet. Different, but just as good in their own right.

So, with pain au chocolate and baguette in hand, we head down to the canal to the swans.
And for the first time ever, I took some video clips and are posting them here! I have got to say, I think this will also be the last time because it is such a pain to upload them, and the quality is so crappy as well. At first I signed up for Youtube but I was really disappointed with the resolution and the size limit; I next turned to Google Video which seems to be slightly better but still takes forever to upload and process. There has got to be a better way...right? If you have any tips, do share.

The first video is about a minute long, and you get to hear my boyfriend narrating in his best old lady impersonation. The swans are the meanest animals ever, and while I didn't get any of the good fights on video, you get to see them snapping at each other nonstop. The seagulls are also really annoying. There was a lone pair of mallards that would always get worked by the seagulls, and even when we tried to feed the younger swans the seagulls would always win. Bastards.


In this shorter video (~30 sec) you get to see the lone, loud, grey goose scare off all the swans and the seagulls with his honks and grunts. He was awesome. Notice how the swans keep their distance.

tags: sights