This morning we had another hot breakfast cooked by you-know-who and then packed up to leave Colmar. We settled our bill with Myriam (so economical!) and walked to the train station. We got on the train heading for Strasbourg.

When we got there, we walked through town to their big "Cathédral de Notre-Dame ." It was closed when we arrived, so after snapping a few photos of the impressive exterior, we went and sat on the side of the church and made up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while a little girl eyed us curiously. Bryan said "Bon jour!" but she didn't respond. I tried "Hola" thinking she looked like maybe she was Spanish. I think in the end we heard the family speaking German. It is always a toss-up, and a person's physical appearance seems to have little bearing on the language they speak. For instance, an asian looking gentleman just checked our tickets, speaking French. (This is the same at home, of course, that people look however they look and all speak English. But when they don't speak English, how they look gives a definite clue. Here not so much.) When in doubt, default to the local language. :)

Before we knew it, the church was open again to be toured. So we put our backpacks back on and went inside. There was an impressive amount of stained glass in this cathedral . Four main walls of it (two on the outside and two on the inside, higher up, as you face the main alter). On the far right were all sorts of Bible stories. On the left were political rulers from the area. Above, it looked like probably saints. There was also stained glass at the back, front and in the various little chapel off-shoots. One of them was a picture of the church. I thought that was funny. It was like a self-portrait. ;)

There was one sculpture in this chapel that was very moving. It depicted the garden before the crucifixion of Christ, Judas betraying Christ, and the actual crucifixion. Believe me, at this point I have seen my fair share of crucifixes. Many of them leave me with a distasteful sensation. Not just because the subject matter is unpleasant, but somehow that the focus is warped. As I look at the images various artists have created, I rarely recognize my Lord or His sacrifice. But today was different. As I looked at this depiction, I saw the humanity of a pleading Christ, praying in the garden that the cup of suffering might be taken from him. That if there was any other way, Father... and I saw a figure who had given up his life for the very group of sinners that crowd the foreground. Those sleeping disciples, Roman guards and Judas himself. Jesus' body was broken, but not grotesquely so. The focus of your eyes was drawn up to his lifeless face. At peace, now that "it is finished." I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to my risen Lord while looking at it . And I think, that if the Spirit speaks to others through different pieces of art, perhaps they are worthwhile as well. Only a handful of the pieces I've seen have had any spiritual impact on me at all. And I've been concerned that a nonbeliever touring Europe would come away distrusting the themes of Christ and biblical events because they seem to be intermixed in art with fantasy such as unicorns, gargoyles and dragons. But perhaps, just perhaps, the Spirit would work even through these feeble attempts. That He would glorify Himself and make Himself known in spite of the flaws in what is given. That is our hope in contemporary worship, isn't it? That he would take what we have to offer and use it for His ultimate glory?

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me as I think this through. :)

We are now on a train that is taking us to Paris. It is stopping no where else, in fact. I am looking forward to all that Paris has to offer. And then we will be done here in Europe. We have certainly been having a great time and making lots of memories. We went back through all of our photos today as we waited for our train. We deleted duplicates and blurry pictures to make room for those we will take in Paris. As we looked through all the places we've been and things that we've done, I felt tremendously thankful for this opportunity. Truly, a trip of a lifetime. :)

This was a great stop. It was both our last side-trip and our last time toting our packs around. It looked similar to Colmar, but is a much larger town and very busy. Still, we really enjoyed it and our time there.