Welcome to my travel photography journal. As someone who loves to travel, I write travel journals or memoirs to record my experience as well as share it with my readers. Since it is a photography focussed travel journal, I will also share my tips about how I do it. And as a family person with kids, it is not easy to accomplish all your photography goals by carrying a bag full of lenses, filters, tripod, various accessories, so if you are limited like me yet want to make your travel photos memorable, read on how I do it...
I underestimated Strasbourg, thinking it to be just another European medieval city that can be visited anytime I wanted. So I kept postponing the idea of visiting it, again and again. I was so wrong! It is such a beautiful and charming city, and add that to Colmar, another quaint, medieval French town with fairytale charm. Before any trip, I am always excited to the prospect of photography , so which camera to take (these days it's mostly one camera and one lens) from my arsenal is a major decision point. I initially wanted to take my Nikon mirrorless kit, a tripod and my iPhone as a compliment to it. After a lot of thought (the main factor being it was peak of summer, and I knew I would be walking a lot in the hot sun, therefore wanted something light. So I ditched everything and I took only my iPhone 14 Pro Max, like I did for my Malta trip.
Day 1: A summer evening in Strasbourg
I arrived in Strasbourg on a late summer afternoon by train from Germany. The first point of attraction is the central station itself, which has stylish neo-renaissance architecture from the inside with beautiful restaurants and cafes and a modern huge glass dome like entrance on the outside. And a hundred meters afar from the station towards entering the city is a walking path covered by a canopy which sprinkles water as you pass through it, very cool idea for summer travellers. We stayed in a hotel near Place Kléber, which is centrally located and has great access to all the main attractions within the city.
As we head out for sightseeing, the first stop was a visit to the lovely "Les Mains Dans la Farine" cafe, for a quick refreshment.
Following that was a stroll through the cobblestone streets, marvelling at the beautiful buildings, churches, and reading a bit about the different places I was passing by (thankfully it was a breezy afternoon, so the heat was not so uncomfortable). I love quiet alleys, where there are less tourists, so this one caught my eye as the sun was setting...
As evening fell, we reached La Petite-France, which is undoubtedly the most scenic tourist spot in Strasbourg. A very lively place filled with tourists (lovers, families, singletons and so on), restaurants, live music, canals, half timbered houses, flowers and a long summer night.
By that time, it was quite dark, and we were heading towards the Strasbourg Cathedral, and on the way came across this alley (I love alleys in touristic places)...
For dinner we stopped at "Les Fines Gueules", a restaurant which received traveler's choice award. It was a long relaxing dinner to end the day.
Day 2: A hot summer day in Colmar
Colmar is defintely an underrated city. Located in the Alsace region of France, I found Colmar to be very picturesque, filled with beautiful boutiques all around the city, early renaissance architectures, parks, shady trees, vibrant tourist destinations like Petite-Venise (or Little Venice) . Being only 30 mins away from Strasbourg, we ventured out for a day trip to Colmar the next day.
The whole town can be either explored on foot or in a fancy toy train. We took the second option as it has an audio guide and it's faster. You can always choose to come back to the places you like after the ride.
And then there were restaurants as beautiful as this:
While Strasbourg has "Petite-France", Colmar has "Petite-Venise". There was a bridge over the canal which was full with tourists to its limit (all day), taking pictures, selfies, posing for photos, and it goes on and on. My patient ran out waiting to get a chance to take a photo. And then I turned to other side of the bridge and voila, it was empty - not a single soul, and the view was also better as the sun was on my back.
Another interesting fact about Colmar is that it has a Statue of Liberty (a replica) on the city outskirts to pay to tribute to the artist, Auguste Bartholdi, who made the original one in New York. At various tourist spots in the city there is a street sign guiding the tourists towards the direction of the Statue:
Day 3: Visiting inside the Notre-Dame and ending the trip
Although we went to visit the Cathedral Notre-Dame fairly early, there was already a long queue of tourists outside to enter the place. But luckily it was the fastest moving queue in my experience, and it took only about 5 minutes for us to move to the front! Not only this grand master piece, that is the icon of the city, looks so majestic from outside, it is equally awe-inspiring from the inside. The carved pillars, stained artistic glass windows, the altar, the "Rose Window" make your visit worth every bit of it.
While I thought the Strasbourg Cathedral was the best experience in terms of the beautiful indoors, I stumbled upon this Church, which is called the Temple of Neuf, and I was fascinated by its interior decoration, it was simple yet so fantastic. I have seen many beautiful Church interiors in Europe, this one will remain as one of my favourites.
Finally, although late, a healthy and delicious breakfast at Dreher, very near to the Strasbourg Cathedral and the statue of Gutenberg. The place is awesome, very nice people, great atmosphere and healthy food to beat the summer heat.
Overall, it was a fulfilling trip in all regards, a great time with the family, two beautiful places, long summer days, and of course from a photography standpoint, the iPhone impressed me once again. It proved the fact that these days, lugging heavy camera gears can be avoided if you are serious about iPhone photography (and not treating it as a casual point and shoot). Although I did not have the latest iPhone with me, which would have allowed me to use the 5x lens (occasionally), the 3x is the one I use more often, so it was not a big regret. Will I take iPhone for a future trip? The answer is yes. Does it mean my mirrorless and DSLRs are becoming obsolete or less important for me? No. Mirrorless or DSLR have other advantages, especially night photography, zoom-in and out during quick travel shots, ability to isolate subjects. And iPhone is lighter, faster, handheld night shots are becoming better and better, and together with AI apps, the future is promising.
I hope you enjoyed the read. See you in the next one!