The Elsass : From my homeland II The Elsass on the left side of the Rhine belongs to France and is nevertheless different as the Germany, of which it reminds superficially. Nevertheless there is a common history with Germany: 1870 the Elsass was occupied by Germany. 1918 after that first world war it came back to France. 1940 it were occupied again by Germany and became 1945 again French. Strasbourg is with around 300,000 inhabitants the capital of the region Elsass and since 1949 the capital of Europe. The city is proud on the seat of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice for human rights. The city has the necessary infrastructure to accommodate around 626 delegates from 15 member states. The city is surrounded by channels, the old part of town - the petite France - received its names from an illness from whom suffered above all the men of this quarter. The Syphilis is called also by the "internal" Frenchman petite France. Ocana, a province capital approx. 450 km south of Santa Marta in the province North Santander is the starting point to the stone forest Los Estoraques. The Elsass wrote not only the history of Germany with the poet Brant and the physician Albert Schweitzer, but also French history. Victor Schoelcher, the delegate which abolished the slavery, the generals of Napoleon: Rapp and Kleber, and Bartholdi, the father of the liberty statue. The travel guides are itself united. In the Elsass there are 3 objects of interest: the cathedral of Strasbourg, the Unterlinden museum in Colmar and the Humanistic library of Selestat. The library with its 2000 books is one of the most famous private libraries of the 16th. century. In Mulhousen is the national automobile museum. In the Vogesen one finds the former monastery St. Odilien and the Hochkönigs-castle beside ski runways and walking ways. The wine road of Elsass passes trough over 100 villages.   >> regard photos          >> info main-page