Saturday, March 14 - Basel to Strasbourg

Today, we left Basel by bus and headed back into France.  We travelled up into the Vosges mountains and started our day with a visit to the Struthof concentration camp.  This is the only camp that was on French territory.  About 22,000 people were killed there during a 2-3 year period.  It was abandoned by the Nazis a few months before the Allied forces liberated the area.  It was a very somber visit, but the students learned a lot of history and really got a first-hand learning experience about what happened during World War II.  We descended down from the mountains and on to a different mood as we started along the Route des Vins - the Alsacian wine area (Alsace is the region of France where Strasbourg is located).  After lunch and a short stop to visit the beautiful and historic town of Obernai, we learned about Alsacian wines at the Klipfel Winery in Barr.  We arrived in Strasbourg at the Chateau around 6pm and had dinner at a great little restaurant a few steps away from the Chateau.

Here are some of us at Obernai: