We stayed at the Holiday Inn Strasbourg Nord in order to visit the famous Strasbourg Christmas markets. We chose this hotel mainly because it is not in the town centre, it is in a business park in the suburbs, just off the autoroute. This is because we had guessed that getting into a town centre hotel by car and finding somewhere to park would not be easy in the Christmas period, and this proved to be totally correct - when we travelled in to the town centre on the bus later on, the main interchanges were gridlocked. There is a bus stop about 50m from the hotel. It runs very frequently, and gets you into the town centre very easily – bypassing all the traffic because it has its own dedicated lane. You can buy a 24 hour unlimited pass for about 4 euros. The town of Strasbourg is a textbook example of how to do public transport right. We arrived straight off the autoroute, parked easily in the hotel car park, and were welcomed with free Christmas drinks at the bar. If you like mulled wine then you will like Strasbourg in December! It’s everywhere. The room was spacious, with a large comfortable bed, and a view over some lakes on the edge of the business park. However after about 20 minutes in the room we started to feel weirdly cold. Despite fiddling with the heater controls it was impossible to get warmer than 18C, and we suspected the actual temperature was colder (it was near-freezing outside). Next morning on the way to breakfast I noticed a sign in a corner of the lobby mentioning (in French only) a policy of “energy sobriety”. Basically they had turned the heating off to reduce energy consumption. We were impressed with this gesture, we didn’t mind being a degree or two colder in the room. However on our second night it was so cold that they had to bring up an electric heater and a second duvet, which rather defeated the purpose. “Energy sobriety” also explained the weirdly dark bar at the front of the hotel, where you were dimly aware of other people sat at tables but you had to wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness to avoid tripping over them. Again, once we got used to it, it actually created a very pleasant ambiance. The barman attempted to ply me with more mulled wine, but when I refused he turned out to be very knowledgeable on some of the local Alsace beers so I tried them instead. Breakfast was exactly as expected, a good choice of hot eggs and bacon, and a diverse range of continental meats, cheeses, breads, patisseries. Thankfully no mulled wine. A quick shout-out also to the restaurant. It’s not actually a Holiday Inn restaurant, presumably the owners lease the space. We had dinner there one evening after having exhausted ourselves walking around Strasbourg all day. It was not busy (whereas all the restaurants in town were un-bookable). My burger was however one of the best I’ve ever had and Maureen declared her ”well done” steak au poivre was perfectly cooked - to English standards. In summary we are b
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