Things to do in Strasbourg/Obernai with teenagers

January 14, 2019 6:40 PM

I'll be visiting Strasbourg (FR) for a few days toward the end of March, with two teens (girl 13 and boy 16). We currently have no particular plans. We'll check out the Cathedral, of course. We'll actually be staying in Obernai, but I'll have a car and can drive anywhere within a reasonable distance. I was thinking about renting bikes, but am not sure where best to ride. Any suggestions as to interesting and/or out of the ordinary sights to see or things to do would be much appreciated.
posted by lex mercatoria to Travel & Transportation around Strasbourg, France (6 answers total)

The Alsatian Castle Route is right along where you are. The château de Haut-Koenigsbourg is the best restored and most impressive of them.

Depending on your flavor of 13-and 16-year olds, you might take them to Le Struthof, the only Nazi concentration camp in France. It was not an extermination camp, but it hits hard and helps you understand that Alsace was annexed to Germany from ‘40-‘45.

Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr are the cutest typical towns, if they like small towns.

They might like the écomusée in Ungersheim, an outdoor museum with preindustrial buildings and traditional way of life. (Looks like it’s closed for the winter until April 6th.)
posted by Liesl at 7:30 PM on January 14, 2019

Cite de l'Automobile is a fabulous car museum in Mulhouse, well worth a visit, rail museum there is also supposed to be very good but I didn't visit it. Seconding Haut Koenigsbourg.
posted by GeeEmm at 10:20 PM on January 14, 2019

Don't overlook the potential for trips into Germany. You could be in the Black Forest in 45 minutes from Obernai if you head east or get to Freiburg in about 75 minutes. Might be worth looking into options for that. Here are 20 best cycling routes in the Black Forest.
posted by biffa at 2:45 AM on January 15, 2019 [1 favorite]

There is a canal near Strasbourg with unequal water levels and they built a boat elevator to lift and lower the boats from one level to the other. I saw it 35 years ago and I still think it is awesome to watch.
posted by CathyG at 7:22 AM on January 15, 2019

I went to the Cite de l'Automobile about 10 years ago, it was neat.

We also went to some Roman Bath ruins in Germany; I think it was the ones in Baden-Baden. A detail that I remember for no apparent reason was that there were trees from lots of different places on the grounds (like an arboretum) and one of the trees was labeled as a California Redwood.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 12:48 PM on January 15, 2019

I can't recommend a specific route as I wasn't involved in booking it (there are tons on google), but as a student I thought it was so crazy and cool that we could bike from Strasbourg and cross the border into Germany. (Perhaps biased by coming from Texas where the nearest border was 7 hours drive away.) I also recall our bike route taking us through the Parc De L'Orangerie which was beautiful, so probably similar to this lonely planet bike ride.
posted by jouir at 2:28 PM on January 15, 2019