President Obama Visits Strasbourg for the NATO Summit

So, if you haven't been watching the news anywhere in the world, you should know that this year's NATO summit was held here in Strasbourg (and also in Kehl and Baden-Baden, Germany) this weekend. It's created a very strange atmosphere here, but also some unforgettable experiences.

Most of the meetings were held here (about a 10-minute tram ride from our house, near the European Parliament):


But, because there are always a lot of protesters in regards to NATO and so many high-ranking officials would be here, Strasbourg stepped up its security. I heard that 10,000 policemen were brought in to help secure the city. Our apartment was right on the outside edge of a "red zone" (where only residents could enter with badges and ID issued from the police department). At each street entering the red zone, barricades and police were standing guard. This is a block from our apartment:


Some citizens weren't too happy with the show of force and this was found stamped about a block from our apartment. It was kind of a strange week with so many policemen present...

But...the good news was that both Ian and I (and our students and faculty here) were invited to a Town Hall with President Barack Obama!


We were able to get a babysitter (thanks to Pierre, the government professor here, who talked his college-aged daughter into babysitting for us), and we left the house at 9:30am to start the arduous security process, which started in a movie theater, then to an old ice skating rink via bus, then to a basketball arena, where the event was being held. Here are Ian and Pierre in line to get to the bus:

This has nothing to do with the Town Hall, but I found this stairway to nowhere next to the buses fascinating:


Here is a small sampling of the buses. Apparently, there were forty just for the French and Americans. Another group of them existed for the German visitors.


As we pulled up to the ice skating rink, a German military helicopter took off and flew over the European Parliament. These types of helicopters have been flying over our house non-stop this weekend, and in fact for the last couple of weeks while training for the weekend.


As I mentioned, police were everywhere--in cars, in vans, on foot, on bikes, on motorcycles...


And even on horses.

There were about 4000 people present for the Town Hall. Here are Ian and I before the big event. (You can see the podium to the right of my head where the two red squares are.)

Heidi, the program's coordinator, and Pierre:


A picture that gives you a good sense of our view. We were about a basketball-court's length away.


And the pictures of the man himself:







Here are some links to the speech itself and to the events surrounding the NATO Summit. (I want to assure you that we and everyone in the program are safe and that all of this will be over tonight. The fires happened far enough away that we weren't affected, but close enough that we could smell the burning...)

Video of President Obama's speech and following questions

Transcript of President Obama's speech and following questions

A video showing some of the violence and fires related to the protests

DNA's write-up about the violence (in French, but with pictures)