France 2023 - Day 5 / Strasbourg & Colmar

Steps today : 25 981 / 17.13 km

Day tripping to Colmar today - the train station in Strasbourg always looks like an alien ship to me!

Colmar is about 30 minutes away by train, and then another 30-minute walk from the station to the old town, so we arrived around 9AM and in hindsight it was too early. 

It's a cute town, but it has a kind of "Disney" feel which I don't care for and at 9AM it was deserted. Everything was closed and the garbages were out waiting to be picked up. I felt like we were waiting for the amusement part to open.

I really don't have that much to say about the city. We walked around taking pictures of all the usual sights and eventually stopped for a coffee.  There was a lot of construction around the Big Church so we didn't wander around there.

We decided to visit the Bartholdi Museum which opened at 10. Easy to find thanks to handy directional markers all over town...  until we came across one that told us to split in two and do in opposite directions. ha ha ha ha  Maybe we should have tried!

The museum was interesting, it was 5€ and we stayed about an hour.

I enjoyed the section dedicated to the construction of the Statue of Liberty:

Not entirely sure what this is! If there was a plaque I missed it, but it sure is interesting!

By the time we were done with the museum, more tourists had descended on the city and it did make the atmosphere livelier, but we were more or less done. We searched for a place to have a drink and decided to head back to Strasbourg for lunch.

The search was exhausting, very few of the cafés were set up for drinks but we eventually found something....  not cute and with plastic cups.  Actually, they might not have been but it's the way I remember it. 

Back in Strasbourg by about 2PM we were off for a late lunch. We knew exactly where we wanted to go, my mom wanted wiener schnitzel so we had scanned some menus yesterday in preparation.

It was tasty, but unusually thick for a schnitzel - hard to tell in this picture...

After lunch, we did start to wander around, but it was so windy - which made it so cold - that we found refuge inside the fine arts museum. I especially enjoyed the Still Life paintings.

We had spotted the place where we wanted to have supper - I forget why now, but it was over an hour wait before it opened so we walked across the city, off the island and explored south.  There was really nothing to see and I didn't even take pictures.

After such a late and large lunch, supper was simple and small, "just" some foie gras and vendanges tardives

It was back to the hotel after this, not even a little room left for a nightcap.

France 2023 - Day 4 / Strasbourg

Steps today : 20 849 / 13.74 km

Onwards to the next adventure today, checking out of the hotel and off to the train station for our 3 and a half our journey to Strasbourg.

When planning vacations, I only book (pay for) trains in advance when we are changing cities with suitcases in toe. For day trips I don't bother because I like to be more flexible. What if it rains, what if we change our minds about the order in which we want to see cities, what if we're sick and just can't go?  For day trips, my usual M.O. is simply buying the tickets the day before.

So, in this case, we had the tickets in advance and I also booked first class. It's very affordable, only about another 10 - 20$ per ticket - totally worth it!  If only first class in airplanes was as reasonably priced!  Check out all this leg room....

We arrived at the hotel just before 1PM and thankfully the room was ready. 

Another nice, clean, affordable, essentials-only, plugs everywhere room. 

With a nice view too! I'm cheating a little bit here because I took it a few days later. 

My only complaint about the place is that the entire lobby, restaurant, lounge, bar, REEKED of vanilla scented candles. It was nauseating. Thankfully I didn't take a breakfast-included package because I could not have eaten in that environment.

The first goal for the day was to go gawk at the Cathedral. It's un-be-leivable. This is the third time I've visited this city and it has the same wow-impact on me every time. 

Once satiated with eye candy, it was time for lunch. The last time I was here, I discovered that they have cervelat on the menu everywhere! I had no idea it was so popular in Alsace, I thought it was a Swiss-thing so I was thrilled.... and ready to stuff my face!

Ironically, the restaurant we picked didn't have it but they did have spätzle, AND to drink they had Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives, to which I totally became addicted on my last trip, so I was in foodie heaven!

After lunch, we visited the inside of the cathedral

They also have an old astronomical clock and we arrived in time to watch the action at 2:45.  It reminded me of what I heard someone say about another clock: people wait around for ages to watch it move... and then wonder why they bothered. Ha!

We also lit a candle for "every one we know"

After this, just some aimless wandering around the old town.

Time for a drink stop around 3:30 and I was really stubborn about wanting to sit outside and gaze up at the cathedral some more! My mom relented, but sitting outside with coats on is not her thing.

She gave in because it wasn't really windy, and comfortable coats-on conditions, but after this stop she declared she needed some warmer socks (she only had ankle socks) so we went on a mission to find some.

We found success at the Gallerie Lafayette near place Kebler

The socks made all the difference, she felt much better about being outside and the aimless wandering continued

By about 5:15 we made it to the Vauban Dam which is the perfect perch to get pictures of the Covered Bridges

More wandering to enjoy the city...

And then my mother found her mecca!!

We stopped for supper around 6:30, and I finally got my dose of cervelat! AND more Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives.

Yummy, but, their version of the ubiquitous cervelat salad had SO MUCH cheese that I was not able to finish. You can't really see it in the picture, but that mountain in the middle is all cheese!

Time to start heading back to the hotel after supper...  but not before admiring the cathedral a bit more! I can't get enough.

Back at the hotel, I was able to convince my mom to stay up for ONE more and have a drink at the hotel bar. She was done for, but agreed since the end was in sight. 

Predictably, it was a Kir Pêches for me, but with sparkling wine this time.

Minus the stench of vanilla, it was a nice lounge