Strasbourg

We began our trip from Colmar to Strasbourg hoping to make a few stops along the way and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The first place that we stopped was in Sélestat, at the Biblioteque Humaniste. This library began as a private collection, but was eventually donated to the city. It's full of incredibly beautiful old books that show the evolution of humanism, so it encompasses so many of my favorite things: old books, history, and beautiful architecture (the building is gorgeous). It was also incredibly quiet, and we were the only people there at the time that we went, which made looking at the exhibits really nice. The books are under glass and then covered with velvet, so you feel like an explorer uncovering discoveries at every turn. I would recommend stopping here if you ever find yourself in Alsace and like old books.

The Biblioteque Humaniste

The next place that we stopped was not as pleasant, but historically important. I had studied in Germany for nine months collectively at that point, and had not yet been to a concentration camp. We had heard that part of what was so fascinating about the Natzweiler-Struthof camp was that it was such a horrific place in an incredibly beautiful location. And beautiful it was, up in the mountains, with an absolutely gorgeous view. The experience was of course very intense, but I was glad to have gone. Here are just a few images of the camp, to give you an impression:

We did have one more impromptu stop on the way to Strasbourg, and this one was very happy. I am somewhat in love with all thing Dr. Oetker (a brand that makes every imaginable baking ingredient, as well as some other food), and thus was incredibly surprised to see a Dr. Oetker factory on the side of the highway in the middle of rural Alsace. Who knew that something so German was made in France! I got so excited that my dad got off at the exit so that we could drive by and take a picture. As I hopped out of the car and did so, the Dr. Oetker employees waved and smiled back at me. Dream come true!

Dr. Oetker factory in Alsace!

After this brief detour and a lot of traffic we arrived at our bed and breakfast, in Mittelhausen, about 45 minutes outside of Strasbourg. We stayed at the Hansel and Gretel, which is in an adorable house covered in vines, with really sweet cats, and an adorable couple. The husband does research at the university and the wife is an artist, so the house is wonderfully decorated. She comes from the area and so speaks a regional German, and we had fun communicating in German and a teensy tiny bit of French. We also used German to talk to Annette in Elsenheim, and it was fun being somewhere where English wasn't that helpful. It's amazing how much you can communicate across languages.
Our room in Hansel and Gretel had another adorable alcove for me to sleep in, and our breakfast each morning included some sort of treat that Liliane made from scratch. One morning it was a plum tart, and the next a delicious apple crumble.

Chez Hansel and Gretel

My little alcove

Once we finally made it into Strasbourg the next day, I quickly fell in love with the city. Within half an hour there I had decided I wanted to live there. I don't know what it was, whether it was the canals, the cathedral square, or the fact that everything was decorated for Christmas, but I enjoyed our time there immensely. Strasbourg had declared itself the "capital of christmas," and it was easy to see why. With what I believe was 12 Christmas markets and decorations everywhere, it truly felt like Christmas. Even if there was no snow. We had a crêpe at one of the markets and some vin chaud, or hot wine, which is essentially french glühwein. It was not my favorite, as it seemed sweeter somehow than the German variety, but still felt very Christmassy.

Decked out for Christmas
 

I wanted this pretzel-santa so badly!

At the Christmas Market in front of the Cathedral

Cathedral

Restaurant on a canal

My dad in the Petite France area of the city

This is the house I want to live in

Christmas at night

We explored the city in the morning, and spent the afternoon in the Historical Museum, which chronicles the history of the city of Strasbourg. It was an incredibly well put-together museum, with interactive exhibits and a free and extensive audio guide, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city. I think learning about the history of the city definitely helped me to appreciate the atmosphere that we enjoyed while there. We spent that evening in the Museum of Contemporary art. They had a really interesting exhibit on the supernatural in European art, but it was so incredibly large that we couldn't make it through the entire exhibit, especially after having already made our way through the permanent exhibits. It would have taken at least three hours to see properly, and we were getting hungry. Part of the exhibition, however, was a display of important and/or famous old books that referenced death or the supernatural. I had a small freak out after seeing the Malleus Maleficarum, and spent an enormous amount of time trying to read all of the information (which was only available in French and German). After the museum we headed back to the city center, where we had a delicious dinner with a very entertaining waiter. After a brief moment where we thought we would not be able to get to our car in the parking garage below a mall that had closed, and some adventures with doors that locked from the inside, we finally made it back to Hansel and Gretel.

The next morning we stopped by some of the EU parliament buildings on our way out of town, but didn't see too many of them. We hadn't called ahead to schedule a tour, and we had to get to Luxembourg before it got to be too late. The EU buildings are in an entirely different part of town than the other touristy sites, so we hadn't made it there the day before.

That's it for this installment! Later this week: the finale of my trip with my dad and Lisa (Luxembourg and Belgium), and a weekend in Amsterdam!

Colmar and Southern Alsace

Due to the craziness of the holidays and then exam period in Germany, I haven't had the chance to write yet about the trip I took when my dad and his girlfriend, Lisa, came to visit (or the trip that Catie, Wes-friend Gilder, and I took to Amsterdam). As I'm leaving for six weeks of travelling next week (Scotland, England, Ireland, and Istanbul), I need to catch up before I leave. So here's the first installment!

I wrote about the first part of the trip in December (see my post on German Christmas Markets), but I haven't yet described the part where we drove from Tübingen to Southern Alsace, and then up to Strasbourg, Luxembourg, and into Belgium. It was a really fun trip, full of beautiful scenery, cute little towns, and some GPS adventures. I'm going to start today with a post about the first few days, which we spent in southern Alsace.

The drive from Tübingen to Elsenheim, where we were going to spend our first two nights in France, was a beautiful one. We unexpectedly found ourselves taking the Schwarzwaldhochstrasse, or the "Black Forest High Road." This meant that we were driving up along the ridges of the mountains, looking down on the forest, before descending down curving roads and little black forest towns. If you ever get the chance to drive through Germany, I recommend making this part of your trip. Absolutely beautiful.

We stopped here to take photos - this is where a lot of hang gliding takes place

Up above everything: In front of that flag you can see the tips of the trees climbing up the side of the mountain

Shortly after leaving the Black Forest we crossed the border into France. The ease of this border crossing came as quite a shock for my dad, who hadn't driven through Europe since before the Schengen Agreement came into effect. He was therefore surprised to find out we were already in France, having not gone through any sort of passport control, and knowing only because of our GPS (and the change in signs). Shortly after we crossed the border, we arrived at our bed and breakfast, A l'Ancienne Boulangerie, where we would stay for two nights. True to its name, the building had been converted from an old bakery into a bed and breakfast, something that I found particularly exciting. A married couple run this b&b, and the husband used to do the baking when it was a bakery - which meant that our delicious breakfasts each morning included unique treats that he had made. My personal favorite was a scone made in the shape of a person, sort of like a gingerbread man. He also makes jam that we enjoyed each day for breakfast, which was so delicious that I bought some to give as Christmas gifts. The rooms were wonderfully decorated and full of antiques. The room we stayed in was in the attic, and had an adorable loft that I got to sleep in. The loft was decorated with antique toys, which fit in well with the theme.

Annette and Thierry, our wonderful hosts

A blurry photo of the cozy downstairs where we had breakfast each morning

Our first night in France began with a quick trip to Ribouvillé for dinner. However, because dinner doesn't begin until at least 7:30, we took some time to wander around the town first. Like every town we encountered on our trip, Ribouvillé was decorated for Christmas. I enjoyed trying to decipher signs after two months of learning French, and we all enjoyed the adorable Alsatian town and Christmas atmosphere, as well as the delicious dinner we had at the end.

Christmas in Ribouvillé

Excited because I felt like I had found Narnia

It was great to see some snow, even if it was fake

The next day we woke up early to have an adventure-filled day. Annette had told us where we should go near Elsenheim to see the most important tourist sites, and we knew that we wanted to head up to Colmar that evening. We started by trying to find our way to Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, which is a beautiful castle in the mountains near Sélestat. After some GPS adventures, in which we drove through innumerable dirt paths across and through vineyards, we finally found ourselves at the castle. One of the most visited castles in France since its restoration in the 20th century, it was a beautiful place to be on a sunny day in the mountains. There were signs everywhere telling us facts about Christmas. For instance, did you know that the first mention of a Christmas tree came from Sélestat in 1521? And that people used to hang hosts as ornaments, as well as the traditional candles, until replaced with spice cake and electric lights? Or that the pretzel is "based on the twisted bread of the Romans...given as a present during the Christmas celebrations, particularly between lovers, as a symbol of fertility and wealth. It was also connected to worshipping the dead and was often used as an offering at funerals."? The pretzel fact was my favorite, as I eat so many living in Germany that I feel obliged to know the history.

View from the castle

Pathway leading to the castle

In the courtyard

Giant wine cask

Medieval recipe for spice cake, aka gingerbread

pretzels!

The German eagle on the ceiling of a French castle served as an example of the essence of Alsace: Germany + France

Model of the castle

View of the castle from one of our winding roads through a vineyard

After leaving the château, we headed towards the town of Bergheim, because we had heard about a trail of crèches there. It appears that any citizen of Bergheim can make a crèche, out of whatever materials they wish, and it gets marked with a white star along the route of crèches. We saw an incredible variety of crèches, my favorites of which are shown below.

Elf Nativity!

Are the donkeys eating Jesus?

A street in Bergheim

At the medieval city walls

Our next step that day was in Riquewihr, where Annette had told us about a giant Christmas store that was open all year round and brought tourists from across the country. The store was full of overpriced ornaments, some of which were also too tacky for my taste, and most of which could be purchased at any one of the million of Christmas markets we had seen. Customers were herded through narrow aisles, where you had to make sure not to accidentally knock over any item. However as a cultural experience I was glad to have gone.

We also ran into yet another Christmas Market in Riquewihr. At this one, to celebrate now being in france, I purchased a croissant-shaped piece of marzipan, hot cider (the alcoholic kind), and some macarons. The market was slightly outside the city center, right next to an expansive vineyard and many wooden barrels and wheelbarrows. These wine-making accouterments were all over every town we stopped in in Alsace, and certainly added ambience.

Macarons at the market

A unique Christmas decoration after my own heart

Downtown Riquewihr

Wine barrels hanging out on the edge of town

The last place we stopped this day was Colmar, a small city in southern Alsace. Colmar had five Christmas markets, and I'm proud to say we made it to all of them (this was still somewhat near the beginning of our Christmas market adventure, before they all started to feel the same). These markets reminded me of the ones we had seen in Germany, and seemed to be more focused on traditional Christmas gifts and sweets than local specialties of alcohol and food, as we saw later in our trip. We enjoyed wandering around Colmar, as it felt particularly Christmassy, but after a long day we didn't have energy for much besides Christmas markets and more delicious food.
Here are some images from our evening in Colmar:

That's it for the first installment! Coming soon: Strasbourg and a drive up the rue des vins!