Jul 24, 2012 - Colmar ... la Petite Venise

Lundi le 23 juillet soit le 28e jour du voyage, nous quittons Mulhouse vers Colmar, toujours en Alsace, qui est à 10 minutes de train. Il fait beau mais frais en ce début d’avant-midi. Colmar est la petite Venise au fil de l’eau, c’est de cette façon qu’elle est reconnue. Quartier pittoresque au cœur de la vielle ville, La Petite Venise doit sa splendeur à une paisible rivière : La Lauch. Il ne fallait pas manquer le Monument Bartholdi ni voir le musée en son nom. Mais qui est Bartholdi ? Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, dit Auguste Bartholdi,...

Jul 17, 2012 - The Alsace, France

We spent the day in the beautiful Alsace Region of France today. We rode a motorcoach for an hour to get to our first stop – Colmar, France. (It was the home of Bartoldi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty.) As the Alsace has been in and out of German hands over the centuries, this charming city has a lot of German architectural features – like half-timbered houses. An hour walking tour of the old city was enjoyable. Our brief stop in the Unterlinden Museum was to see and learn about its beautiful religious paintings. There are small...

Jul 14, 2012 - A Taste of Alsace

July 14th Our route to Colmar on Tuesday, July 10 consisted of train exchanges in Dijon and Mulhouse before reaching our destination. Trains in France are fast, efficient and usually on time. They take a lot of the stress out of travel, especially if you are able to book your tickets on line, as Larry so wisely did. Colmar is situated between the Rhine and the Vosges Mountains which over the ages have see-sawed back and forth between the French and the Germans. The town reflects the best features of both cultures but it remains proudly...

Jun 5, 2012 - Colmar

Monday came with somewhat clearing skies and I left the farm behind to go to Freiburg. I stopped at a post office and picked up a couple of boxes to mail home travel and some purchases. It is too easy when you have a car just to put things in the trunk and not realize that they have accumulated. I plan to mail things from Baden Baden before I turn in the car. It was a short 30 minute drive into Freiburg and I found the parking garage and my way to the Cathedral square, with some directions from an English speaker. I took along my umbrella...

Sep 22, 2011 - France - or Germany?

First champagne, now riesling. Our first two days in France were spent in around the city of Reims, in the champagne region of France, about 150 miles east of Paris. This was the Allied headquarters in Europe at the end of WWII, and where the surrender of Germany was signed. In fact, the room where the surrender occurred has been preserved as a small museum, including the battle maps hanging on the walls with the troop and equipment locations as they were that day, and with the table and chairs in place, with plaques showing the names of...

Sep 17, 2011 - last full day in france

Train back to Colmar today, and then bus to Riquewihr. Small cute town in wine country. It's one quaint town after another, hard to believe its all real. If I had a euro for every time mom or aunt carol said "charming" or "delightful". Mom said this trip is exceeding all her expectations and she might not need to travel again after this because she is fulfilled. Whatthe? Anyways, its been good. Lone days on our feet but leaving no stone unturned. I am impressed at the stamina of these "seniors", ha. Went to a midevil fest tonight in...

Sep 16, 2011 - side trips

Train to Colmar, then bus to Eguisheim. Cute little towns, like something out of a fairy tale, you can't believe its real! Mom is loving it. We are in wine country so I am happy to sample everything. This area known for white wines, esp reisling. As predicted, most meals here consists of bread, cheese, and meat...little veggies. So much for my veggie-heavy diet. Lots and lots of walking, my back is not happy, oh well. Otherwise all is well.

May 16, 2011 - Day two of Alsace bike ride - Colmar

Day 2 was to Colmar via Ebersmunster which was about 70km. Add a few more km's for when we got lost. The day started with a flat tire and didn't get much better. Boy this was hard. Didn't think I was going to make it. We stopped at beautiful Baroque church in Ebersmunster, it would have been one of the most beautiful I've seen. It wasn't big or elaborate on the outside but inside it was gorgeous. After that all others wouldn't come up to par. We struggled into Colmar that night and just wanted to sit in the bath. It became a race to see who...

Dec 9, 2010 - Colmar

Leaving Strasbourg, we heaqd further south into France to Colmar (http://www.ot-colmar.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21649&Itemid=142). The countryside is very different now from that of the Black forest area - broad flat valleys are the order of the day now. Evidence of snow falls still dot the fields, and the temp is still below 5 degrees. However, the sun is out so the drive is quite pleasant. Colmar is a largish town with the ubiquitous "old part" of the city. It seems every town in Europe has an "old" part to it. Kind of...

Dec 9, 2010 - Colmar

Leaving Strasbourg, we heaqd further south into France to Colmar (http://www.ot-colmar.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21649&Itemid=142). The countryside is very different now from that of the Black forest area - broad flat valleys are the order of the day now. Evidence of snow falls still dot the fields, and the temp is still below 5 degrees. However, the sun is out so the drive is quite pleasant. Colmar is a largish town with the ubiquitous "old part" of the city. It seems every town in Europe has an "old" part to it. Kind of...

Aug 23, 2010 - Colmar

Before I get to work on the family tree research again, I decided to be a tourist for a day in Alsace. And according to many people, that means going to Colmar. It is only 10 minutes by train south of Selestat (€8.80 return) and goes about every hour as the trains are constantly running between Strasbourg in the north and Mulhouse in the south. Colmar, the capital of central Alsace, has about 67,000 residents and one of the most popular tourist destinations in Alsace (read "lots of tour buses"!). I won’t give a lot of detail here of all the...

Aug 21, 2007 - 6 days in 3

Heya, everybody. Here it is again, late in the evening. I just got a second batch of pictures downloaded, so we'll see how far along in the entry we'll get. I want to at least try as already everything is blurring together. I believe the last entry was Freiberg, Germany. The next day we went into Colmar, a smaller town in France just 30 mins from Ensisheim. It was another beautiful little town whose main claims to fame are being the home town of the sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty (France gave to the USA as a gift) and a section...