Suplyer Carger: Colmarcolmar

Showing posts with label Colmarcolmar. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

colmar tropicale.. by kymioflario on Flickr.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Bottoms up!

Today was our last day in Colmar. Tomorrow we move on to...

Today was our last day in Colmar. Tomorrow we move on to Strasbourg. We’ll only be there one and a half days, as we are there to catch the TGV, France’s super fast rail system, to get us over to Normandy and eventually Paris.

Today was stiflingly hot. Hotter than Yakima right now by almost twenty degrees. 94 degrees is just about too much when your out traipsing around. We managed to survive it pretty well though with a couple of new straw hats and plenty of cold drinks and sorbet under the umbrellas.

We really love the Alsace region of France. Yesterday, as we were visiting kne of the smaller villages, we came across two older ladies speaking Alsation, a dialect of German that seems to have French influences.

The picture is another of the section of Colmar called Le Petite Venise.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Jo and this French rooster going nose to nose in their debate...

Jo and this French rooster going nose to nose in their debate over the best way to prepare coq au vin. For some reason the rooster didn’t think there was a best way. Go figure.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

colmar tropicale.. by kymioflario on Flickr.

Colmar, France

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Colmar, France. 20-22.06.11

Our hotel was a complete shit box and our room shook every time a train went past but for some reason, we saw the funny side of everything bad about it. On Tuesday, we drove up to Hartmannswillerkopf/the Vieil Armand in the Ballons des Vosges Regional Nature Park. At a height of 956m above sea level, you could see the Alsatian plain, the Black Forest, the Jura range, the Swiss Alps and part of the Vosges mountains.
During the WW1, the site was the scene of many bloody battles which killed tens of thousands of men. In addition to the national cemetery, a tomb which includes the remains of 12,000 unknown soldiers has been built on the site, in order to commemorate the events that occurred in the area.
It was so silent and peaceful up there, making it difficult to imagine the horrifying scenes that had occurred there almost 100 years ago. At the same time, it was amazing to visit a place which coincided with my Year 12 Modern History studies of WW1 - there’s a huge difference between reading about something and actually being in an area where those things occurred and being faced with the facts rather than just seeing words and numbers on paper.

Driving to the Vieil Armand, just before my camera battery died :(

Luckily, our two days coincided with Fךte de la Musique - World Music Day which began in France, where musicians, both amateur and professional, take to the streets and perform in celebration of music. It was so amazing to see such a variety of music in a completely different culture, but I think the overall vibe was universal. Unfortunately, a bunch of skinheads started a brawl which seemed to kill the mood so we went back to our hotel relatively early.