Road trip stop #3: Colmar

A short (hour) drive across the border from Freiburg to Colmar, France, the Capital of the Alsatian wine region and surprise bit of trivia fact: hometown of the sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi, who designed the Statue of Liberty.

Colmar has had a tumultuous history with many different rulers (Sweden briefly during the 30 Years War, France when conquered by Louis XIV, back to German rule during the Franco-Prussian War, back to France after WWI, to Nazi Germany in 1940, then back to France in 1945 when liberated by the Allies). Consequently, it along with much of the Alsace region has a strong German heritage. The German influence can easily be seen in the architecture which looks more German than French. Also the Alsatian dialect has German origins, but is unfortunately an endangered language that is declining with the population decline. However, we heard more German spoken in Colmar than French!

Wine, cheese, and Germans

Road trip this weekend! Luckily for me, Das Mädchen forgot to put me on the car insurance. Woohoo! No driving for me!! Except for a close call at a traffic circle, I'd say I could get used to being driven around Europe.

Having left HDH at MY first thing in the morning On Saturday (i.e., shorly after 10am) we drove to the Black Forest. Three hours with a quick stop over at TK Maxx, and we arrived in Hinterzarten. Fun though it was, I think it's safe to say there is no need to go back to either.

 But Freiberg is a heck of a town! University city and the sunniest town in Germany. That's not that impressive a stat, though. It's sort of like saying someone is the best baseball player in Germany. (coincidentally, Heidenheim has a really good baseball team). But nonetheless, we had sunshine and 90 degrees all weekend. I'll go back to work Wednesday with a good Irish tan (read: sun burn).

Sunday evening and the best food we've had in a while. Maybe it was a really good Indian chef. Maybe it's because it was absolutely anything other than traditional Bavarian food. Hard to say. Either way, we left fat and happy.

Road trip stop #2: Freiburg

Beautiful, sunny Freiburg... a city which boasts the most sunny days in all of Germany. (According to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany and holds the German temperature record of 40.2 °C (104.4 °F))

I loved it before I even saw it...

and I have to say, Freiburg did not disappoint. We left with the thought that we could easily spend more time in this charming city...

the magical Walt Disney world of Freiburg! (it doesn't even look real! but I promise this is a real picture -I took it!)

Road trip stop #1: Black Forest

We have a 4 day holiday this weekend, thanks to a Bank holiday on Tuesday and a bridge day Monday, yay for Germany! So we decided to take a road trip to the Black Forest, a visit to Freiburg, and a dip into France to Colmar and back home. 

So, the true first stop was actually here: 

Our Town

It has been 2 months already!  Looking through the posts, I realize that we have pictures of all of the places that we have been so far but none of our town! So I must confess, I don't have any pictures of the town itself as it is not really a tourist town and I feel a little weird snapping pictures that will clearly mark me as a tourist... (I will try to inconspicuously take some in the future.)  But we do have a castle! So I have a lot of pictures of the castle and... a lot of pictures of Kiwi on our walks and bike rides around the town! So please enjoy...

this is the trail that runs behind our house

Nuremberg Part II

So yes last weekend we went to Nuremberg but we had such a great time that we decided a return trip was necessary and this time to stay the night!

Our hotel was a European chain hotel and well located on a main shopping street.  The room was simple, clean, and comfortable but quite interesting under the eaves of the building with a steeply slanted ceiling and steep spiral staircase to get up to the room. 

Der Junge taking a rest

our hotel

Kiwi also taking a rest and enjoying the sun from the skylight

So the food that we both miss the most is Mexican.  And we try in every "larger" city to find Mexican restaurants. Nuremberg actually has 3 in its old town.  During our stay we tried 2 out of the 3...  "Chilis" was the closest but we still have yet to find a satisfying Mexican restaurant.  Mexican food is just not supposed to have green beans and carrots in it!  Bet you can guess where we will be eating on our visit back home in August...

"Mexican" food and German beer of course!

Dinkelsbuhl

Last weekend was so fun and we had planned to go to Dinkelsbuhl this weekend and Nuremberg is only a short drive from Dinkelsbuhl so we decided to go back and see more of Nuremberg too! See next post for Nuremberg.

A little history....