Friday

Friday was yet another day of folks out wandering about.  Nita and I stayed around the house so we could pick up Donna in the afternoon while the rest went down to Old Town to do some exploration.

A pretty quiet day.

About 5 Donna made it in to Colmar safe and sound.  We had a nice dinner of hand made tortellini and red sauce with a killer spinach salad.

All in all a good day where not a lot happened.

Market Day and Castles

Market day again!

The gang trooped down to the open market nestled about the covered market exterior to grab up a few days of provisions.  Chicken roasted on spits, salad makings, pasta and red sauce ingredients, pastries and some assorted snack items loaded the little shopping cart to near bursting.

Back at home we stocked the fridge picked up the kitchen and headed out to do some wine tastings in the mountains.  You know, the place you want to taste wines, on twisty roads in the hills.

Niedermorschwihr seemed to be a nice place to park and walk about for a bit.  We found a couple of wineries open and after tastings, loaded the back of the cars with a few boxes of wine.  Just a few...

Instead of heading back to the house we started north of the wine route to the town of Katzenthal, just a couple of kilometers away.  We assumed it would be a quick drive by on our way to the next small wine town, but up on the hilltop above the village we saw Chateau Wineck, a 12th century fortification that is largely still intact.  Took a bit of wandering to get up to where the fort is located, but it was well worth it. 

Standing midway up the slopes of the wineyards, the tower and keep are still standing after all these years(with a little help from the Alsatian historical society).  The keep is mostly open for exploration, but the actual tower is blocked off with a big iron gate.  Sure looks like there are a lot of parties up at the fort, we found remnants of many camp fires.

After a good amount of wandering about we got back in the cars and drove further north to Ammeschwihr for a quick drive about the town and a stop for ice cream, because France.  While getting ice cream all over ourselves we found some really cool 16th century fortified gun towers and tons of WW2 information.

From there we headed west into the valley to Kayserberg.  No real reason apart from me taking the wrong exit on a roundabout.  Hey, it happens.  Driving along we saw a large castle overlooking the town, so naturally we had to go see it!

In Kayserberg we found dubious parking accommodations behind a hotel which apparently had part of a medieval tower structure in its back yard.  Not bad for a parking lot.  From the cars it was a long walk up a hell of a lot of stairs to get to the castle.  Luckily the stairs and some lovely gardens are well kept and not terribly dangerous.

Hotel parking lot with medieval tower.

Mark and Nita

Ryan and Kim

From the gardens up to the castle.

These two again...

This time when we reached the top of the hill we were able to take to 113 steps up the tower to the very top for some breath taking views of the village and valley below.  Some of the best views we have seen all trip.

Early evening we headed home to get some dinner in us.  The chicken was great, Nita and folks shelled fresh spring peas,  and I whipped up another souffle.  Very tasty!

For dessert we played Tart Roulette!(tm) with the big 6 slices of various fruit tarts we picked up during market morning.  We each had a plate of tart.  Blueberry, citron, apple almond, apricot, rhubarb and rhubarb meringue.  The way the game is played is a total sharing scheme.  Take a bite and then pass the plate to the right till all the desserts are gone.

No really, we highly recommend Tart Roulette(tm).  Try it at your next dinner!

New Arrivals

Wednesdays are just getting fun.  New friends to pick up from the train station, showing them the house and then wandering about Old Town, introducing them to the twisty, wandering medieval roads.

I went out early and ran the vineyards in the mountains again while Nita goofed around the house doing all those things we need to do to get ready for people arriving that Im no good at.  Like, everything.  Nice morning, quite chilly!

Kim and Ryan were first in this time with Fernando and Debbie following a couple hours later.  After picking up Kim and Ryan at the station we had some down time to let them relax and get some snackies in them before Ferd and Debbie showed up in their rental.  No, they didn't get out old car like we were hoping.

After everyone arrived and got settled in the house we took our poor travel weary friends down to Old Town for dinner at our favorite winstub.  We didn't torture them too long, and went back home to tuck everyone into bed for a big Friday of exploration and market day!

They Left Us!

Tuesday was a bittersweet day.  We had just enough time to go roam around Old Town and grab a sensational lunch at Trois Poissions with everyone.  I think this is our favorite place to eat in Colmar so far.  With all the heavy German fare, it is nice to finally find a place that does lighter French dishes that actually have some veggies involved.  I am assuming all vegetables grown in Germany are composted and then fed to the sauerkraut fields.

Pike over veggies in a white wine sauce

Sole over squid ink pasta and veggies with a Riesling sauce

A personal favorite, 5 local fishes over hand made pasta with a mushroom cream sauce

Matt finally got the chance to buy the pocket knives he had been searching for while and I deeply suspect other shopping happened as well.

Pretty womens!

No idea what this is.  Really pretty tho!

Matt, Laura, Jim and Aletha headed out to Paris by train at around 4, leaving Nita and I some down time to get groceries stocked in and bedding laundered, etc.   We will, of course, miss them all.  Had some great times over the past couple weeks, sad to see it all come to so early an end!

 Instead of going to the local grocery, we headed off to the other side of Colmar for a big fancy cluster of stores that were on the bus route to Germany.  Shopping list in hand, we totally failed as responsible adults and packed the cart with cider, a frozen pizza(BBQ chicken, we could not resist) and odd flavours of potato chips.  I even bought a new carry on bag for the flight home at a nice little luggage shop in the complex.

Back at home we enjoyed an embarrassing evening of American vices.  Netflix, frozen pizza and lounging on the couch.  Not a bad way to unwind after 5 weeks of running about!

The pizza was ok.  Not great, but ok.  Just in case you were wondering.

New folks tomorrow!

Monday yet again

This morning the crew set out for a quick run to Switzerland while Nita and I planned on running to a few new shops and a new big grocery store we found on the other side of Colmar.

At least that was our plan.

Jim, Aletha, Matt and Laura all left the house so quietly that we thought they had perhaps given up on their idea on driving to a small Swiss town to see the snow capped mountains.  Apparently they got up and out so stealthily we never heard them moving about.

We snoozed till 930 and then got up and around to get all of our chores and running done.  Little did we know(or had bothered to check) that Monday the 25th was a national holiday in France as well.  So nothing at all was open.  NOTHING.

So we drove about a bit to sight see and then back to the house for a few more rounds of laundry(in between rain storms) and some reading on the couch.

The guys got back safe and sound about 6 and showed us tons of the beautiful countryside in Switzerland.  Dinner was some not very good artichokes and a huge platter of cheese and sausages.

Wine, there might have been wine too, but I don't remember.

Wine?  Nah...

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was declared a day of quiet napping and goofing about with laundry and house chores.  Not shockingly, it was a unanimous vote!

Matt and Laura broke ranks for a brief mooch about Old Town and Aletha took a nice walk about town.

Dinner was a quiet but yummy batch of tarragon chicken(yes, again it is our favorite dish) and spinach salad.

Dessert was fromage blanc with fruit and meringue crumbled on top.

Another good day.

Tomorrow the crew bravely heads to Switzerland.  Hopefully... 

Wedding Bells

Well, Saturday was the big day.  Matt and Laura asked me several months ago to perform their wedding while they were in France, preferably at a castle if at all possible.  It was, so we did.

We woke up leisurely late and had a light breakfast, picked up dinner supplies and wedding flowers at the open market at Sainte Joseph before some well deserved relaxation before we got dressed and ready to go.

The happy and kinda nervous couple

Flowers for the wedding

About 2 we hopped in the cars and headed for Chateau Hohlandsburg for the wedding ceremony.  This time, we took the risk and drove all the way to the top and parked in what I deeply suspect is employee parking, but as we didn't get towed, not that big a deal.  We just could not face that long walk up the mountain from the usual parking lot in our wedding clothes.  Not fun at all.

The day was bright and sparkling with a cool wind, just perfect for a quick exchange of vows on the battlements overlooking the broad Rhine River valley over to Germany.  It wasn't too crowded for a Saturday, so we had just enough private time to share the binding of two wonderful people for the rest of their lives.

Jim, Matt, Laura, Aletha

A very serious moment.

After the vows, we wandered about a bit, finally settling in at the little bistro in the castle courtyard for a bottle of local sparkling wine and some toasts.

Toasting!

While we previously bought dinner for the evening, we decided to head into Old Town to grab dinner out since nobody seemed terribly eager to get to work in the kitchen.

We ended up at a decent little winstub for a big table of all the traditional favorites, with one notable exception.  It makes him happy I guess...

Yep, French Funyuns!

It was a very special day and Nita and I are very glad to have been part of it!

Castle fail!

Friday we got up and leisurely took the train to Selestat so the gang could go up and see Haut Keonigsbourg up close after seeing it in the distance for a few days.

While we were in the area, I decided to take a nice run in the neighborhood again.  Again, I got a tiny bit lost.  Instead of an easy 4.5 mile run my course opened up to a 7.1 mile death march that had my back cramping up and water bottle empty.  Made it, but wasn't nearly as fun as I had been planning for!

Halfway through, I called Jim to ask if they had caught the bus up to the castle.  NOPE!  Little did we know the shuttle bus to the top of the mountain wasn't running for a full work.  We really suck at this France thing...  They had deciphered the bus schedules and had wandered into town for drinks and a snack.

Near dead, I got back to the train station just in time for us to realize we had exactly 3 minutes and a new round of drinks to down.  We did it.  Spent a 15 min trip on a crowded rush hour train debating where to throw up, but we made it.

Dinner was a quiet affair at the house and early bed time.

Tomorrow is another story.  Big Day Coming!

Off to Germany. Well, not us...

Thursday morning, Jim, Aletha, Matt and Laura hopped in the noble and sporty Opel they picked up from the Avis office at the train station.  Unfortunately for them it was the exact same car Nita and I had rented for the past few weeks.  Not a great car...

We lent them our GPS and off they headed for deepest and darkest Germany.  They were headed for Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a walled city from the early middle ages.  Apparently the city's defensive walls are still in tact and give a really nice view into the construction of the city.

For some reason, which I refuse to speculate at, they went to the German Museum of Medieval Torture.   Fun times!

On the way back our Garmin once again acted up.  For some damn reason it will get you to where you are going with no issues, but coming back it always seems to mess with you horribly!  The drive back took a good 5+ hours, complete with a lovely interaction with German police.  They made it home, having successfully smuggled over 4,500lbs of assorted German sausages into France.

Well done!

Jim, Aletha and the $1647.10 Dinner

Wednesday, Jim and Aletha rolled in on the train from Paris.  By all accounts Paris was noisy and crowded as hell during their few days there, cannot wait to experience it for myself!  <cough>

They were a bit shagged out from the trip, so after some well deserved wine and snackies we headed to our favorite winstub(wine room) for dinner.

As usual, dinner was just fine.  Good food, good wines and a lot of fun waiting for the rain to stop.

Things went well, right till the bill came.  Somehow our waiter miskeyed the amount in for $1647.10.  Don't get me wrong, it was a nice meal, just not that nice!

Our waiter was horrified and we spent an amusing half hour working out the refund and details.  Luckily for Matt, it was all taken care of in short order(yes, he checked later and made sure it never posted).

After the rain we made it home and got the travelers to bed.  They had a long trip to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. 

Brave and busy travelers!

Minecraft

Tuesday turned out to be a very, very different day from what I had planned when I woke up.  We had dinner reservations at a Micheline 1 star restaurant in Colmar, JY's, for 8pm so I assumed we would have a lazy day about the house till it was time to get dressed up and head down for our 7 course tasting menu.

Nope!

Nita decided she was bored and wanted to get out of the house.  Digging around online she found a museum and silver mine in the mountains near here that had been in operation in the 16th century.  It was less than an hour away so she convinced us to pack into the car for an adventure.

An adventure it was.  We were expecting a museum and displays of history and local mining lore.  Instead we got an hour long multi media presentation of the diary of one of the mine owners from the 16th century from his escaping Venice to landing in Alsace looking for a silver mine.  Nice bit of history that covered all aspects of early mining work.

The second part of the tour involved strapping on hard hats, lights and raincoats and spending an hour with a guided tour of the mine itself, at times several hundred feet into the mountain.  Lots of mud, lots of water and some passages from the earliest part of the mine that were just barely large enough to squeeze through.  All in all it was a very cool tour.  Hard to imagine working in a mine like that with nothing more than a tallow lamp for 8 hours a day.

After the tour we had time to drive back to Colmar and get ready for dinner.

Our meal at JY's was near perfect.

Starting with local sparkling wine, we were treated to a miniature olive tree that was festooned with different spiced and coated olives hanging from its branches for us to nibble on.  Fun...

When we ordered the tasting menu, our kind waitress helped us pick a Grand Cru Riesling, Kitterle 2008 from Domaines Schlumberger.  A very wise choice, we went through 2 bottle during the meal.  Shockingly, the wine list was not expensive at all.  We chose one of the more expensive bottles at 52Euro expecting to see wines well into the hundreds of Euros.  Nope, all reasonable and respectful.

An amuse bouche arrived with several light preparations to awaken the palate.  My favorite was a buttered popcorn mousse piped into a little tart shell with a popcorn kernel on top.  Pure popcorn fun.

After, we were presented with smoked sturgeon under a citron vodka creme and a quenelle of caviar, all served in the caviar tin.  Splendid!

Third of our 7 courses(which was actually more like 10) was white asparagus in a morel mushroom sauce.  Light and perfect for the spring menu.  We openly debated licking our bowls, but they make a substantial home bread loaf that was kept warm and ready for any sauce emergencies.

Next was a calamari ravioli in an interesting seafood and vegetable sauce.  Not my favorite, but a very nice dish.

We were treated to a very nice next dish of lake trout crusted with potato souffle, capers, citron sauce and a pool of bagna caude, a warm olive oil and herb sauce.  A spectacular dish.

Sweetbreads arrived next in a massala and butter sauce with a bit of toasted bread at the bottom.  Sweetbreads, or a cows thymus glands are a delicacy we don't much see in the U.S. apart from hipster foodie hangouts.  Too bad.  Properly cooked they are a marvel of butter rich goodness.

Slowing down the meal at last was a nifty little bit of goat cheese whipped and then rolled into a spiral log with a tomato gel and then sliced across to reveal a cute spiral of cheese and tomato goodness.  Sprinkled with sun dried tomatoes and pesto made from wild spring garlic, it was a very nice nod to the traditional cheese board finish to a meal.

Then, the desserts started.  Apparently hobbits took over the kitchen and started throwing out desserts.

First dessert was a palate cleansing shot glass of sangria wine granita.  Basically a frozen sweet wine slush.

Second dessert was pink grapefruit gel set into the fruits skin.  It was like eating grapefruit candy after the meal.  They served it on a glass plate with a recessed area holding dry ice.  The server poured water into it and our table was blanketed with fog for 5 or 6 minutes.  Nifty, fun, dish.

Third dessert(told ya) was poached rhubarb over fresh alpine strawberries, balsamic vinegar, a vanilla creme filled cookie and a nice dollop of raspberry sorbet.  That may the one of best thought out desserts I have ever put a fork into.

We honestly thought the meal was over.  When we ordered coffee(espresso) for some talking and reviewing the meal, we had no idea what else was on the way.  Along with our coffee we were given 2 little, 3 drawer "jewelry boxes" that each contained 4 macaroons, 4 candies and 4 little treat for the baker.  Just an array of little sweets to finish off coffee and the evening.

All in all I think we all enjoyed the hell out of the meal.  The price for the 7(10, whatever) tasting menu was very reasonable for what we enjoyed dining on.  I have paid a hell of a lot more for a hell of a lot less in the U.S.  Michelin stars are awarded for very good reasons, JY's deserves the star they have.

As we were leaving the chef and his staff were closing down the kitchens and goofing around the front doors.  We had a chance to spend a few minutes chatting with them(turns out or waitress is his wife) and thanking them for a tremendous evening.

I hope to get back there soon.  Very soon.

Sorry for no pics of dinner, but I am fairly sure they will set you on fire our back in an alley if you start whipping out phones to take pics of everything!

Very happy...

Germexican!

Well we finally did it.  Monday morning we woke up, goofed off and bit and hopped the bus for Breisach Germany and the fabled El Sombrero! Mexican eatery.  The bus ride there is really quite painless, only a few Euros round trip and a comfy 45 minute ride through the countryside and we are in Germany.

Gotta confess I was hoping our experience at El Sombrero would be a bit of humor for the blog.  Surprisingly, it turned out to be pretty good.  Who knew a Pakistani family on the French border of Germany could pull off some reasonably decent Mexican food??  Well, they did.

We opened with good German Weiss-beer, always a good choice to go with chips and salsa.  Matt opted for fajitas while Laura, Nita and I cheated and got the "Mexi-plate" combo option.

Chips and salsa for 4.  They don't quite have this one right.  Salsa was really good tho!

I really, really enjoy dining outdoors while the weather is nice.  We lounged in the dappled sun awaiting our meals with no little humor and dread.

Turns out we were in for a bit of a treat.  The fajitas were, well fajitas.  Perfectly serviceable.  Our Mexi-plats were big, really big affairs sporting 3 different burrito kinda things with chicken, beef and all veggie respectively.  The whole mess was served up with lots of veggies, pico de gallo, guacamole(from a jar) and some odd chicken wings that didn't make a whole lot of sense, but were tasty.

Yep, fajitas in Germany

All this was 13Euro.  Not bad considering none of us could come close to finishing it.  Tasty!

All in all it was a really passable meal.  The food and beer were great and people watching in Germany has its own charm from time to time.

We swung through the town a bit to do some shopping till we realized we had just a few minutes to get back to the bus stop or be stranded.  Made the bus and got home with no problems.

Breiasach really is a pretty town.

That evening we had a light dinner of cheese and sausages along with some terrific buffalo mozzarella based brushcetta that Matt made.  Nice way to end the day.

No big plans tomorrow, might rain.  We shall see that comes.

Sunday Fun

Sunday the 17th we awoke reasonably early to head out for a few adventures.  Nita, Matt and Laura dropped me off in Ingersheim so I could finally get another run to Niedermorschwihr and back under my belt.  While I was torturing the locals with my sweating and staggering about for 4 miles, they all went off the Eguisheim to do a little sight seeing.  Apparently many consider it to be one of the most beautiful towns in France with a splendid 13th century cathedral and a lot of extant homes from the middle ages.

After their little jaunt, which they enjoyed immensely they picked me up at the pastry shop(yes, I begin and end my long road runs at a pastry shop) and we went back to the house.

Matt and Laura headed into Old Town to explore while Nita and I stayed at the house to get caught up on laundry and house chores, and just perhaps a nap.

At 6 we met Matt and Laura down at the bridge in Little Venice for dinner at the one remaining canal side restro we had not tried yet.

Finally we got to eat at Le Comptoir de George on the canal.  Basically a Comptoir is a simple counter where you can get a quick lunch and a drink during a busy moment, but these folks have expanded into a really nice restro in addition to the lunch counter and butcher shop.

Dinner was superb.  I had lamb chops while Matt had a really nice veal cutlet in cream muchroom sauce.  Laura had baeckeofe,(a stewed veggie and meat dish with pork, beef and lamp.  Kinda like pot roast and taters) while Nita had the best steak tartar we have ever encountered.

The evening was spent laughing, eating, watching the ducks and the muskrat go about their business in the canal.  A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Back at the house we talked into the night till it was time to get some sleep and prepare for Monday.

That's right, Monday we are headed back to Germany for Mexican food at El Sombrero!

How bad could it be, really?

More Market Saturday

Saturdays are becoming our favorite days in Colmar.  The open market at St. Joseph seems to be ever evolving with new vendors all the while our old faves are still in their predictable spots.

We started the day with coffee at the house and then wandered over to pick up groceries and scrounge for food.  Matt and I opted for crepes with ham, egg and cheese while the girls went around the way to find the tasty pastry folks and their offerings.  Nita is addicted to some kind of sausage and egg in puffed pastry thingie.  Not my favorite, but what the heck, its a warm French pastry kinda thing so it can't be all bad.

The big score of the day was the beef tongue we ordered from our butcher friends.  Along with a big bad of root veggies and some raspberry tarts for dessert we had the evening meal well planned out.

Back at the house we cleaned out the fridge and did a restock and generally relaxed for most of the day.  There was much reading and napping.  Vacation, remember?

Matt worked on a blue cheese savory cheesecake to snack on throughout the afternoon which didn't turn out perfect, but was still a real treat on fresh baguette.  

Around 3, Nita threw the tongue into the stew pot for its 3 hour cookathon while the rest of us raided the wine, cheese and sausage.  Later, we threw together the taters, turnips, onions, garlic and celeriac with good olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary sprigs from our balcony garden.

Dinner was a blast.  The tongue was perfect, falling apart like pot roast and the veggies came out really nicely for once.  I think we are getting a handle on this damn oven at last.

Tongue, salad, roasted veggies and blue cheese cheesecake.  Best meal yet!

Yes, its tongue.  Tastes like the best pot roast you will ever have.  Just try some already.

Dessert tart from our new friend at the market was superb.  She is an adorable little old French woman who grows all of her own fruits and produce, proudly showing us pictures of her gardens and her husband helping in the kitchen.  She knows a little English, so combing our little French with her merits some cute conversations.  Cannot wait to see her again next week.

Rainy Friday

Yet another rainy damn Friday in Alsace.  I had planned to get up early and go for a run, but rain set in quite quickly and pretty much ruined that plan.  Could not even get around to doing laundry as our drying capacity is pretty much just outdoor laundry lines.

Nita, Cris and Tess headed off in the rain to explore a few castles and perhaps a winery or two.  Matt, Laura and I opted for a quiet day of reading and napping, which we succeeded at admirably.

Mid-afternoon, we were sitting about waiting for the girls to return from whatever international crimes against history they were out committing, talking about this and that.  The topic of food, as always came up and we started tossing around ideas for dinner.  Kinda sick of German and French, we though perhaps tapas might be a nice change.

When the stalwart adventurers got back, we took some time to run to the grocery for a few necessities and then back to the house to freshen up. Apparently pastries made it onto the "necessities" list.

We all trooped down to a little Spanish place in Old Town.  Unfortunately the outside tables were full, but we found a nice spot inside for the 6 of us.  Ordering was easy.  We got a 3.5 litre "girafe" of sangria and asked the waitress to bring us one of all 14 of the tapas on the menu.  Not surprisingly, the sangria made it to the table well ahead of the food.  Nice to have some time to make it through our industrial vat o' wine!

The food was quite good.  I'm embarrassed to say we got so into picking through the many small plates of sausage, roast pork in spicy sauce, marinated herring, roast peppers, air dried ham, etc we got no pics of the meal itself.  After 3 weeks of fairly bland food, the spicy and lively Spanish food was exactly what we needed.  A few things were ordered again, and again, particularly the meatballs in a spicy red sauce that were as soft as clouds!

The meal was quite nice.  Not amazing, but very satisfying and I'm glad we took the time to try it out.  Badly craving gelato or a "road pastry" to help us get home, we mooched through the darkening streets of Colmar.  Unfortunately, it was so late everything was closing up so there was nothing to be had.  We just had to wait till we got back to the house to attack our grocery store pastry purchase.

Not a bad decision!  We had 4 different mini fruit tarts(blueberry, raspberry, citrus, strawberry), a ruhbarb tart and a little white mouse of unidentified nature that was too cute to pass up.  Down side for him we were not drunk enough to pass him up in the frenzy.

Cute and tasty!

Matt sliced everything into 6 bits and we ended the evening with coffee and "pastry tapas".  A grand end to a soggy, relaxing day.

Tomorrow is open market at St. Joseph and we are picking up our whole beef tongue to cook for dinner!!

Tasty Thursday!

Thurs morning we took Matt and Laura down to the open market as per our normal Thursday habit.  We were not dead sure that the market was even open that morning, it was yet another national holiday here in France.  Luckily, there were up and running.

Breakfast was a couple of crepes with eggs, ham and cheese while wandering through the open stalls in the bright morning sun.  Matt picked up supplies for seafood romanesco and the girls grabbed salad makings.  For my part, I bought even more damn cheese and sausages for snacking.

Nita, given the chance decided that oysters and white wine were a dandy idea for a snack while we were out.  6 fresh oysters and a glass of white wine ran 10euro(not bad) and thusly fortified we headed for home.  There may have been a little wandering about the town as well.

Happy Diners!

Back at the house we unpacked and basically hung out relaxing.  Seems to be a lot of that going on around here.

Mid evening, Matt started in on his seafood romanesco over pasta.  Basically a seafood vodka/cream sauce with lobster stock and parmesan, it turned out to be one of the best things we have had yet on the trip!  Along with the salad, it was a near perfect evening.

The Great Change!

Wed morning I got up at 4am to take John and Terri to the train station for their trip back to Paris.  Things went smoothly and we got them to the station in good order by 5 or so.

We will miss them, it is always nice having people filling up the house with us! 

I went back to the house and back to bed for a while till we got up and Nita, Chris, Tess and I packed into the car with every intent of touring some castles and wineries from the very south end of the wine route back to Colmar.

We drove to the small town of Thann with the intent of viewing the castle ruins there.  Unfortunately it is a bit of a hard walk to get to, so we opted for a walk about town and found one of the best cathedrals we have come across in this part of France.

A small part of the remaining bastion above Thann

Heading north, we wound our way back toward Colmar trying to find a winery or two to visit for a tasting.  Somehow we hit every damn one while it was closed for lunch.  The castles were sparse down south, so we headed back up to Colmar and the little town of Niedermorschwihr.  Again, damn near all of the cave' that were supposed to be open had locked doors.  What the hell?

Finally we found a tiny little cave' , Justin Boxler, that was open for a tasting.  Charmed by the woman running the tasting while the winemaker ran about doing whatever winemakers do all day, we purchased several cases of wines.  That should hold us for a while!

Back to the house by 3pm, we unloaded and went to pick Matt and Laura up from the train station.

The walking dead made it to the car with their luggage and we got them safely installed at the house.  After showers, wine and unwinding we took them into Old Colmar for dinner at Maison Rouge.  Again it was a nice evening out, apart from the cold rain that set in and drove us form our outdoor seating into the warm comfort of the dining room.  At one point the raid turned to large hail that we could hear from inside.  Luckily for us the rain stopped in time to guide our near dead travelers back to the house so they could crash at very last.

A busy, busy day.