A European Adventure: 19th - 24th April

Friday 21 April 

Stumbling upon a flea market!

We all had a good night's sleep and after a breakfast of coffee and crumpets, we showered, dressed and set out to explore Colmar. I needed a break from driving today and it was heaven to stroll through the beautiful town and discover what it had to offer.

Last night we'd decided to visit the Unterlinden Museum, and then have lunch in the Little Venice quarter, by the river. Within minutes of leaving the apartment, we stumbled on a flea market taking place in the streets leading to the museum. There were stalls selling French antiques, jewellery and bric á brac, and lots of people browsing what was on offer. Sophie spotted some beautiful Alsace glasses:

It was a gorgeous morning with clear blue skies and sunshine, so perfect for strolling about, admiring the buildings and soaking up the atmosphere. Near the museum, Sophie spotted a stall selling rings and bought one for her thumb! She has now run out of fingers!

Storks everywhere!

No shortage of restaurants and bars!

A tourist train was sitting waiting for passengers to take them on a tour of the town and to show them the highlights. We contemplated taking this after our museum visit but decided to walk around instead as it was such a lovely day.

Museum Unterlinden is situated in a 13th-century convent and the inside of the building is almost as lovely as the exhibits. It houses the Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald, which seems to be very famous, but I had never heard of it, I must confess. Sophie paid for us to go in and we wandered around looking at mainly religious artefacts from the 15th and 16th centuries. Some of the paintings were gruesome and I was fascinated by all of it!

Exterior of the building

Cloisters

There were countless pictures describing the life of Jesus and many, many pictures of Mary and Jesus as a baby. I found it fascinating looking at the faces in the paintings, some of which were horrible! I suppose these paintings helped to tell the story of Jesus, his birth and death and resurrection, to people who couldn't read. The amount of detail was astonishing and we kept seeing paintings of George slaying the Dragon and our English flag.

Halfway through our visit, Sophie managed to get a good wifi signal and bought tickets for us both to see John Mayer next March at the O2 in London. We were both thrilled! She knew they were going on sale today, and she was delighted to have got them so quickly!

I will get tickets!

We wandered the halls for a couple of hours looking at more modern art on the upper floors, and then decided to have a coffee. The café was empty and when we enquired about having a drink we were told they weren't serving anything yet. Oh well! Before we left, we visited the shop and Sophie bought a stork Christmas decoration, so that will be a welcome addition to our Scandinavian tree!

From the museum, we headed for the old town and looked out for restaurants to eat at this evening. We saw a couple of possibilities and one that was hugely expensive! The prices in most restaurants were roughly the same - starters from 8 to 15 euros, main courses in the high teens and early twenties, and bottles of wine for about 20-30 euros. With the exchange rate as it is, it wasn't cheap!

More storks and random watering cans

This part of Colmar was busy, with tourists doing exactly the same as us - wandering about, looking in shops, scouting out restaurants and having a beer in one of the numerous bars dotted about. There were lots of shops specialising in the local wine as well as local delicacies. It was heaven!

Sophie and I came across a Christmas shop and just had to go in! It was stuffed to the gunnels with every kind of decoration you could think of and they had a gonk for sale, but it was 25 euros!

We were following signs for Little Venice, and the route there was beautiful. Around each corner, another gorgeous view came into sight full of old buildings, some of which looked ancient.

Think the date 1419 is on this building

I love the look of this restaurant!

We soon arrived at the covered market and the river Lauch. All along the railings by the river, people had attached red love heart padlocks:

Covered market

There were so many of them attached to the railings! I had never seen this before and it was great to look at all the inscriptions on the padlocks.

Flambéed!

We were spoilt for choice of restaurants in this area, and OK, it was a bit of a tourist trap, but it was so lovely to see people sitting out by the river and enjoying the sunshine, in such a beautiful town. Our plan had been to have lunch here, so that's what we did! However, we were looking forward to eating out this evening so we didn't want a full meal, and a "Tart Flambé" was just what we were looking for!

We found it at La Krutenau, a restaurant right on the river, where you can take a flat-bottomed boat ride. We were seated in a little annexe of the restaurant on wicker chairs. First up was a beer, and both Sophie and I had a Fischer Réserve Ambrée, which was delicious!

Yum!

Keith had the local blonde beer and we ordered two flambés to share. The annexe gradually filled up with hungry diners and it was pure bliss to sit and relax with a drink. That is until a bird pooped on me! Apparently, it's good luck!

The flambés were delicious and did the job perfectly!

Paper plates, no washing up!

The meal was delicious and after we'd eaten, Sophie decided to have a glass of Riesling. I had another Fischer as I'd enjoyed it so much. Sophie's wine was served in one of her favourite glasses!

Interior of restaurant

Sophie and I decided to share a portion of apple strudel with cream and then, reluctantly, it was time to move on. We saw two boats leave the mooring point with passengers. One of them had an Alsatian (dog) on board who seemed to love looking at the water! This area reminded me strongly of Bruges, with the river, the houses and the boats on the river.

They are certainly big on Easter here!

Wandering back to the apartment, we came across a lovely shop where Sophie bought two Alsace glasses and we found another selling wine, beer, spirits and food delicacies. We had a good look at the wines and bought three to take home. Keith bought some beer:

It had clouded over a bit now, and we saw some spots of rain. Sophie saw a lovely Indian/Nepalese shop and bought an exquisite pair of earrings while Keith and I sheltered outside. People were still eating, drinking and milling about and we hoped that in the evening it would be quieter.

No room at the inn...

Back at the apartment, we relaxed and then ventured out at 7pm for dinner. A couple of weeks ago I'd researched a promising restaurant called La Petite Alsace, and it wasn't far from where we were so I suggested that, but another looked equally good called Le Fer Rouge, which was in the heart of the old town. We decided to try Le Fer Rouge and walking there we spotted more Easter decorations; I had no idea they celebrate Easter so seriously here in France - or maybe it's just this region? Our hope that the streets would be quieter was a forlorn one... it still seemed just as busy and although it was only just past 7pm, the restaurants looked full.

The only tables free at Le Fer Rouge were outside and as it was a grey, chilly evening we decided to try somewhere else. We'd spotted a restaurant called La Pergola earlier in the day and made our way there, but that was also full. We tried several more eateries and were asked the same question at every one: had we made a reservation? Er, no, we hadn't! Some of the restaurants had loads of tables free but they were obviously earmarked for later in the evening. We started to feel desperate!

We walked back in the direction of the apartment to two restaurants we'd seen earlier in the day. We asked at one of them called Aux Armes de Colmar and initially, the waiter said they were full. What a surprise! However, just as we were leaving, he called us back and said he could fit us in. He led us to a little lean-to and seated us at a high table with bar stools. It wasn't ideal but beggars certainly can't be choosers!

To be honest, we were all disappointed and I was kicking myself for not reserving a restaurant earlier in the day when we were walking about the town. I honestly thought a lot of visitors were day-trippers, but it seemed not! We were all alone in the shabby little lean-to with no view whatsoever!

We waited and waited, and nobody came to give us a menu or asked if we wanted a drink. We could hear people arriving in the main restaurant and could just about see drinks orders going out to diners, but nobody came near us at all. I hated the high bar stool and felt like I was going to fall off it, but we felt we had no choice but to stay. That was until after about fifteen minutes when we still hadn't been given a menu or seen any member of staff!

That was it for me, so I said we should leave and see if we could find somewhere else! We had bread at home and could always make toast for dinner! Keith and Sophie followed me out and we received bemused looks from the staff... outside, Sophie realised she'd left her coat behind so poor Keith had to go and retrieve it!

By now, we were all thoroughly fed up and walked towards the museum we'd v visited earlier in the day. We weren't far from La Petite Alsace so we decided to try there. Amazingly, we were welcomed in and shown to a table by the window. Success! Why hadn't we just come straight here?

We perused the menu and Sophie and I decided to share the twelve snails to start (18 euros). Keith just went straight for the main course of steak, along with Sophie, and I chose the veal in a mushroom sauce. The restaurant was lovely and cosy with red everywhere and several other diners were enjoying the lovely ambience.

The wine list was extremely limited, and Sophie and I chose an Alsace Pinot Noir, which was a staggering 33 euros for the bottle. When the waiter delivered it to the table Sophie recognised it as the wine we'd bought in the Aldi in Tressange a couple of days ago, for 4 euros! Hmmm!

To be honest, we didn't have a lot of choice! It was either eating here or toast! Our starter arrived with a basket of bread and we tucked in. Both of us had eaten snails before, so we knew what to expect and used the implements to wrinkle them out of their shells... They were lovely but you can really only taste the garlic butter they were served in! The French couple at the next table looked on with amusement, and asked if we'd had them before!

Our main courses were delicious and the meals were served with the ubiquitous French fries. Sophie and I decided we couldn't resist a dessert and just had to try the chocolate fondant to see if it oozed... and it did! It was sublime!

The restaurant had emptied out by now and it was great to sit and relax after our meal and Sophie and I had a glass of Alsace Schnapps flavoured with raspberry.  We were so relieved we'd found somewhere to eat and enjoyed the meal but the bill was a whopping 178 euros, rounded up to 190 with a tip. It certainly wasn't cheap and our only gripe was the high price of the wine. I hate to think of their markup!

We walked back to the apartment along mostly deserted streets and relaxed for a short while before it was time for bed!