Hotel Vaillant Selestat

We had spent a pleasant morning visiting Christmas Market in the greater Colmar area in the Alsace region of France. One town more pleasant than the next all decked out with lights and tinsle. In general we had a good day and the people were helpful and frendly.

Sadly our day was marred by the unpleasant service I and 3 other ladies received today at the Restaurant Wistub zum Pfifferhüs in Ribeauville. 3 of 4 persons each chose meals from the menu, the 4th person, a ...

I started the week in Geneva because of work. During my weekly Skype call with my parents, they mentioned my brother would be leaving for Paris the next morning. Nice of him to tell me! I called him but couldn't get a hold of him, so tried again in the morning. By the time I was awake on Monday, he was in bed for the night, but luckily he woke up and answered the phone. He told me he had a free day on Wednesday with no plans so this would be a good day for us to ...

... Strasbourg when he invented the printing press around 1440, and this invention led to the Gutenberg Bible, which is one of the first books ever printed.

The famous cathedral in Strasbourg is massive and impressive for its size alone. Add in the fact that it survived so many wars, and its pinkish façade seems even more impressive. We walked around inside and out and saw the enormous astronomical clock that was built in the 1500s while chomping ...

Hablar de Estrasburgo es hablar de la Gran Isla en la que se asienta su centro histórico, abrazada por el rio Ill, afluente del Rhin. Es uno de los cascos medievales mejor conservados de Europa y su catedral es una de las mas altas del mundo. La recorrimos en barco por sus canales y paseamos por el barrio de la Petite France, el mas pinturesco de Estrasburgo y el que tiene mas canales.

I had planned to visit Strasbourg on three separate dates in the past, all with the same friend. Each time we had to postpone it for one reason or another. Today our plan finally came together. We got in a car with our men and drove out to Strasbourg. My friend is even more organized than me and had everyone download audio guides from Zevisit in our own native language beforehand. Once we got to the city we started our audio tour in ...

We caught the wrong train and wound up in Gengenbach. While we were waiting for a train back we met a lady who told us the town had a beautiful old-town section. So we went discovering again. After a good look around we stopped at a pub while we were waiting for the next train and got talking to the owner. Turns out he'd been to Australia on holiday, so we had a good time talking to him until it was time to go.

This was what I really came to Europe for. Freiburg was just the beginning of an awesome adventure for me. The mountains and the forest and the cake. We caught a cable car up to the top of the mountain and wandered in the snow. Got some great photos. We made Freiburg our base and toured a fair bit around the region. Spent a night here and there and came back to Freiburg for the festival. Took about two hundred photos in two hours one day; they had a ...

... blockade
-all the tolls (~30E one way)
epic excursion to the Zenith (highway, pointy fence, cow ****)
Queens of the Stone Age at the Zenith
-missed 2/3 of their 1.5 hour set
-small venue
tucked in by 12 (sneaking in through the window of the hotel due to max 2 per room)

After Saarbrucken I was entering the Alsace region of France. The Rhine runs through the middle with farm land next to it, then the famous wineries and the mountains. Ideal cycling if you can keep to the valley. I followed the Brier River for most of the morning on a cycle track. Very flat and relaxing, followed by a little climbing to reach Savern, near Stasbourg. I took Sunday off and checked out the local petanque scene ...

... visit - although I was the driver so they really had no choice =) But still, I think they were happy we stopped. Two interesting things...I was happy to see that the city offers public bus service to the cemetery. It's nice to know that the city does all it can to encourage and lessen the burden of visiting this important site. I also thought it was interesting that the cemetery offers 'clean' stones for those wanting to place stones on the graves of Jewish soldiers since 'dirty ...