Weekend in Alsace

Woke up mad early on Friday to get to the bus at 7h15. We were on time. The bus was late. We drove for 2.5 hours, had a stop in some crazy chicken place (Brest) and then got back on the road for another 3 hours. We arrived in Colmar around 13h30 (we were supposed to be there at 12h), where we met Doug (former president of the BULA...I think I mentioned him earlier) who is teaching there. We had half an hour for lunch and then went on a little tour of the town. I don't really know what was so special about it. Apparently there is a big Christmas market, which was just being set up when we were there. Oh, and also the guy who built the Statue of Liberty is from there. Very exciting. I can never remember his name. B-something.

There were a bunch of old buildings and there was a really nice cathedral. It was a pretty cute town. And then we went to a museum to see a "famous" retable. What is a retable? Wikipedia says: "an architectural feature set up at the back of an altar, and generally taking the form of a screen framing a picture, carved or sculptured work in wood or stone". It was very strange, and I wasn't a huge fan. But whatever. Culture, I suppose. Also, no one had heard of it, so we were all kind of wondering just how famous it actually was. I mean, if even Anna and Andrew hadn't heard of it...

We then jumped on the bus and headed off to a little village where we stopped to look at a winery. It was a lot smaller than I expected and there were flies everywhere, but it smelled delicious. I did swallow a bug, which was not fun. And then two landed in my wine glass, which was also not pleasant. But the wine was really really good. They specialized in white wines and it was just rather fantastic.

By the time we left, it was dark. We headed out for the last hour and a half of the bus ride to Strasbourg. When we got there, we had 10 minutes to find our hotel rooms and freshen up before meeting downstairs for dinner. We walked for what seemed like ages, but was actually only probably 20 minutes. Julia and I were chatting, following Patrice and then all of a sudden he brought us around a corner and we both stopped in surprise/shock/awe. Towering above us was the cathedral. It came out of nowhere. And at night it was terribly impressive. I tried to take a picture, but the night setting on my camera is absolute crap. But after that, we were like, "wow, Strasbourg is alright."

This opinion was reinforced by the excellent dinner we (finally) had in the Brasserie. We sat in the basement of what was basically a bar. Monica and I were once again stuck at the not-cool table (i.e. with the adults), but this time we had Sam, Clare and Geoffrey so it was alright. Also Patrice (our academic advisor/history professor) got a little tipsy, which was hysterical. We ate flammekueche, which is basically an Alsacian pizza. It's dough with cheese, ham and onions. Sauerkraut is optional, but strongly recommended. Some of us do not LIKE pickled cabbage however, and chose to be lame and not uber Alsacian. Some of us also do not like beer, and so were not souped about the endless amount of pitchers. This brasserie was an all-you-can-eat place, so the food and drink just kept coming.

And there was a band! It was great. They played American music (good American music!) and we all sang along. It was so much fun.

Then the group of young people next to us clambored onto their table, chanted "un...deux...trois!" and all snorted coke. Clearly inspired, the band burst (2 minutes later, I kid you not) into a rousing rendition of Eric Clapton's Cocaine.


When the band got off to take a half-hour break, we decided to head back to the hotel. There we got into our pjs and Clare, Geoffrey and Julia came over for some cookies and story-telling. It was fun.

I then--best part of the trip!--took a shower for HALF AN HOUR. With SCALDING water. I washed my hair twice, just so I could stay in there longer. It was amazing (if it seems bizarre to you that I am all excited about this, you should know that the French are very water-concious and so showering chez nous is not really encouraged, especially if you're using hot water).

The next day (Saturday) we headed out for a boat tour on the Ill, a river which runs through the city. It was cool and the buildings were gorgeous, but I can't really remember anything of interest that was said, except that Mozart once performed in Strasbourg and that the European Parliament is currently housed there.

After the boat tour, we went inside the cathedral and looked at this mad sweet mechanical clock. At 12:30 different parts of the clock started to move. The creepy figure of death started ringing his bell and then the apostles all moved past Jesus to receive their blessings. It was just really cool, I thought.


We then had some free time, so we went to the market, where Geoffrey tasted some cheese and bought this pear yogurt, and we found a kebab place to eat. Nothing very exciting, I'm afraid.

Then we walked back to the bus and headed home. For 7 hours. Death.

Sunday we slept relatively late, and then ate a delicious raclette for lunch with the family. After eating so much, we didn't really feel like moving, but we were taken country dancing with Christine and Christine! It was so much fun, but it was ridiculous. I have never seen so many cowboy hats in my life! And there was an American flag hanging on the wall and, oh, it was just nuts. Unfortunately, everyone already knew all the steps, so I was lost 95% of the time. Sam, however, is an amazing dancer, and caught on really really fast. I took a video. Muwhaha...

I hope you noticed Christine's fabulous outfit. Just in case you didn't catch it, here you go:
I have tons more pictures of the weekend in Alsace! You can find them here and here.