Week 83 flew by as it was the last week of school for the kids and Matt.
We got an early snow storm during the week. We woke up Wednesday morning to four inches of snow. In true German fashion, all of our neighbors had shoveled the sidewalks in front of their houses by 7am. Yes, I was reminded by many people that this is the law here, but it is just so surprising that everyone follows the rules, even in the dark, and especially since most of our neighbors are elderly.
We continued to get ice and snow everyday and the temperatures stayed less than 20F degrees so the base and schools had delayed openings Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which is super rare here.
Saturday morning, we took Brooklyn to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof at 4:30am to catch the train to Berlin with her Girl Scout troop. Matt and I came back home and slept a little longer, then we headed to Alsace for a quick weekend away with Ryan.
We’ve been to Alsace before, but never for the Christmas Markets and I was super excited to see the decorations and have some Vin Chaud, France’s version of glühwein.
Our first stop was Riquewihr, a smaller village on the Alsace Wine Route that was one of the inspirations for Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast. It had been super cold for a few days and at this point was down in the teens and super foggy. We drove in past miles and miles of vineyards, but almost couldn’t see them due to the fog. The village was packed and it took us about 45 minutes and lots of circling to find parking. Eventually we found a spot to park on the outskirts of town in a field. It was all worth it though!
The town is surrounded by a medevial wall with lots of towers. Once inside the walls, all of the streets are made of cobblestones, and no cars are allowed. The buildings are all half-timbered in the French style and every building was decorated to the max. We stopped at some food stalls for snacks and then found a restaurant for lunch.
We were surprised when we opened the door to the restaurant, that we were looking down into an old wine cellar full of tables. Once we were sat, we had Alsatian wine, in the tiny glasses it is served in. For lunch we had French onion soup, and Alsatian burgers, which is an almost raw burger with Muenster cheese. It was all so good!
After lunch we walked the rest of the town and did some shopping at the tiny Christmas market.
After Riquwihr, we headed to Cora, France’s version of a Sam’s Club and stocked up on lots of French wine.
Next we headed to Colmar, which is a larger town/smaller city. We walked the whole thing, and did lots of shopping and eating. It was so cold, Matt even stopped and bought new snow boots. The decorations were so beautiful though. Somehow the French manage to decorate every inch of the outside of buildings without it looking tacky, or like Clark Griswald’s house. We were treated to a few snow showers which made it even cuter.
Finally, we made our way back to Strasbourg, the capital city of Alsace, where we were staying. For dinner, we made sure to get Pitaya, a fast food Thai chain, that Ryan loves.
Sunday, we slept in a little then went out into Strasbourg for breakfast, which of course was just a croissant and cappuccino.
After breakfast, we walked a long route through the city’s Christmas markets. Even the food at the markets is gourmet; fois gras, raclette, and roasted duck were just some of the things we saw. Poor Ryan and his super sense of smell really suffered because it smelled so strong of Raclette everywhere. If you’ve never smelled Raclette before, I would describe it as a cross between feet and dirty laundry. Sadly, there were almost no ceramic mugs to be had the whole weekend as almost everywhere was serving vin chaud out of plastic cups. I read somewhere online that many markets just ran out of mugs early this year. For many markets, it was the first time they had been held in three years so many people were visiting them and then also keeping the mug instead of returning them for the deposits back.
Despite the cold, it was such a good weekend. This is one of the areas that I LOVE to visit and could come back to over and over. I think our moods all lift every time we cross the river into France. Lucky for us, it’s only an hour away from home.
We got home just in time to pick up Slinky and Daisy, who had their own vacation this weekend. The stayed with their friends, Tobi and Paisley.
Gilcrests Abroad 