<![CDATA[

Colmar, France

We were a little sad to leave Lauterbrunnen today, we could have easily spent another day relaxing in the clear air, sunshine, and flowers with the sound of crashing water and tinkling bells from the livestock. Could have even taken some yodelling lessons ….

So packed and issued with tickets by a most efficient young man at the station we departed for Colmar, in the Alsace region of France. As the train began its journey our eyes remained fixed on the quintessential Swiss scenery trying to savour every last bit of our great experience.

We had three train changes and crossed three country’s borders – Switzerland, Germany and France. We also travelled on three train lines; the Swiss local, German ICE, and then French intercity. The German is even more precise than the Swiss and it was funny to hear them announce that they were arriving at a particular station ‘on time’ – clearly an important detail LOL.

Out of the Berner Oberland – alp region the land in Switzerland is quite flat and remained very tidy with a good blend of agricultural, horticultural and clean industrial. On the French side it was fairly flat with a few gentle hills and more evidence of grape growing.

The Alsace region is of interest to me as I understand that some of my Omi’s (grandmother on mothers side) ancestors came from there. It is a region of France that historically has also been part of Germany and it has a definite blend of the two cultures. Interestingly there is a town called Pfaffenheim near Colmar which has part of my mothers maiden name – on my Grandfathers side – Pfaff. I wonder what this means and perhaps if there are some roots here as well for that side of the family?

Colmar is renowned for its artist Batholdi who made the Statue of Liberty for America, and also a lot of other work locally in France. There is some fantastic art in its museums, rare storks, excellent wine, and the most Michellen rated restaurants in France. Of course the fact that the cuisine is meant to be very good had not escaped my notice in the holiday planning. Another point of interest is that it avoided any damage in the war so is one of the best preserved towns with a progression of buildings from the 13th century onwards.

We only booked our accommodation last night and hadn’t heard back from the hostess by checkout time so we hoped to log on at a cafe as soon as we arrived around 3pm. We tried at the station where they had a sticker for wifi but when it did not work I was told – no we no have. Great then why do you advertise free wifi???

So then we went to the info centre in the station that said wifi on the tourist map – no they do not have it, but if we walked to town to the info centre there, they did. Great – it was hot – probably 25 degrees and we were packed like mules and in medium weight clothes – long pants etc. We set off and about 30 minutes later, sweating we got to the main info and guess what – no wifi but got redirected to a pub across the way who did.

Fine, bought another drink, tried the password and no luck. I was ready to pack a paddy by then, so Vern asked the host for help checking the password and got handed to the son, who tried about 16 times but it would not work. Blood pressure rising as I am sure the mother gave us the wrong password on purpose so we went back to the info centre to ask if they could possibly allow us to log on.

The lady there was nice and had heard of the B&amp;B as it was on their recommended list. In stilted English she expalined that internet was not possible. We explained that we had bought two lots of drinks at a ‘bar’ which stated free wifi if you bought something and not been able to access it, and had no where to sleep and could she please ring? Wee, relief.

To speed up the story our room was safe and Leslie had sent us an SMS and email. I checked my phone and found it was turned off. It had gone flat and we had charged it, but it did not turn itself on. Point here is that if I had got the text – the B&amp;B was 2 minutes from train and we would have saved about 2 hours lugging bags in the heat!

Nevermind, we texted Leslie back and said we would have dinner since we were in town and see her at 7pm. We got a simple dinner in a cafe with WIFI (which actually worked) and google mapped the B&amp;B. Our walk back took 20 minutes this time in still very warm pleasant weather. Dinner was nice too – a steak with cream sauce and tasty french fries and Vern had pork hock which was ok – nice ‘pub’ food.

Our B&amp;B is run by an ex pat American lady from San Fransisco and her French husband Phillipe. The home is three story and built in 1905. Its comfy and full of character and creaks and wobbles but we are very happy with the accommodation and the town’s vibe (despite wifi dramas) and have decided to extend our booking from 2 nights to 4 as there is quite a bit to see around here and cost wise its pretty good.

Thoughts on our brief time in Switzerland – it is the most florific (is there such a word – lots of flowers?) country we have been in so far. The people are very helpful and efficient and speak excellent English much like the Dutch. Probably very similar characteristics between the two.The country is very scenic and they seem to utilise and manage their resources very well. It does not have the overcrowding apparent in Italy or Spain. There were no beggers, or those pesky immigrant sellers either in the places we visited. It is expensive whichever way you look at it which is a downside, but perhaps it is a clever ploy to keep out the riff raff? So yes, a super place to visit for a short time unless you have relatives there or a good bank balance.

]]>