June 10, 1997
After all the travel yesterday it was nice to sleep in a bit before breakfast. Our hotel is located on the highway just outside Colmar so we really did not have an opportunity to experience the town last night. By 9:00 a.m. we had finished breakfast and were leaving the hotel for the short drive to Colmar.
As it turned out, Colmar is a nice little town- more German than French. All the houses are half-timbered with white stucco/stone walls. Lisa, our tour guide, took us on a walking tour of the town center. I got the feeling that she had never visited Colmar and was trying to show us the “guide book” descriptions of town. This was well and good for about thirty minutes, but after that the kids became restless and were ready to venture off on their own.
Finally, we split up and decided meet back at the bus after lunch. Charlotte and I wandered the cobbled streets, visited several fabric stores and dress shops, and decided on a spot for lunch. We chose an outside table and ordered a crepe filled with beef, onion, cheese, and potatoes…yummy! Then to top it off, we had a crepe filled with sorbet, raspberries, strawberries, an assortment of other fruits, and loaded with whipped cream. This was amazing!
We got back on the bus and everyone was on time! Guess my chat did some good. While planning this tour I had insisted on traveling the “wine route” that traverses small towns and vineyards just southwest of Colmar. This too was uncharted territory for both the driver and our guide. But we made the most of it! The countryside was dotted with little wine producing farms each with its own domain and producer. We kept seeing these great bird’s nests all over the place. Soon we discovered that storks were known to nest in this region. This got everyone on the bus on the lookout for nests in the crooks and crannies of steeples, silos, and towers.