Haut Koenigsburg

Today, we left Colmar and went to Le Chateau Haut Koenigsburg (I think that’s how it’s spelled), the Castle Haut Koenigsburg.  Needless to say, I got very engrossed in it.

Quick history: It was first mentioned in history in around 1100 AD.  It was originally built with Romanesque architecture.  It later became a fiefdom of a larger powerful family and was renovated/updated in 1479 to handle modern artillery.  During the 30 years war, it was laid to siege and then left vacant after its capture.  In 1865, it came into Germany possession (Germany and France throughout history always vied for the Alsace region). It was given to the German Emperor William II as a gift in 1899, in remarkably good condition for the amount of time it was left to nature.  The Emperor immediately set to work rebuilding it using the most modern renovation techniques available for two purposes: create a display of german influence in the area, and preserve the remarkable property in the most consistent style of it’s original 1500’s design to be displayed as a permanent museum.  Using photographs, electric power, bellows-powered vacuums, and steam powered engines (all very cutting edge technology at the time), alongside extremely intensive scientific and archeological research with 9 continuous and expensive years of work, the german project was successfully completed with hundreds of artifacts gathered both on site and at auction.  Ironically, as part of the Treaty of Versailles (1919) at the end of World War I, Germany was forced to concede the entire castle and property to France.

Fortunately, France didn’t screw with it.

I post a few pictures of it here, but I recommend looking it up online.  It is a very impressive piece of property.

On the way home, I had a “McBaguette.” Not too bad, but I feel like there was a little more pork in the meat than one would expect to taste in America.

We got Etsy too.  She was very happy to see us!  Now, back to the grind tomorrow.

Colmar part deux

J and I decided to spend the day today in Colmar again, to rest (appropriately on a Sunday) and take a break from travel craziness.  We wandered around town, got some items here and there, and experienced some more of the cuisine.  I had a local dish called "choucrout" which literally translates to "sauerkraut."  The kicker is that it is served with some serious meat and the sauerkraut is soaked in some of the meat, taking the vinegar edge off.

We played cards...a game called gin for those who are curious.  J killed me the first time, but I won the second time.  During our second game at a different restaurant at dinner, we experienced our first encounter of rudeness toward us by the wait staff...we perceive to be due to the fact that we were American.

Before I start on this tidbit, I want it to be clear that the entire trip and experience has been great with this one small exception.  This did not spoil our trip at all.  We simply took it as a learning opportunity.

First, the vast majority of the waitstaff this entire trip that we have encountered have been women, and they have all been extremely nice.  In this particular case, the majority of the wait staff were men.  Second, we started straight off the bat with "Parlais anglais?"  While we did this with one or two other places, we did not do this often.

We first sat down, and the waiter we had spoke english quite well and did not seem to have a problem with our english-speaking request.  He asked if we were drinking or eating (a common question as many will simply sit to drink and then move on).  We said drinking and he also had no problem with this.  When we decided to stay to eat for dinner, he said that he couldn't help us because his shift was almost over, but he got a different waiter.  Again, this was not unusual because it was almost 7pm, when most places start serving dinner.  As the evening went on, our original waiter continued to serve tables, even stopped once to take another drink order from us.  For the record, the food was VERY GOOD...the best in town that we had experienced.  We were there for about an hour or an hour and a half (not unusual in France at all), and just as we had finished dinner, were immediately pressured to pay the bill.  This was very unusual in that everywhere else, the wait staff leaves you alone until you ask for the bill.  Disgusted, we promptly paid and left to explore the St. Martin Cathedral some more.

In the end, we think that first off, we didn't attempt to speak french right out of the gates and that may have rubbed the waiters the wrong way.  Second, I think that because they were guys, they took it a little more personally in that their culture was not being respected.  J was curious if we were not the clientele they wanted around.  We will truly never know, but took note to never go to that cafe again.

The distraction turned out to be a good thing.  We found a lot more sculptural details and intricasies on the St. Martin Cathedral that we had completely missed before.  Below are some of the finds...

We also discovered that there were some anti-semitic sculptures on the cathedral not posted here.  We had to "Wikipedia" them to learn about some rather disturbing sculptures we found.  You learn something new about Catholic history every day...especially in Europe.

Finally, we finished our second card game at a restaurant/cafe right outside of our little place of residence for the weekend.  It was, once again, a very nice atmosphere with a predominantly female wait staff and and very nice bilingual waitress.  The tarte flambee we had was good.  It was a good way to end the evening.

Tomorrow, we will try to visit Haut Chateau Koenigsburg and perhaps Strasbourg or Riquewihr or Ribeauville.  We can't do all of them, so we will re-assess tomorrow.  I know that the Chateau is high on our list, though.

Kaysersburg, Eguisheim, and Le Troix Chateau (or something like that)

Yesterday, J and I chose to explore Kayserburg, Eguisheim, and the Three Chateaus.

Kaysersburg was a very quaint town, very pretty buildings, a full tower with a great view, a pretty decent church, an all around very cozy feel, and a cute old couple we bought a few items from (I would love to visit their little shop again and maybe get a couple of the pocket knives they were selling).  Apparently, during WWII, the town convinced the Germans to not destroy the town's 13th century bridge.  It was worth the effort.  The town is actually very well preserved.  Below is a handful of pictures I took of the town...

This video was in a memorial cemetary in the heart of the city by the church...

We thought this dog was cool looking.  If anyone can offer what crossbreed it is, we are curious.  Sorry that the video is sideways.

Next, we went to Eguisheim.  Compared to Kayserburg, it was definitely not a happening town, but definitely had a few gems.  We found what seems to have been a memorial chapel which was very ornately decorated.  Perhaps if K-Borg reads this, he can translate the posting outside that I took a picture of.  We were also suckered into buying macaroons and chocolates in a good way...they were really good, but we only got them because we tried freebies that were literally handed to us.

This video sadly came out sideways as well...

There was also a neat church in Eguisheim with some more modern items and a few really old items.  I've got some of them here...

Finally, we visited the nearby Le Troix de Chateax ( I may have butchered that spelling, but it's supposed to be The 3 Chateaus).  It was at the begninning of the road to 5 Chateaus.  I don't think we'll be seeing any of the others on this trip.  It was an interesting ruin to visit, trying to visualize how the castle used to look like.  Sadly, the top of the railing to the top of the highest tower was closed off.  I wanted so badly to see that view.  J wouldn't let me try to break into it...:)

Colmar today

Sorry that it has been so long since my last significant post.  We finally have internet and who knew that being connected to the world can make so many things so much more difficult.

I'll only focus on items for today...

J and I are now in Colmar as part of a multi-day weekend excursion to explore the Alsace Lorraine region of France, pretty much next door to where we are in Germany.  One nice thing is that the region has been under continuous flip-flop of ownership between Germany and France, and is very frequented by Germans, so most people here are at least speak both German and French.  Many speak English as well.  We are, nevertheless, trying our best to interact in French as we can manage.

Generally spared from World War damage, much here is from the middle ages, including LOTS of half timbered houses and a cathedral built in the 1200's.  Colmar is designed to get lost in, as in the old city there is not one single straight road.  You learn how to recognize by landmarks very quickly as the streets themselves are not always labelled.  We started by imitating Rick Steve's suggested tour route.  Well, actually, we first started the day by me applying to a pretty decent job in the same area as Jill works, but then we got to exploring.

It started at...

...one of the many "places" hidden around Colmar.  They have a goofy shallow canal that runs through the middle of the town, teeming with trout, that was originally designed to help the local tanners dump their tanning chemicals.  While we have yet to see any actual tanners in the city, we saw a lot of ice cream stands (glace's) and restaurants.  It's acually quite a touristy town that, because of it's architecture, is permanently held back in the middle ages.  J described it best, "It's like visiting a modern renaissance festival, except more legit," with all of the cobblestones, half-timbered houses, very close quarters, architectural quirks due to the tight space being utilized, and the wide variety of touristy wares for sale.

Here are some of my more favorite views of the city...

This was an angle from place Tanner...

This is a back angle from Petit Venise along the canal (which was only about 6 inches to 4 feet deep)...

This was a close and prettier angle of Petit Venise...

This is a zoom in of the lower right corner of the previous shot to show how very sizeable trout were treading the water like sharks to snatch crumbs from restauranteurs...

A picture of the tower of St. Martin's Cathedral (built in the 1200's)...

The altar area inside St. Martin's Cathedral (lot's of detailed artwork inside, by the way)...

An outdoor antique sale from a lot of small time sellers.  This I found one of the more interesting items...a duck built out of sunflower seeds and some other seed...

The stork is a HUGE bird of the region...kind of like the Common Loon in Minnesota or the Bald Eagle for the US.  You see shops DEDICATED to the sale of the likeness of the bird.  Near the end of our getting lost, J spotted a nest atop the St. Martin's Cathedral with an adult and chicks in it!

Just another neat example of the half-timbered houses completely surrounding the area.  Interesting factoid: originally stone houses were a symbol of wealth; if you had a stone house you were assumed to be rich.  People built half-timbered houses and covered the wood with plaster to make them look like store and appear as a symbol of wealth.  In the early 20th century, the look of half-timbered houses was considered more appealing, so people started carving away the plaster on the houses to expose the timber.  Just so, when we looked at the half timbered houses here, the wood did not jut out from the plaster nor was it flush with the plaster.  It was about 1/2 to 1 inch within the plaster and appeared to be carved out in every since case.

An alternate view of the cathedral, with the stork's next on top...

Me enjoying my first glass of wine.  I had tasted wine before, but never liked the taste of it.  Here, I tried a few sips of J's Riesling (a specialty of the region) and liked each sip.  I find that I like to very slightly sip it.  Anything more than a sip, and I only taste alcohol.  Needless to say, it took me about 90 minutes to finish it.

I'll try to take a picture tomorrow, but there is a dog here at the place we are staying that looks just like Etsy's couterpart: collie-looking head, white, long-haired, male, totally laid back, loves attention, roughly the same size.

Oh, and for the last thing, here is a pan of the place we started our personal tour.  Hopefully, blogspot will allow me to upload this...

Sorry, the video came out sideways, but hopefully you can see what a lot of the town looks like.