COVID Hasn't Changed Switzlerand. . .It's Still Expensive!

When planning this trip, once Colmar became a "must go to" town, the question was, where do we fly back home from?  At 5.5 hours drive, Paris was way too far.  It had to be an airport with a direct flight to Washington Dulles.  Munich is nearly a five hours drive.  And, of course, the longer the drive, the more stops needed.  Frankfurt is a mere 3.5 hours drive, so that was a possibility.  

But Zurich is just a two hour drive.  And then I saw that Basel, halfway in between, has acclaimed Christmas markets.  I immediately booked two economy plus seats for Carol and Julia, and used points to book an economy plus seat for me.

We had lunch in Colmar and headed back to the car.  The drive from Colmar to Basel was pretty stress free, until we had to cross the border and pay the Swiss road tax (vignette) which is approximately $45 USD.  Actually, even that was stress-free, as the Swiss are particularly pleasant whilst separating you from your money.  Pretty much the rest of the time the Swiss don't care about you, unless you are tracking dirt around.

(For a place that has so many mountains, trails, etc. it is surprisingly clean.  If you make a mess, unlike Singapore the Swiss don't imprison you, they just glare.  I know from experience as a college student in 1984 during my three days in country.)

My brother Rod, when I walked him through the itinerary before the trip, went silent for a moment after I mentioned Basel.  (A moment is as long as Rod can be silent for -- between my storytelling older brother Rick and my gregarious younger brother Rod, it's no wonder I don't talk much!).  Then he noted he spent some time in Basel for work and said, "it's not that interesting a city."  

(Honestly, he's kind of right, although we were going partly for the Christmas markets and partly since it was a way station on the way to Zurich.  In hindsight, I probably should have booked just one night in Basel, but we only really had one day there, as we got there mid afternoon.)

The challenge with the apartment I had rented in Basel is that it is located in the no pedestrian zone.  Which means there was no easy way to get our bags to the apartment and find parking.  The good news is, Waze took us to the closest spot for Julia and Carol to lug our bags to the apartment.  I had pulled off the main road (I was blocking the tram) and checked the five parking lots our landlord for the two nights suggested.  The first four were over one mile away.  The last one she had listed, which I resignedly checked, was only 0.3 miles away.  

In all, once I parked, it was only 0.6 miles from the apartment, albeit straight down hill, including several long flights of stairs.  Dragging the luggage back up the steep hill would not be fun.  The apartment turned out to be a good size.  Being in the pedestrian zone is great, as most everything we wanted was only a short walk away, including the markets, most historical buildings, the place we were getting our return home COVID test, and plenty of bars and restaurants.

With the car, it was park it and forget it.  Parked Monday afternoon and picked it up early Wednesday.  After a brief rest in the apartment, we headed off to the Barfusserplatz market.  Not as impressive as Strasbourg or Colmar, it was still a nice market to wander around.

For dinner I got a cheese dog roll -- a roll with a long whole from the top down into it.  They poured melted cheese and sprinkled hot dog pieces on top.  I felt like I was dining on a meal from a county fair in the country.  

For the life of me, I'm surprised I didn't take any photos of the market at night.

Here's Some Random Photos In Colmar

Gnome life

Gnome life redux

Little Italy in Colmar

More half-timbered houses.

Look how decorated the shutters are!

Christmas market scene.

Elaborately decorated market stall.

Penguins and polar bears together

never actually happen, as one is Antarctica

and the other is Arctic.

Colmarians (Colmarites? Colmaricans?)

like their bears, be it teddy or polar.

An Interesting Collection of Art

The renowned Unterlinden Museum in Colmar is in a 13th Century convent, and has been extended into public baths that were built in 1906.  After paying to enter, you then go into the cloister.  It's not as impressive as cloisters in Portugal or Spain, but there is no such thing as a bad cloister (unless there is, and send me any nominations you have).

The prize of the collection is the Isenheim Altarpiece, which is in the chapel, constructed from 1262 to 1269.  The Altarpiece, done by famed German Renaissance painter Matthais Grunewald (yeah, I've never heard of him either), is quite striking.  Painted from 1512-1516, here's more on it from Wikipedia:

It is Grünewald's largest work, and is regarded as his masterpiece. It was painted for the Monastery of St. Anthony in Issenheim near Colmar, which specialized in hospital work. The Antonine monks of the monastery were noted for their care of plague sufferers as well as their treatment of skin diseases, such as ergotism. The image of the crucified Christ is pitted with plague-type sores, showing patients that Jesus understood and shared their afflictions. The veracity of the work's depictions of medical conditions was unusual in the history of European art.

The altarpiece in the chapel.

Bottom right of the altarpiece

Left flank of the altarpiece

There was lots of other interesting art, including a Monet.  The Picasso was out on loan, sort of like a European soccer team will loan player to another team in another country.  

(Editor's Note: Is this some grand "soccer is art" analogy?  Are you channeling Ted Lasso?

Writer: No.  And no, but I do highly recommend the show to the five people who haven't watched it.)

Here's some other pictures of some of the art that struck me as interesting:

If you don't remember what happened to John

the Baptist, now you have been reminded.

The devil going in?  The devil

escaping? From a distance I first

thought she was throwing up

because of John the Baptist,

but closer examination leads

me to believe it's the devil.

Different painting but the

donkey is NOT impressed.

Rainbow angel wings.

Anyhow, we walked through miles of corridors, mostly below ground, until I got that slightly stupefying feeling that I had spent too long in an art museum.  That feeling is, of course, compounded by wearing a mask and breathing in my own recycled air.  Oh, I can do it for a bit, but after a while the stale air is too much.  So we emerged and walked to lunch.

House of Heads

Not as interesting as the Chapel of Bones in Evora, Portugal, the House of Heads is pretty nifty in its own right.  While not quite Talking Heads (Editor's Note: Stop Making Sense), the house was built in 1609 for shopkeeper Anton Burger.

The house features 106 heads or masks on the outside.  Here are some of them:

The level of detail is quite impressive.

The whole front facade.

His hair was perfect! (I know, the

lyric is not from the Talking Heads,

but it works with the picture).

Not a person, so I'm not lion.

My favorite face on the facade.

Surely you jest(er).  I'm not kidding,

and don't call me Shirley!

Maison Pfister Is French For "Amazing House"

Built in 1537 for the hatter Ludwig Scherer, the Maison Pfister house looks like something Anton Gaudi would have dreamed up if he lived 350 years earlier.  Mr. Scherer made his wealth via money trading in the Val de Liepvre.  I have no idea what that means.  It's a nearby commune with a monastery, which doesn't clear up how one gets a fortune engaging in that commerce.

Oh well.  From a website:

"Despite its medieval features, the house is the first example of architectural renaissance in Colmar. With its two-storey corner oriel, its wood gallery, its octagonal turret and its mural paintings which represent biblical and secular scenes, the Pfister house became one of the symbols of the old Colmar. It owns its name to the family who restored it and lived there from 1841 to 1892."

Not the Pfister house.

Part of the Pfister house.

A good look at the Pfister house.

Not the Pfister house, but great

Christmas decorations over

a Colmar canal.

Polars!

The Old Koifhus Isn't The Old Coffeehouse, Even If You Think It Should Be

Since we had spent the previous afternoon walking around the Colmar Christmas markets, I decided we needed to be a bit more sightseeing tourists rather than just Christmas market tourists, so I pulled out the single sheet of Colmar "To-do's" that I put together before the trip.

(I do a list for each town, all on separate pages.  It works well -- we don't hit everything on the list, but it gives us an idea of what we should check out.  I first did it for our month in Barcelona, and have been doing it since.)

Editor's Note: There you go again, bringing up your fabulous month-long stay in Barcelona.  Show-off!  Writer: Yup, guilty as charged.

Now, since we were wandering through town looking for specific buildings, it did not preclude us from going through the Christmas markets.  We sure did wander through markets.

Our first stop was the Koifhus, the Old Customs House, a Gothic building completed in 1480.  It's also called the Ancienne Douane (there won't be a test).

A beautiful building, there was even an indoor market in the main hall, as well as an outdoor market around the fountain in the square on the east side.  (Editor's Note: I don't think the readers care whether the market is on the east, west, north, or south side of the building!  Writer: Of course they do, my readers are smarter than the average bear!)

Decoration outside the Customs House

A view of the roof tiles.

Close-up of roof tiles.

Another part of the roof tiles.

The balcony, decorated.

The fountain statue outside

the customs house.

The very cool east side of the customs house.

West side, story.

Inside the market.  Not sure

the gingerbread house is for

sale, but I do wonder what

it would cost!

There's no place like gnome.

Christmas Markets Trip Riffs

 We didn’t stay at any hotels this trip, it was all apartments rented on either VRBO or Booking.com.  (I still call it V-R-B-O rather than their rebranded “Ver-BO”. . .old school!).  One weird thing is that, with one exception (Basel), none of the six apartments we stayed in had napkins or paper towels.  Is this a COVID supply chain problem?  Or just fear that napkins and paper towels will be taken?  Anyhow, very weird to use toilet paper for napkins.  

But it might start a new trend?  Not all new trends are good, so toilet paper as napkins doesn't need to be the next hot thing.

(Friends, next time we’re over for dinner, there had better NOT be toilet paper on the table instead of napkins!  I expect cloth napkins after this trip!)

This was our second Christmas markets trip.  The first was in 2019.  For a long time, I resisted, thinking who wants to go to Europe in the wintertime, with very little light and lots of rain, snow, and cold.  It’s really wonderful.  Contact me (or Carol) if you want to ruminate on it for a future trip.

In 2019, we mostly did big cities. . .Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg (not a big city, but larger than Rothenburg, Esslingen, and Colmar), and Munich.  We did a couple of village trips, which wet my appetite for more of the small towns.  This trip, Stuttgart would have been the largest city we went to, but we never actually went into it, as the markets were cancelled. 

Of the cities that had markets, in alphabetical order, my favorites have been Colmar, Salzburg, Strasbourg, and Vienna.

Even with the German markets closed where we were, we still got five nights of Christmas markets in, which is plenty.  Interestingly, a couple of products we loved two years ago were nowhere to be found. . .is this a COVID supply chain issue, or are those projects just available in the Central European markets and not so much in Western European markets.  No idea.

I believe Tom Hale is the best walking tour guide we’ve ever had.  His enthusiasm and approach to guiding is perfect.  Hire him if you are going to Esslingen.

We ended up taking “only” four COVID tests.  Given that we had three tests by three days into the trip, four isn’t bad.  Two were free, and two, plus the COVID passport, were not.  Definitely expensive add-ons.

Happy to share our trip itinerary and “to-do’s” for each city/town, just shoot me an email.  Now let’s get this latest surge over with, so we can get back to Europe!

In Germany, we had a couple days with a few hours of snow flurries.  There was also some dusting of snow up the castle mountain when we went to Haut-Koenigsburg south of Strasbourg.  There was more rain and clouds than sun, but really, as long as you are prepared for the weather, it's not bad.

Petit France, Strasbourg

Carol took this picture, and I forgot to include it in the Strasbourg portion of the blog. . .so here you go.  Too good to be left out of the blog. 

A Good Afternoon In Colmar

 We then wandered the streets of Colmar, taking in the sights, the lights, the houses, and the markets.

I know, it's like the 900th picture of an

incredible, magnificent half-timbered 

house.  These houses are the Portuguese

blue tiles of this trip.

Cool sign.  Of course, ANY sign that 

says "Charcuterie" is cool.  This one just

happens to be at the top of the scale.

Christmas market scene.

Hangin' out...down the street.
The same old thing...we did last week.
Not a thing to do but talk to you.
Not a thing to do out in the street....oh yeah.

Love this color. . .not sure why.

Guess because it is unique.

We also visited the

Saint Matthieu Church,

built as a Dominican church

by the Franciscans.  Yeah,

I don't understand it either.

The rood screen is the main

attraction, although I

can't find any additional

details about it on-line.

Just trust me that it is famous.

Madonna of the Rose Bower!

(I showed it to Carol and she 

remembered the name).

A Protestant church since the late 1500s, the

church has superb acoustics and is used

for concerts and an annual international

music festival of the kind which

 Carol would enjoy and I would doze off

(so we would both be happy).

Half-timbered houses at dusk.

(Editor's Note: Wow, great caption,

without your help, readers wouldn't know!

Writer: Hey!  You! Knock it off!)

Carol and I decided to head back to the apartment to rest a bit before dinner.  Julia stayed down and did more shopping at the Christmas markets, wandered the town, and got a drink at a bar.  She enjoyed the alone time and we enjoyed the rest.

Little Venice, Colmar

To get back to the apartment, we had to wait quite a while for what turned out to be the only Uber driver working at that time.  Having been driving in the area since getting married and having a baby four years ago, this was the first time he had been on the road we were staying on.  He half-joked about being nervous driving down the pitch-black road with no buildings at some points.  

To meet Julia for our 7:30 dinner, we drove back into town, figuring parking would be easier.  And it probably was.  The first place we parked was on a sidewalk.  A policeman came along and nicely told us to move it.  So we did, and found a legal, free spot another 20 yards down the road.  Twenty yards may not sound like much, but when you are Giants fan these days like I am, trust me, 20 yards seems like a mile, he writes bitterly.

We walked across the bridge at Little Venice, and didn't have to go far to meet Julia outside La Maison Rouge -- a classic French restaurant that was delicious.  I just found out today that it is a Michelin Guide restaurant.  (Michelin "Guide" doesn't mean the same as Michelin Star, but it still signifies you are going to have a damn good meal. . .and we did).  Carol had the salmon, and Julia and I each had the veal.  Quite good. 

I even ordered a bottle of local Riesling that was quite good.  Not sure what to order, I picked an Emilie Beyer so I could text a picture of the label to our good friend Emily Bayer, noting that she was just two letters away from being rich and French!

After dinner, we drove the easy 1.2 miles back to the apartment to get ready for most of one day in Colmar, and then a drive to Basel, Switzerland.