A Travellerspoint blog

Anniversary in Alsace

Casual Days in Colmar

Well, we are really enjoying our time here in Colmar on our first day of exploring the town using as usual, our handy dandy Rick Steves guidebook. Well worth the money.

But to back it up a bit, after our visit to the Dominican church yesterday to see the Schongauer altarpiece, we wandered about the town. It is cool and crisp so we stopped by a cafe for deux chocolats chauds.

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Here are some late afternoon and evening pics for you:

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Our apartment is in this building, we are on the second floor but looking out the back onto a small side street.

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These are the old buildings directly across from the entrance to our building:

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We were off this morning to visit the Unterlinden Museum, a quite highly rated museum for a town of this size. On the short walk there we came across this House of Faces. If you zoom in you can see them all.

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OK, so now the museum.What I liked about it is that it has a bit of everything. From Roman times, items from different periods (Bronze age, Iron age, etc), local Colmar history, and art through the ages, all housed in a combination of an old convent and a newer wing showcasing modern art.

First stop was to see the Isenheim Alterpiece. Created between 1512-1516, it is a series of paintings on a hinged screen system of panels. For display purposes, is has been disassembled somewhat, making it easier to view. It’s displayed in the former chapel. The portrayal of Christ is particularly gruesome but was considered appropriate based on all the various plagues and skin-related sicknesses at the time, which he understood.

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Part of the original alterpiece design was this sculpture.

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We wandered through the former convent area to get to another part of the museum.

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Here are some neat old winemaking equipment items. You may not be able to tell from the photos, but the sizes of the timber for the press were huge.

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Here’s a copy of a Rembrandt that was once displayed here (it’s now at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto).

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Here’s a nice Monet sunset.

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And a wee Renoir:

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I liked this one, can’t recall who painted it but there’s just something about it…..

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We made it to the more modern art area up this cool stairway.

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And met Pablo Picasso…… well, maybe not him personally but his art yes.

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Kind of goofing looking with odd-shaped facial appendage’s, but now let me tell you about the art.

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Of course there was a lot more art that we saw but I don’t want to overwhelm this entry. We exited into nice warm sunshine and found a spot to refresh ourselves and relax.

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AND, as the title in the entry suggests, it is our wedding anniversary today! 34 years and still talking!
We celebrated by going to a neat Alsatian restaurant and had Rosti. It is a skillet-fried concoction of shredded potatoes, cheeses, meats, etc.
And some beer of course.

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The tables were closely packed and we struck up a conversation with a couple next to us. They were from Austria, but spend 1 - 2 months each year travelling around Europe. It’s quite amazing to think that only 5 -6 hours away by car you can be in a different country, with different food, cultures, etc. And the scenery can be completely different. Plus, they have also spent a lot of time in various trips to the US. I think that Europeans have a much better travel culture than us, and devote more time for that.

Also, this was one year ago that my Dad passed away. Thinking of you today Dad here in our travels.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Tomorrow we plan to just have a relaxing day in our pad here, and then we’ll be off the Paris for our final few days.

Posted by Ross Walker 07:27 Archived in France

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Comments

Today we remembered Don and Faye on this First year anniversary of his death. We remembered his adventurous and kind spirit and wished him well as he travels on with his beloved Faye.

by Beth Walker

Yes, it is very fitting to think of Don while you are traveling in this area.

Did you see any pieces from the Colmar Treasure (aka Colmar Hoard) in that museum?

by Valerie

Yes, I do recall seeing that Valerie.

by Ross Walker

I may have mentioned this before, and Valerie alluded to it but Colmar is not that far from Zweibrucken Germany where dad was in the early 1950’s.

by Scott

Ah yes, we were thinking of Dad on that day too. Sounds like you had a wonderful anniversary, including lots of good food and beer!

by Lori Walker

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