L’alsace et La Allemagne

This past weekend was an excursion planned by CEA. We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to get to the train station by 7:45.. Um..At least that was the time we were supposed to show up. We ended up arriving around 8:05. Oops! At least we only had to wait 20 minutes for the train. First stop: Strasbourg!

The train ride there only took a little over two hours. When we got there, we had a bit of free time for lunch, where Shayla and I went off to explore and ate in a restaurant. We got tarte flambees, which are like flat breads baked with a creme fraiche sauce on top. Mine had garlicy vegetables on top and Shayla opted for the pest salmon. Delicious with our demi-carafe of white wine! After lunch, we met up with the group for a walking town of the town. We saw the main square area around Notre Dame de Strasbourg and La Petite France. So adorable! Afterwards, we took a boat tour down the river. It was nice and relaxing after a day of traveling. Towards the end of the hour and a half long tour, I definitely decided it was time to take off my headphones and just simply enjoy the view. I usually like taking in all the information, but I felt at peace. I wanted to take it in.

After more free time and scoring on some goodies (i.e. Cute mister ginger bread man, cookies, and a tarte linzer… Trying the local goodies, definitely a must), we met back up with the group for dinner. To our surprise, the starter was another tarte flambee! Then the vegetarian option entree was a big plate of steamed veggies. People thought I’d be disappointed, but it’s funny at years of eating like that, even the simplest ways of using veggies makes me happy! And dessert, creme brulee! (If you know me, you know how happy I was.) I think it was slightly spiced with cinnamon because the taste sure was different..

We spent the night walking around Strasbourg after dinner. And when I say around Strasbourg, I mean ALL around. I never realized how hard it can be to find a bar in some places.. Word to the wise: Never settle with stopping in a place called Waikiki. Just turn around and go home. Shayla ordered a bloody mary. I think it was just a glass of V8, plus the “bartender” handed her the tobasco and celery salt. What talent he had! 😉

The next morning we were up early again to head off to Germany. We stopped in two towns. One was named Titisee, which was our lunch destination. Spaetzel and Apple Streusel… Yes please! This town was tiny and adorable. Apparently it’s a place that German people go to do a little outdoorsy and touristy vacation in their own country. It reminded me of a little skiing town.

We headed back on the bus to Freiburg, where we got another walking tour of the city. And also went into the cathedral, Munster. It was fun going into a cathedral outside of France because although the figurines on the cathedral used to be painted, France did not keep them up in order to show the complexities inside the sculpting. In Germany, the figurines were still painted.. I can definitely say I like unpainted better, but it was so interesting to see how they would have looked in the past! A little more exploring apart from the group, and it was time to head off to the last leg of our journey: The little village of Barr for wine tasting!

It was amazing. The wine was great. It’s fun to go to different places that specialize in different wines. Alsace typically only specializes in white wines. In fact, the one red grape Klipfel grew were Pinot Noir, yet he said they make theirs so light that it actually should be served chilled, like a white wine. My favorite of the day was the Riesling… Amazing!

Afterwards, we hopped back on the bus. A 40 drive to make it to Strasbourg for the over two hour train ride back to Paris. I am so grateful that I got to see everything I did on the short two day trip, but I have to admit, they jam packed too many locations in such a short amount of time… I wish I could have had more time to enjoy each place for everything they had to offer…