France - Colmer & Strasbourg (★★★★☆)
On the prior day I had headed down to Switzerland to visit Rochers de Naye and Lake Geneva - and today I was heading up from Switzerland, stopping over in Colmar, before heading on to Strasbourg where I would stay for the night.
These three days were a bit of a meander through Europe to get a bit of an idea of where is worth spending more time - and today I was heading up towards Strasbourg - with the idea that it would be easy to return home the following day as the city is on the fast train lines back to Paris.
Colmar
My first stop of the day was Colmar - and the stop I had been led to believe would be the most interesting of the day. The train up was lovely - heading out along the edge of Lake Geneva, with the funny sight of all the commuters working away at their computers as we headed along one of the most scenic train routes in Europe.
From here it was on through tunnels heading up from Basel as the train sought to make quick work of the distance, before setting me down at Colmar train station.
Colmar (like Strasbourg) sits in the Rhine valley as it cuts up between two hillier regions either side, and sits within France, but very close to the German border.
From the train station it is a short walk to Vieux Colmar - or Colmar Old Town - and this is a very touristy, picture box part of town, that maybe feels like it has gone slightly too far down the tourism route. Indeed it has a touch of Duloc from Shrek about it... "Duloc is, Duloc is, Duloc is a perfect place!".
Personally I didn't vibe too much with Colmar and it was one of the few spots where my lack of French became an issue as I tried to order some bread from the shop - but you do get some cracking photos while wandering round the old town.
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| Picture perfect Colmar |
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| Second shot of Colmar |
The pictures are undoubtedly excellent, but it is very busy and for many of these I had to find little gaps in the throngs of people to get photos - and so it was that ahead of schedule, although still after a good few of miles of wandering, I headed back to the train station, to head on to Strasbourg.
Strasbourg also offered more of a chance of a walk rather than just a wander - and my plan was to head on a loop of the canals around the centre of town - but also to also branch off to the North East as far as that branch could carry me without my getting bored - and without ending up in the Rhine.
The highlights of this walk came primarily within that loop of canal in the centre of the town, where you once again get a similar old style of building as in Colmar, but with a lot more peace and quiet.
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| On the canals in Strasbourg |
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| A particularly pretty building on the canal |
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| Continuing along the canal |
Normally I have a better idea of where I was and where all the sights were, but the whole stretch of the canal all looks quite similar - being all in this old picture-box style, and so it is only further round on the canal where I can truly differentiate one sight from another.
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| Round by Notre-Dam Cathedral (I did not visit the cathedral, but should go back and do it one day) |
But really, I just enjoyed wandering around quite aimlessly and taking it all in. Further round I also headed off track to see Palais du Rhin - a former imperial palace in the German quarter of Strasbourg, which provided a home for the last German Emperor - Kaiser Wilhelm II - when he was in Strasbourg.
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| Palais du Rhin |
From here I headed on up one of the canals further North and East, but without this offering the same level of visual interest and eventually I turned back and headed back along the other loop of the canal to the one I had used to head out, cutting back past Palais du Rhin on the way.
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