One thing I love about living here...the Christmas markets. Admittedly, they are best at night when all the lights are on, but day or night they are just kind of happy places (depending on which one you go to). Anyway, my friend Rosemary (of military history tour fame) has some friends that are visiting from the States, and the train has a great deal that 5 people can travel on one ticket (for a good price too), so she was kind enough to allow me to go along (Thank you Rosemary, and Dorothy, Lisa, and Nadine). Originally the plan was to go to Strasbourg, France for the Christmas market...and it was a great plan.
It was a great plan until realizing the other day that the Strasbourg market didn't start this weekend. Don't get me wrong, I love Strasbourg; it is a beautiful city, but when the idea is to go to a beautiful Christmas market but it isn't open yet, you have to find a plan B. Luckily, not far from Strasbourg, Colmar was having theirs starting this weekend...so Rosemary did her bahnhof magic and viola, we had a connection to Colmar from Strasbourg.
Before I go any further, I just want to mention that Rosemary's friends are really lovely people...and are from Michigan, so they are fighting irish fans...NOT, but they are University of Michigan fans...that was just for Brittnee's benefit.
So we get into Colmar and start to follow the signs to the Marches de Noel (Christmas Market); we come across this park that is decorated and we see a stand...yay, we found it...NOT! But the ice skating rink was there, and our first cup of vin blance chaud (I know I am forgetting a word in there)...gluhwein by another name...in English, hot wine (yum!). Nicely warmed by our wine we make our way along the streets, when all of a sudden we find some stalls. So below are the pictures from our adventure...but I will tell you a little more about the true story of our Colmar Christmas Market trip after the pictures.
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| genius...pretzels on the christmas tree |
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| First stop...gluhwein, I mean Vin Chaud...I mean hot wine! |
Lovely new people I got to meet today: Dorothy, Lisa, and Nadine.
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| Another brilliant thing...they took clear plastic ornaments (you know, the kind like at Joann's or Michael's that you can fill with whatever) and put cookies in the them for the ornament...Macaroon Ornaments...sweet and fun. |
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| Loved the black trees |
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| How funny...visitors from Michigan and what do we find? Le Michigan Cafe |
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| Chestnuts roasting... |
Now that you have seen a little of the Christmas market in Colmar, you have to understand that we thought we had found the Christmas market when we found some stalls...no, not really, the real market is spread out and all the really good stuff we kind of missed because we were trying to find our way back to the train station :( So long story short, you could easily spend a few days in Colmar especially when it is Marches de Noel time.
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