Basel, Colmar, and Strasbourg (Alsace)
Took advantage of Kevin being off for the holiday of Sant Joan and planned a trip to the Alsace region of France (and also Basel, Switzerland because it was cheap to get there). We thought this trip would be a great way to escape the heat of Barcelona summer for a few days, but little did we know, this trip would fall over a historic heat wave... Even still, this trip introduced me to some of the cutest cities I've ever visited and I'm glad we went.
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| Basel, Switzerland and the Rhine River |
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| Colmar, France |
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| Strasbourg, France |
Wednesday, June 24
After a late night (didn't get to bed until about 3:00AM) celebrating both our friend Matteo's birthday and the night of Sant Joan, getting up and making it to the airport for our 11:40 flight was a struggle. We managed to rally, took the Aerobus to the airport, and even made it in time for a big breakfast at the Sala VIP Pau Casals lounge. I tried to eat a lot, knowing we wouldn't eat lunch for awhile and that the prices in Switzerland for everything are notoriously high.
The flight to Basel was just short of 2 hours, and we barely slept, but we made it. We were greeted in Switzerland with a gust of warm air, and the reality of the hot vacation that lay ahead started to set in. Public transportation in the city of Basel is entirely free, so we easily boarded a bus to the city center and headed to our hotel, ibis Budget Basel City (although I only remember it as Budget Basel). The bus dropped us at the train station where we had the option to wait for a tram or walk 13 minutes to the hotel. Kevin suggested walking, so we took a covered walkway with views of the city, modern office buildings, train tracks, and art along the way. As soon as sweat started to bead on my back, I realized this was the wrong decision and we tried to make it to the hotel as quickly as we could.
We checked into Budget Basel and were delighted to find that this "cheap" (still 110€) room was equipped with functioning AC (a luxury in this city apparently!) and headed off to find some lunch. By this time, it was late afternoon and unlike in Spain, lunch time was basically ending instead of beginning. We walked to Markthalle Basel, one of the city's food halls and old city food market, to grab a bite.
The Markthalle building was industrial but modernized and had such a cool vibe. There were numerous stalls for restaurants, coffee shops, gelato, bars, etc. and while I thought we'd have a tough decision to make, our options were actually limited, and we landed on an Italian man's focaccia stand (one of 2-3 places that were still open). Even worse... there was no AC in the building. Luckily, I brought my foldable hand fan from Vietnam, so I whipped it out of my purse very quickly. Kevin had a nice exchange with the focaccia man in Italian (he didn't speak English and we didn't speak German), we ate our focaccia, and we got out of there.
Having not slept much, we both were excited by the idea of coffee, so we headed to a Cozy Place, a book shop/coffee shop I had flagged. Instead of walking, we opted for tram and to our absolute DELIGHT we realized that the city trams had AC (the newer ones anyway)!!! We had a comfortable ride into the old town and explored the uphill and quaint streets of Basel until we made it to Cozy Place, where our excitement plummeted the second we realized the shop had no AC. We made the decision to stay, opted for a cold Blood Orange San Pellegrino and a cinnamon roll, and tried to enjoy books and this very, very cute shop that would have been much more pleasant in temperate weather.
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| Inside Cozy Place |
Before leaving, we chatted with the baristas who were incredibly surprised that we were tourists (I guess Basel is not a big tourist destination for Americans); they gave us some local recommendations and told us that while Basel ~can~ get up to 37-39° in late summer, the current conditions were something like a 200 year high for this time of year. Lucky us. I made a quick stop at the bathroom, where the lighting made it appear that I had multiple grey hairs??? (cue a tiny crisis about getting older) and we were off to take an air-conditioned scenic tram ride around town.
On our way to the tram stop, we walked through the cute streets of old town Basel. The buildings were a mix of half-timber and classic buildings with wooden shutters and tiled roofs and there were so many fountains everywhere (200+ in the city)! The fountains spouted water safe for drinking, but we also learned that people swim in the fountains. In Basel, "brunnen gehen," which translates to "going to the fountain" refers to a local tradition of bathing or socializing in the city's public drinking fountain. This tradition evolved from the city's historic tradition of bathing in the Rhine. We took a drink of fresh, cool water, dipped our hands in, and immediately understood the appeal.
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| Photos of brunnen gehen |
We made it back to Marktplatz and boarded a tram to get "scenic" views of the city (this could also read: we boarded a tram to sit in air conditioning). The views were a little less impressive than I expected, but I was still happy to get relief from the heat nonetheless. We both struggled to stay awake, but rode to the end of the line, stopped at a cute bakery where I had a complicated English/German exchange which resulted in free samples, and we ate our almond cookie and apricot (we think) pastry on a bench before riding back.
After the tram ride, we went back up near Cozy Place to have dinner at a restaurant one of the baristas recommended, Löwenzorn. We sat on the patio (despite it being dinner time, we were still sweating!) and enjoyed a typical Swiss meal, which seemed very similar to German food, of bratwurst, pretzels, spaetzle, stewed meats, and a Swiss beer. It seemed overpriced for what we ordered, but I guess that's Switzerland! One of the best parts of the meal for us was the unlimited ice water!!! The waitress brought us an entire bottle and we finished it so quickly she refilled it without even asking. I guess this also helped justify the price for dinner lol.
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| At Löwenzorn. My left eye also had a burst vessel during this leg of the trip |
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| Along the Promenade Oberer Rheinweg |
As we were walking around, we noticed several people posted up for the Switzerland vs. Canada World Cup game and decided it could be cool to find a fun place to watch. I had seen an event posted for a city watch party at the Gare du Nord train station, which wasn't too far on the free tram, so we decided to go. When we arrived, we had no idea where the screening was, and eventually found the watch party going on in a large, un-airconditioned event room... Needless to say, we did not stay long and took the tram right back to Budget Basel, showered up, pumped up the AC, I climbed into my bunk bed (lol), and we turned in for the night.
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| Hot and stuffy fan zone... not ideal for fair weather fans |
Thursday, June 25
The room was surprisingly comfortable and dark and we both slept well! In the morning, we packed-up our backpacks and checked-out before going to Gilgen to get some typical Swiss bakery items. We got a classic nut filled croissant, sausage roll, and apple pastry. We enjoyed the pastries in the streets (good, but honestly nothing really to write home about), and wanted to grab some coffee. There was a coffee shop/rum tasting room called Kurt + Klärli on a quiet street we had passed by last night, and we decided to stop in. We ordered a single cappuccino to share ("Just one?" -the owner asked lol) and enjoyed it on the sloping street in front of the very well restored cafe. Then, we popped in and out of several shops along one of the nice shopping streets around the corner before going to yet another coffee shop, Dan's Lab Coffee. By this time, the heat was really starting to bother us (37-38º high) so we tried to keep things moving. We had a nice coffee at Dan's, then took a tram directly to lunch, where we had a pizza, and then tried to explore a park, but the heat was too unbearable.
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| Outside Town Hall |
We hopped on a tram and went back to Marktplatz to take a quick glance at the Town Hall building in the center. It was red and had really unique architecture- I wish I had gotten tickets to go inside! We did take a drink at the fountain there before walking up to Basler Münster (Basel Cathedral) to get some views of the Rhine. The views were nice, and we spent some time observing the reaction ferry again. We enjoyed as much as we could before the heat started to really bother us and we headed off to the Basel Welcome Center to try to rent a Wicklefisch. Unfortunately, they were out of rentals for the day, but we got our photo taken and printed before we left. We took the tram back to the hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and brought minimal belongings to go take a dip in the Rhine River.
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| A fun fountain at Town Hall |
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| Reaction ferry from Basel Cathedral |
We took the tram to the river and walked along the Promenade Oberer Rheinweg until we found a suitable spot to get into the water. By this time, it was early evening. Plenty of people had the same idea as us, and we set up our towels on the shore and got right into the water. Not sure exactly how cool the water was, but getting in felt AMAZING! It was the coolest we felt in several days and it was so refreshing. The water was a really clean, blue-green color, and there was a bit of current, but it was kind of fun to let myself float and paddel back a bit. Getting out of the water felt nice and we alternated between drying off in the sun and jumping back in. We observed tons of people floating by on their Wicklefisches and it was so nice to see everyone having fun, socializing, and making the most of this record heatwave. This was definitely the highlight of the trip to Basel for me!
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| Swimming/floating/"relaxing" in and by the Rhine River |
We dried off on the shore and took the tram back to Budget Basel one last time to return the towels gather our things. We took the tram (we were not walking this time lol) to the train station, bought tickets for a train to Colmar at the desk, and took our 16€ train for ~40 minutes to Colmar station. From there, the heat hit us immediately and we made the short but long walk from the train station to our hotel, Paul & Pia. Not having much of an appetite, we decided to stay in, eat some snacks, and turn in early to make tomorrow morning easier.
Friday, June 26
This morning, we woke up early to take a day trip to Riquewihr, a small town nearby that inspired the story of Beauty and the Beast! It was highly recommended online to go there and get the stereotypical Alsace village experience. Since we were looking at another record high temperature day, our plan was to take an early bus there and leave before the afternoon. We decided to go for the 7:42 bus, which meant we needed to get up even earlier to take advantage of the Paul & Pia breakfast! So, we ate a nice spread of croissants, dried fruits, yogurts, juices, etc. before we walked to the train station to catch our bus.
There were a lot of bus stops signs that were not clearly marked, so we had a confusing run around when we arrived. When we finally thought we were in the right place, another waiting passenger saw the confused looks on our faces and asked us if we needed help. We asked if the bus was going to Riquewihr, and she suggested we ask the bus driver directly. The bus driver directed us to the bus ahead of the one we were waiting for, parked at an unmarked bus stop. We were very grateful and boarded the bus with a few minutes to spare (the next bus would not have been for several more hours, so we were indeed lucky!).
The bus ride was less than half an hour, and along the way, we passed by a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty (to honor its sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who is from Colmar), lots of vineyards, little villages, and views of mountains. The bus dropped us off at the city gate, and walking through was like walking into a fairy tale. The main street was filled with half timber houses painted with vibrant colors and so much charm. Seeing that we one of the first buses to arrive, the village was basically empty (from tourists and locals!) and it was a cool way to explore the village.
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| Main street in Riquewihr |
We decided to cover as much ground as possible before it got too hot, so we explored the quiet streets one by one. The shops, cafes, and restaurants were not open yet, so we were just walking around and observing. Every corner of the small town was picturesque! The bright colors of the buildings mixed with the cobblestone roads and pockets of vineyards and the mountains in the background was really beautiful. Around 10:30, we had kinda exhausted everything there was to explore (that was open) and decided to grab coffees at a hotel we had passed called Hotel Au Cerf. They had a lovely front porch with shade and misting machines (!!!) so it was a no brainer to take a rest here. Kevin had a cappuccino and I had a cortado, and we sat and enjoyed every burst of mister and the views of vineyards between the streets. The porch was completely empty when we sat down, but it was full by the time we decided to leave. It seemed the next bus had arrived and the streets were already becoming more full!
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| My cortado + Hotel Au Cerf patio |
Some of the shops on the main street were starting to open, so we popped in and out of a few including a cave-aged cheese shop, jewelry store, ceramic store, and of course a place to buy a postcard. Once we exhausted some of the stores that were open, we decided to sit down for lunch. Some of the restaurants were closed for the day, so we ended up just selecting a restaurant that was relatively full and had decent reviews and ordered a classic "tarte flambée," an alsacean dish of thin-crust flatbread topped with créme frâiche, thin onions, and bacon, and this one also had arugula. Initially, Kevin thought we could bear to sit outside, but the restaurant had great clim and we couldn't resist. The tarte flambée was mediocre at best, but it was cool to try something regional.
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| A classic tarte flambée |
Once we finished up with lunch, we had time for one more activity, so we decided to pop into Domaine Laurence & Philippe Greiner for a wine tasting. It was a small, family owned winery operated by a set of parents and their two sons and they offered a tasting of 6 wines for 6€! It was wonderful because we got to try just enough of different varieties of wine from grapes grown right here in this town. They were best known for their Riesling, but I also really enjoyed the Pinot Blanc. I liked the drier wines, but it was also nice to try their "special occasion" wine, Gewurtztraminer, which was super sweet. I had a great experience here and felt I learned a ~little bit~ more about my wine preferences.
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| Wine tasting at Domaine Laurence & Philippe Greiner |
We finished our wine tasting and said goodbye to the cute, but now much fuller streets of Riquewihr to catch a bus back to Colmar. It was starting to get even hotter, so it was the best time to go. We caught the bus and took the short ride back and headed back to the hotel to cool off.
We decided to take a break from the outdoors and take some downtime in the hotel to read and relax. Seeing that it was probably about 38º outside, this was probably for the best. We searched for a place to eat for dinner and had reception call and make us a reservation, and when the sun got less intense, we decided to go for a stroll. At this point, we hadn't seem much of Colmar at all, so we were just wandering without any real destination (apart from dinner in a few hours).
As we explored the streets of old town, I was pleasantly surprised! I found the city to be incredibly charming. The architecture had buildings that were half-timbered, but painted in more muted, pastel colors and it felt a bit more "lived-in" than Riquewihr. The city was bustling with people in the streets and there was also an abundance of restaurants with outdoor patio seating where people were just enjoying their evenings. It just felt very lively!
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| Can't imagine how nice this would look for Christmas Markets! |
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| On Grand Rue |
We walked around, grabbed some gelato, and walked into a street fair on Grand Rue before circling back for dinner at La Galeria. We were the first ones seated, but by the time we ordered, the entire patio was full and we were glad we had called for that reservation! I ordered a Bouchée (basically a deconstructed chicken pot pie) with spaetzle and Kevin got a burger with fries. We had an amazing view of Grand Rue from the patio and enjoyed overhearing the server's commentary (A girl asked him, "Is a burger typical of this region?" to which he replied, "I think they're originally from Germany, but you can find them anywhere!")
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| Dinner at La Galeria |
After dinner, we walked towards La Petite Venisse, or the part of the old town with canals. We kinda wandered aimlessly until we stumbled upon probably one of the most picturesque spots in the city! It was bridge over a canal with beautiful half timbered buildings on either sides surrounded by greenery- it was so beautiful and I can't even imagine it during the Christmas Market in the winter. A Swedish man offered to take our picture, which led to a conversation with him on the bridge. This man (who tried to get us to follow his travels on Instagram), was taking a solo motorcycling trip from the north of France to the Alps. His bad luck meant that he was taking this trip during the peak of the heat wave (cannot imagine it with all of his protective gear :O). Anyway, we had a nice conversation with him for a few minutes before we continued our walk.
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| Petite Venisse |
Before turning back for the hotel, we wanted to see if there were any spots for us to watch the France vs. Norway World Cup game! We could hear cheering every here and there and decided to follow the sound of the crowds. Seeing the crowded patios and terraces, we figured it would be near impossible to find a seat... we were also not the most invested in the game lol... so we watched on a patio from afar and decided to head back to the hotel to rest- it had been a long day after all.
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| France vs. Norway World Cup Watch Party |
Saturday, June 27
Today was scheduled to be the hottest day of the trip at 39º or 102.2ºF (!!!) so our plan was to wake up early for another walk around town and to take a trip to the beach. We started our morning relatively early with breakfast at Paul & Pia, stuffing ourselves once again. Kevin had gotten a little concerned about losing weight during this trip so this was a good way to make back some calories. We stashed away a few snacks to take with us to the beach and then headed out for our walk.
We walked rather aimlessly into town and the only spot we actually wanted to hit was food market in Petite Venisse that we didn't stop at yesterday. We slowly made our way over there, perused the fresh foods, bought a few pastries, and continued on. Along the way, we stopped and read little historical signs we passed around town. In fact, if you follow the bronze stars and arrows on the ground throughout the town, you'll find descriptions of historical sites in Colmar! We decided to stop for a coffee and went to a rather secluded coffee shop called Mokxa Boutique. It was still decent enough to sit outside in the shade, so we grabbed a table on the patio facing the park and split a Flat White.
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| Getting some pastries to take to the beach |
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| View from the Mokxa patio |
Once we got back, we changed into our bathing suits, packed-up our room, and left our bags at check-out. On the way out the door, we grabbed a few umbrellas for the beach, thinking there was no chance we would get a spot in the shade out there. We also stopped by Pâtisserie Charles Schmitt nearby to get some quiche to eat for lunch, along with the other baked goods we had from today. Once we were loaded up, we caught a bus from Parc du Champ-de-Mars and took what felt like the longest 30 minute bus ride to Base Nautique Colmar Houssen/Colmar Plage.
Why did it feel like the longest bus ride you ask? The bus didn't have AC!! And the windows could only jar open. And it was already at least 38º out... Thus, it felt much hotter than 38º in the bus. Luckily, my hand fan was working over time and at least kept the air moving on our faces. It felt like a relief to get off the bus, but the sun was so intense that I opened one of the umbrellas for our walk to to entrance. Once we arrived at the entrance, there was a long queue, and we were both worried that they were restricting access to the beach or that the facility was at capacity. Luckily, this was not the case, and we waited in line, paid 6€ per person, and got in.
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| Colmar Plage |
The Colmar Plage is a lake that is surrounded by trees, a nice walking trail, and because it's a municipal aquatic center for the city, it was also well kept, had great facilities, including multiple volleyball courts! Volleyball was not really in the cards for today, but it didn't stop me from continuing to check back to see if anyone might be playing... One of the facilities they provided were two huge shaded pavilions. To our surprise, they space underneath was not completely full, so we grabbed the first spot we saw and situated ourselves.
After removing our sweaty clothes, sitting in the shade of the tent didn't feel bad. There was a digital thermometer on the side of the medical hut, and I could clearly see it was 38.3º when I first checked. Before settling into the spot for too long, Kevin and I ran for the water. The sand was too hot to walk on lol. The water was extremely clean and cool! It felt amazing and suddenly that horrific 30 minute bus ride was all worth it. We enjoyed feeling cool and then got out and went back to our spot. We pulled out our books and alternated between the two activities on and off, occasionally passing glances toward the volleyball court to see if they could be a chance. We took out our snacks (quiche, various croissants, pretzels, etc) and munched every now and then. Kevin got a bit more settled into the reading for awhile and I continued to dip in and out of the water.
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| Beautiful beach set up |
While walking back to our spot after taking a dip, I noticed an elderly woman on her back, knees bent, surrounded by other women helping soak her clothes in water. She was confused and difficult to arouse. I came over with my fan and immediately started fanning her face and started to try to communicate, quickly realizing that my medical background is practically useless here if I don't know French... I gestured to the medical hut, and the daughter shook her head. So, I stayed there, fanning the woman's face until she started to regain some consciousness. She was confused about why I was there (lol), but tried very hard to do things on her own. I suggested they get her to some clim, or at least I said the word "clim" haha, but I also realized that it's very possible that these people live in an apartment without clim, because many people here do!
Once she was steady enough to stand up, I got Kevin over to try to help her to her car. Kevin helped steady her for a bit while the daughter continued packing up, she then thanked us, and then left with her. With this kind of heat, it's no wonder people die! If you have no clim at home and are incapable of leaving the house or have no where to go to cool down, it definitely could be fatal.
The beach was starting to get crowded and the thermometer had surpassed 39º, both signs that we needed to go. I kept seeing everyone with some delicious looking frites, so before packing up, I insisted on getting some from the food stand- they didn't disappoint! We got out of the facility and waited for the bus with a few others. A few buses that passed by looked more modern than the one we rode to the beach, so we were hopeful that the next one could have clim. Unfortunately, when our bus arrived, we were disappointed. It was a little more crowded than the last, so Kevin and I split up. I sat and he stood in the middle. The bus was hotter than outside, and I immediately whipped my hand fan out of my bag. I didn't think fanning myself was doing too much, but then I looked over at Kevin halfway through the bus ride and I could see sweat dripping down his arm and off of his fingertips. I still had my wet swimsuit on underneath my dress, and although initially I thought that might feel uncomfortable on the bus, I think it might have actually cooled me down!
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| The frites |
Getting off the bus was one of the best feelings, because somehow 39º outside felt better than that sauna (the bus). We stood in the breeze, dusted off the towels (I wacked mine against buildings and my legs to get the sand off), and headed back to the hotel to get changed. We waited in the lobby for a bit, tried to play some foosball, and then walked over to the train station to catch the next train to Strasbourg. Unfortunately, the train was delayed by at least 30 minutes, and we were forced to wait in the station.
When the train finally arrived, we took the 30 minute trip to Strasbourg. It was fairly quick and comfortable. Our hotel, BOMA, was a 10 minute walk from the station, so we checked-in, got settled, and then picked a place to eat dinner. We chose La Fignette, and went a little early since we didn't have a reservation. It only took us a couple of minutes to get there by foot, and when we arrived, the patio was packed! Luckily, we were able to get seated at a table in the cozy alleyway. This was an Alsacean restaurant, so I decided to try my luck with another tarte flambée (holding the onions), Kevin ordered the weiner schnitzel, and we shared a glass of pinot blanc. The food came out surprisingly fast and I was actually impressed with the quality! So, we enjoyed our meal in this little alleyway, sweating a bit, but still had a good time.
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| A better tarte flambée (holding the onions) and weiner schnitzel |
After dinner, we retired for the evening so that we could clean and get rested up for another early morning of exploring.
Sunday, June 27
Neither of us had done much research on Strasbourg, so we ended up just wandering through town and playing things by ear. We started the morning relatively early (not as early as prior days), because we didn't have too much on our to-do list. We started by wandering into Place Kléber, which was virtually empty in the morning. It was a beautiful square in the center of the city. Not only was the square quiet, but most of the surrounding streets were as well. We walked up and down the streets until we arrived at Notre Dame of Strasbourg. This church dates back to the 1200s and was the world's tallest building between 1647-1874! It can be seen from most all parts of the city, but standing in front of it, you could really appreciate the height. It had the classic gothic architecture and looked like some other churches we had seen, just taller...
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| Notre Dame of Strasbourg |
We continued to walk the streets surrouding the place and Notre Dame until we started to get hungry and stopped at a bakery that seemed to be full of locals (also one of the only places open around there on an early Sunday morning). We grabbed some pastries and enjoyed them before continuing to walk around. We headed toward the outer canal by the Neudstat area, where we walked along the canal before stopping to get a coffee. On the way to get Mokxa (the same coffee we had in Colmar), we found a packed outdoor patio where people were enjoying breakfast, and we stopped there to have a little "petite dejourner" of a baguette, orange juice, and cappuccino. It was all mediocre, but the atmosphere was nice. After we finished, I saw a Vietnamese coffee shop down the street and decided to overpay for some cà phê sữa đá when I saw the barista was Vietnamese and that their Robusta coffee was from Đà Lạt! I was unfortunately disappointed, but we took the coffee to-go and slowly finished it.
From there, we kept walking around the town, taking any interesting turn. We ended up in Place de Marché Gayot, an old market square home to buildings local folklore suggests were built to accommodate dwarves and jesters, due to the low height of the doors. We walked along the river in Petite France and shared a scoop of strawberry sorbet that Kevin said might've been the best thing he had eaten this entire trip. We walked through the misting machines the city put out to help cool people down. We had lunch at a lovely Lebanese restaurant called Levanthym, where we ordered a few dishes (manoushés and mezzés) to share.
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| Kevin and a really small door |
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| Gelato with a nice view |
It was still unbearably hot outside, so in the afternoon, we took a rest in the nice hotel room. We read, watched a little bit of a French gardening redecorating show, and relaxed. For dinner, we decided to go back to La Fignette and get some different things. Dinner was just as speedy as last night, and even though we weren't quite as satisfied as we were with our choices from last night (I got a chicken salad and Kevin got stewed beef), it was still a nice dinner.
After dinner, we took a little stroll around, bought a postcard, and turned in early for the night. We had a VERY early flight the next morning (6:40) and had to take the first tram to the airport.
Monday, June 28
We rolled out of bed, grabbed our backpacks, checked-out in the dark and walked to the train station. It had rained overnight and it was almost a bit CHILLY outside... a sensation we had not felt in a very long time. Once we arrived at the train station, we could not figure out how to buy the tram tickets to the airport. We bought what we thought was the correct ticket (probably wasn't), got on the 12 minute train to the airport, and waited in what looked like plastic patio furniture before boarding our flight.
We returned home, tired, but thrilled to be home from the heat wave. Despite the incredibly high temps, it was still somehow a really enjoyable vacation for me, and I would love to go back to those cities one day... maybe for a Christmas Market :)
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