Europe Christmas 2009: Day Six in France’s train stations
January 3, 2010
Oh Day six, you were not quite what we were hoping for but you worked out well anyway.
Last night before going to bed, Chris and I checked the weather and knew there was a fair chance we’d get rained on today. And, since we only brought one dinky umbrella and it didn’t even fully cover the two of us, we knew lots of rain was going to put a bit of a damper on our plans… especially if lugging luggage was going to be involved at all!
To counter this we decided to wake up a little later (we’ve been setting the alarm for like 7AM) and have a very leisurely breakfast downstairs again. Taking my time, I had like three glasses of coffee… which seemed a good idea at the time but proved to be less than intelligent when I had to pee every five minutes for the next few hours.
After all that, though, we packed up our stuff, Chris made a quick map of Colmar, and then we left our luggage at the front desk so we could make a quick trip to the Notre Dame cathedral in Strasburg and a Christmas market to pick up Chris’ mom’s Christmas present before heading to Colmar.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
On the way to the cathedral guess what we saw? We were walking across one of the canals and we spotted what looked like either a mini-capybara or giant-ass rat! The funny this is – I thought it was “oh so cute” down there in the water nibbling away until all of a sudden it turned and I saw its tail. A RAT TAIL! A giant nasty gross fat rattail!!!! I don’t know what it is but somewhere deep down in my very essence it says “rat tail = gross nasty little beast!!”
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
After much Googling I think I’ve figured out what the thing way… I think it wasn’t a rat but a coypu. Look at the pictures and you tell me what you think!
Anyway, after that little fiasco Chris and I hit the cathedral. Turns out you don’t have to pay to go inside… you just have to pay if you want to stay around lunch time and watch this video they’ve made about their clock. Chris and I passed on the video but had a good time walking around the church. Well… actually… Chris had a good time while I felt sort of creeped out. Basically this church was made in large part by the church, among other things, reinstituting indulgences. So in other words, the church decided to make shit up, scare the crap out of people, and then get lots of money to finish their project because of it. So much of the architecture you see in Europe could be stuck in the book “The really fancy stuff you can make by using religion as a justification for taking lots of money.” Perhaps I was just feeling pessimistic but for some reason all that particularly bothered me at this cathedral. Though I will say it was very beautiful.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
After that we stopped by a Christmas market to pick up Chris’ mom’s Christmas gift (I’m not telling what it is!) and then went back, got our stuff, and headed for the train station.
The rest of the entry isn’t so interesting. Basically we got to Colmar, found out they didn’t have luggage storage at the train station, and since it was pouring out, decided we’d just hang around the train station for 6 hours until our train to Paris.
To help the time pass we went to what turned out to be a very tasty restaurant at the train station. I ordered this “salad” that was, I guess, technically a salad in that there were green leaves on the plate… but really that was just garnish for all the other crazy stuff that came with it – onion tart, quiche, lots of meats, and some cheese. Chris got this ultra decadent pasta in this uber cream with pesto and cheese that was then all covered and with fresh prosciutto. So delicious.
Chris and I just sat there talking and talking and eating and eating for about three to three and a half hours. And while there are probably more exciting things we could have been doing, just sitting there with a bottle of wine, lots of good food, and good company was a really lovely way to pass the afternoon as the rain poured outside.
Eventually though, the rain cleared up and I talked Chris into taking a quick run out to “cute” Colmar… even though it meant we had to lug our luggage.
Chris agreed and it was a good thing we did – the walk was really pretty (sort of had this more suburban Paris meets Disney haunted mansion meets gothic New Orleans mansion vibe) and Christmas-market-Colmar was totally adorable!
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
We walked through quickly, got a little treat (a delicious cup of cider and a big heart cookie that tasted like lavender infused shortbread), and headed back to the train station.
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| From Europe 2009 Day 6 |
From there it was smooth sailing back to Paris.
So a much slower day than we were anticipating but great nonetheless!
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