Alsace

Several months ago, we arranged to stay at Ambiance Jardin, a B&B in Diebolsheim, France, located in the heart of Alsace along the Route de Vin (wine route). Our stay was too early to see the garden in full bloom, but the house was beautiful and the perfect place to relax for a long weekend. Here are some pictures from the house...

Out in the Garden



Entrance to the guest house...

The Rose Room

This is the common area where we ate breakfast, read, and played games.

One night we ate a light dinner of local cheese, salami (for Matt), crackers, pears, strawberries, carrots and hummus while overlooking the garden.


The kitchenette


Haut Koenigsbourg: Saturday, April 4, 2009
This 'Kings' castle was built in the 12th century but went through a major renovation at the end of the 19th century. We didn't go inside the castle walls, but there was plenty to admire along the perimeter.






Riquewihr: Saturday, April 4, 2009
Riquewihr was our taste of the many small wine villiages on the Route du Vin. We bought a bottle of one of the local wine varieties (Gewurtztraminer) and walked through the cobbled alleys. This town is also known for something called Kugelhopf, described as an almond cake in one of our guidebooks. Since I love anything almond, I was really looking forward to trying this cake and had built it up in my mind to the level of a dutch letter as far as almond flavored desserts go. When we saw the first bakery advertising Kugelhopf, we bought a mini cake and took a bite...very disappointing. It tasted more like a bland bread with a barely detectable almond flavor and pieces of raisin throughout. So disappointing, in fact, that we thought perhaps we had ordered the wrong thing. So, in another shop, we purchased another small cake clearly labeled as Kugelhof. It was even worse than the first!

Watchtower with a very slight view of the vineyards that run right up to the village.

A house painted unapologetically electric blue.


The main pedestrian area


Colmar: Saturday, April 4, 2009
Our last stop for the day was Colmar, a former river port for wine merchants and purportedly one of the best preserved cities in Alsace. We enjoyed walking through the cobblestone streets and along the canals in "Little Venice." For dinner, we went to a local shop that sold hot meals to go, so we ate fish and pasta on a nearby park bench before heading back to home base for a game of Scrabble and Settlers.

Eglise Dominicaine

Tiled roof of the church


Quai de la Poissonerie in the Petite Venise area


Obernai: Sunday, April 5, 2009
Sunday was a day of relaxation for us. We we went for a morning run through the fields near our B&B and later in the afternoon headed to Obernai for touring and dinner. We ate outdoors at Halle aux Bles (a former corn hall) where Matt had ribs (more difficult to come by out here) and I had potato pancakes. On that note, this is the first place that I can remember in Europe with dried corn hanging from doorways and outside of buildings...not only is corn an agricultural crop here in Alsace, they seem proud of it...sounds like another place we know of:)

Apparent motorcycle gathering in the town center

Pretty unique well that we spotted across the street while waiting in line for ice cream

Eglise St-Pierre-et-St-Paul

We have seen several of these "vintage-esque" carousels lately; I think they're so pretty!


Strasbourg: Monday, April 6, 2009
This was the final stop on our tour of Alsace. We waited until Monday to visit Strasbourg because of the potential for protestors related to President Obama's visit following the NATO summit earlier in the weekend. By the time we arrived, there were no signs of protestors; although we did see a couple of small burned buildings on the way out of town that may have been related to the protestors.

The Cathedral Notre-Dame de Strasbourg was begun in the late 11th/early 12th century and finished in 1439. It's one of the tallest churches from medieval times.

The Place de la Republique is a lovely area consisting of a garden surrounded by the national library, theater, hotel, and monuments. We plopped down here in the grass for a while and soaked up some sun.

Standing along the quai (canal) with a view of a pont (bridge) in the background

Canal near Petite France

Carrie's Baby Shower

Today we had a baby shower for our good friend, Carrie, who is expecting her first baby in May...it's a girl!

Beginning with the invitation...

Our host Melanie preparing the food and desserts


After brunch, we played a few games:

Name that Baby! Each guest brought a picture of them as a baby and we had to figure out who was who. Someone was able to guess 7 of 9 people correctly...way to go Kirsten!

Pins and Rice- this is harder than it seems! We each had 30 seconds to find as many safety pins as possible in the rice. The most any one was able to find was 7 pins!

Price is Right $$- we all had to guess the price of several baby items

Carrie opening gifts...so many cute outfits! This is going to be one well-dressed little girl.

Melanie, Ashley and Carrie

See Melanie's blog for more pictures. Can't wait to meet the baby and hope that she arrives before I leave for our trip home. In a couple of weeks, we'll be having a shower for Melanie who is due in June. 'Tis the season for baby showers!

Paris

So we finally made it to Paris, and we brought family and a longtime friend. We are also sporting a new camera, and a friend from work let me borrow a lens, which helped us get all these great pictures (the lens is worth almost twice as much as my camera).

Eiffel Tower - this was taken right before night took over. Honestly, the Eiffel tower is more impressive than I ever would have guessed.



Our hotel was located in a great spot, with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and it was about a 10-minute walk to the Arc of Triumph. Ironically, aliens had taken over the tower and attacked the hotel, it was scary at first, but made for a great picture.


Notre Dame - the cathedral sits on the Seine River. None of us knew how to pronounce Seine - I thought "sign," Ashley and Chris thought "zane," and TJ didn't have an opinion.













This is a picture of one of the two large stained glass windows that flank each side of the cathedral.


The Arc de Triomphe - is located at the convergance of 10 major roads known as Place Charles de Gualle, one of the roads being the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. It was built to commorate Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. Like the Eiffel Tower, it is enormous.


The Louvre - the glass pyramid was added in 1988 and it does not belong (if I may be so bold). Palais du Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the 1100's, so naturally it makes sense to add a random glass pyramid - the 80's weren't a good year for art apparently.


Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss - located in the Louvre. I thought this was the most impressive piece in the whole museum.

Mona Lisa - apparently the fellow that painted this knew all of Christianity's secrets, then he wrote a book about them and made a lot of money. The painting is more colorful than most pictures give it justice. It is protected by glass, which is why you can see me taking the picture in the bottom of the reflection.


Aphrodite of Milos (Venus de Milo) - this is probably the most well known Greek sculpture. Created in roughly 100 BC. It is not displayed in a particularly great part of the museum, as all angles leave doorways, windows or bright lights in the frame - especially if you want to see the front of the statue.


Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike of Samothrace) - this was a striking sculpture, as it was displayed at the top of a very large staircase, imposing itself over the surroundings. Probably created in the 3rd century BC. The details of the wings are very impressive.


Creepy Babies Montage - the Italian Renessaince was not a good time in history for painting babies. Holy crap they are scary. I think the last one is a body-builder, yikes.





TJ likeness - it's always nice when family can come out and see us. We were very happy to have him and to be able to take him to Paris with us. Not too many people have seen both Rome and Paris before they are 21, well done sir.


Chris is Sasquatch


Chris is Teapot - the benefit of carrying the camera all day is that you can catch people in funny poses. Chris was a good sport, and by that I mean he's a goof. I am so glad he came out to see us.


Paintings - frankly I could fill this with 50 amazing pictures of famous paintings, instead we chose three. We took these pictures in multiple museums.

Bedroom in Arles - Vincent van Gogh, the d'Orsay. Van Gogh's paintings are incredible in person.


Water Lilies - Claude Monet, the Orangerie Museum. There are eight paintings in this series, each one the size of a wall. The museum displays four paintings in 2 large oval-shapped rooms. This picture is just a snippet of one of the paintings.


Le Village -Chaim Soutine, the Orangerie.


Moulin Rouge - located in the Red Light district. I have no idea why there is a giant windmill on the roof.