Colmar

We found an inexpensive Comfort Inn in Colmar from Orbitz.com. We spent Saturday morning enjoying that city. I’d already noticed that villages in Alsace are so picturesque, they look like they were created for Disneyland. There’s even an official route in Alsace called “Route des Potiers et des Villages Pittoresques” (Route of Potters and Picturesque Villages). I want to go back and travel that route some day, since I can’t imagine villages any more picturesque than the ones we went through. Even Colmar, big enough to be called a city, has a picturesque Old Town (Vielle Ville) section.

I shouldn’t forget to mention that for dinner Friday night, Timothy had tartes flamblées (called Flammkuchen here in Germany), and Steve and I had Quiche Lorraine. The next day, we had crêpes for lunch, so we enjoyed the regional specialties.

Our first stop Saturday morning was the Musée d’Unterlinden, famous for its Renaissance masterpiece, the Issenheim Altarpiece. This museum was an amazing place for such a small city. It had a rich collection of medieval works, and an audio guide in English, so we could hear about the symbolism that such paintings are so full of. The museum is in a former convent, and they put the striking Issenheim Altarpiece in the former chapel, a fitting and beautiful setting for a powerful piece.

The altarpiece has three sets of doors that open up to give four different views, used on different church holidays. In the closed position is a painting of the Crucifixion. The artist, Mathias Grünewald, used disproportionately large and contorted hands to show Jesus’ suffering. Other views showed the annunciation to Mary and Jesus’ ascension into heaven. We had seen a little picture of the altarpiece ahead of time, and it simply doesn’t do justice to the power of the piece seen in the museum.

The rest of the museum had a wide variety of works, from Greek and Roman artifacts to modern pieces, including a painting by Picasso and one by Monet. The courtyard of the museum had bright red ivy crawling up the walls. A beautiful place.

We spent the rest of the morning wandering around Colmar. We tried to go to the “Museum of Toys and Little Trains,” but it was closed for lunch by the time we got there. Anyway, we enjoyed the shops and bought some tea and a couple of mugs. I kept snapping pictures of the half-timbered houses.