Colmar – Day 1

Monday 4/29/19 – I had a great first day in Colmar. I had to take two trains to get from the Paris airport to Colmar with a connection in Strasbourg. I thought it was interesting that both trains, as we sat at the platform, had security come thru with drug sniffing dogs. Luckily they didn’t get my stash! Lol

When I came out of the Colmar train station I looked back and saw how classic it looked. I love old European train stations and included a pic. The hotel was only about a 10 minute walk from the station and seems decent (Rick Steves recommendation!). The core center of the town is only about 5 minutes from the hotel as well. I spent the afternoon walking thru the town and enjoying many of the pedestrian only streets. But before I share some of what I saw, of course I need to share some history!

Colmar is on the German border and is part of the Alsace region so it has a real German feel to it. Colmar was an economic powerhouse in the 15th thru 17th centuries due to it having privileged trading status. During that time, much of Europe was fragmented into “trading leagues”. The Hanseatic League was the largest but Colmar was part of a similar but smaller league of 10 cities called the Decapolis, which was founded in 1354.

If you were following along with my trip last Fall to Germany, this town reminds me of Rothenburg (which ironically was the first town of that trip) since it has so many half timbered houses and buildings. For the afternoon, I pretty much followed the Rick Steves walk and got to see all the highlights. There is a beautiful section of the town with lots of canals running thru it and they’ve coined it as “little Venice” (or La Petit Venise in French!). Of course I found a couple cool churches but did not get to go inside since they were closed given it was late in the day. And I loved all the narrow lanes and cobbled stone streets. So Europe! I’ve included several pics to share the quaintness.

Well that’s all for today. I’m slowing down since other than a few hours of resting my eyes on the plane, I’ve been going straight for over 30 hours. But thanks to the infamous No Jet Lag pills, I’m not exhausted. If anyone has a long plane trip coming up, go on Amazon and get yourself this wonder drug. I swear by it! Happy Monday to all!

Jeff