Wednesday, April 6th is our last day in Lyon. I wanted to be sure to see some traboules, covered and sometimes secret passageways between parallel streets. Most are not accessible to the public, but there are still a few in Vieux Lyon where we are staying. We went through two, then went to the meeting point for a walking tour we had scheduled. Guess where we went on the tour? Yep, we went through a couple of traboules! They were used by silk workers to keep the silk dry while going from one stage of silk making to another. They were also used by the Resistance during WWII, which we focused on today.

After the walking tour we took a funicular to the Roman ruins. The Roman’s arrived here in approximately 43 AD and Lyon became one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. Unfortunately the museum was closed.

Next stop, the Centre D’Histoire De La Résistance Et La Deportation, or the Resistance and Deportation Museum. The displays were in French, but they gave us information to review in English and some of the audio interviews had an English option for subtitles. I can read a bit of French, so I probably got a bit more out of it, but I think we both learned something. During WWII the Resistance used the traboules to evade the Nazi’s during their planning.

On Monday, April 4th we kept busy. when we arrived on Sunday we had gone to the tourist information office and purchased Lyon City cards that included free admission to many sites and reduced fees for others, and free transportation. On Mondays many things are closed here, but the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine Art Museum) was open so we went there. We arrived when they opened and it wasn’t crowded. Eventually a few school groups arrived and it got much louder. They had everything from Egyptian artifacts, decorative arts, sculptures to fine paintings, including 4 from my favorite artist.

After spending a few hours there we walked back to our area and decided to go back to the apartment to rest our feet. We have been doing a lot of walking and my plantar fasciitis was really bothering me. As we were crossing the bridge a man asked us in a combination of French and English if we would mind taking a picture of him with the Palais de Justice in the backdrop. When we told him yes he was relieved to hear we were American. We asked where he lived and he said Italy. It turns out he is in the Navy and is stationed in Naples, but before that he was in Sacramento. After learning we live there he had questions about the housing market going crazy, etc. It’s a small world.

After a short rest we took the funicular up to Notre-Dame de Fourviére. We have been in many impressive cathedrals and although a bit smaller than the biggies we felt it was equally worth going to. I especially liked the stained glass windows and the massive mosaic murals on the walls. Another bonus of going there were the incredible views of Lyon.

Our last activity of the day was a river cruise tour that took us north, then south to the confluence between the Saône and Rhône rivers. The architecture near the confluence was very…interesting…

We arrived in Lyon yesterday, April 3rd, after a 3.5 hour train ride from Colmar. We took a taxi to our new home away from home in Vieux-Lyon ( Old Lyon), the oldest part of the city. The apartment is on Rue Saint-Jean, a pedestrian street in the heart of the old town, and it’s directly behind the Palais de Justice, just one block from the Saône River. The apartment is everything one could ask for. Jim and I agreed that we could live here. We wandered a bit and I took a few pictures.

Saturday, April 2, we woke up to snow. I took a video, but I can’t post it here. I wasn’t quite awake and neglected to take a photo. Oh well. It was snowing or a rain snow mix all day. The high temperature of 34 degrees felt like 24 degrees with the wind chill. it was really cold with the wind blowing in our faces.

After stopping at the covered market for a pain au chocolat to get us going, we went to the Unterlinden Museum. It was very interesting and varied, with a combination of religious art, classic art, decorative arts and old artifacts. I didn’t take photos inside.

After having a delicious lunch we wandered around the area near our apartment. In my opinion it’s the most scenic area I’ve seen of Colmar.

Friday, April 1 and it started snowing this evening. No fooling. The forecast says it will snow at least the next 24 hours. I guess we will see if that’s true.

With another cold and wet day ahead of us we decided to take advantage of the car and drive to the Musee National de l’automobile in Mulhouse. It’s the largest automobile museum in the world. The Schlumpf brothers collected over 450 cars. It was interesting to see that the earliest motor vehicles were made to look like wagons and trains.

After spending a few hours at the museum we went to the very attractive town of Eguisheim. I’m sure there are a lot of tourists that come here, but today we saw very few people. I couldn’t decide which houses I liked the best, so I’ll post a lot. How many storks and nests do you see? We saw a lot today, including in fields while driving to Mulhouse. I read that centuries ago the houses were painted in much more subdued colors. They started getting a bit more color in the 19th & 20th centuries and in this century people have become more bold. We saw a sampling of the wine villages. Maybe some day we will be back.

After we got back to Colmar we returned the rental car. I hadn’t driven a manual since 2014, but I impressed myself by not stalling even once. You can see how narrow the streets are in the photos, but for me the most nerve wracking part was the underground garage at our apartment. There were some really tight turns to navigate. Tomorrow we will see more of Colmar on foot.

We rented a car for 2 days so we could see more of the area. It’s difficult and not very efficient to do it with public transportation. This is the only car we plan to have on our trip. Today we began by driving to the furthest point to see Château du Haut- Koenigsbourg in the Vosges Mountains. It was raining as we began the drive north. As we climbed up the small and winding mountain road the mist turned to fog. We finally reached the Château at the top. We parked the car and searched for the entrance until we were stopped by security. The château was closed. What? Will it be open tomorrow. Nope. Maybe next week. They couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell us why. We couldn’t even take pictures of the view from there because it was too foggy.

Okay, time to go see some villages. First up we went to Ribeauvillé. It was raining but we walked around town.

Then we tried Riquewihr. The machine at the parking lot wouldn’t complete the transaction and give us a ticket. Oh well…. Next up, Kayserberg…a more colorful village.

Our final stop was in Turckheim, to visit the winery Étienne recommended. I did a little tasting and bought a few bottles of wine. At this point we were pretty wet and ready to call it a day. Back to Colmar we went.

On Wednesday, March 30 we had until mid-afternoon in Strasbourg. We started the day with a very nice breakfast at our hotel, then we stored our bags there. We decided to do a boat tour with a company called Batorama. For an hour we were taken on the waterways through Petite France and to the area where the European Parliament meets 12 times per year. I wasn’t able to get good pictures on the boat because of the glare from the windows. Throughout the boat ride we listened to commentary about the history of Strasbourg and the things we were seeing. I had known that the Alsace region had gone back and forth between being French and German, but hearing the details was very interesting, especially pertaining to World War II. At that time when Germany had taken over the area they renamed all the French streets to German names. The street signs now show the French name, with the German name below it. We seen more of that throughout the region. Of course there was a lot more going on than that.

We later took the train to Colmar, where we will spend 4 nights. We picked up a rental car at the train station. I haven’t driven a stick shift since 2014. I was pleasantly surprised when it came right back to me, like riding a bike. We met our Airbnb host at the apartment we will be staying in. Étienne was very nice and thankfully his English is better than my French. He showed us around the apartment and explained everything before walking us around the neighborhood to point out restaurants he recommended and other things of interest. He lives in one of the smaller villages and suggested we go to a winery (Cave) there to do some tasting. After he left we went to dinner at one of his recommendations and had flammkuchen, a regional specialty. It’s a bit like a flat bread pizza without tomato sauce. I neglected to take a picture, so we may have to go back again. Then it was back to the apartment to do some laundry and go to bed.

Monday, March 29 we took the train to Strasbourg, France. I l-o-v-e France!! Everything that was wrong with the hotel in Cologne became a distant memory after we checked into the new hotel, where we sadly only had one night. The interesting thing was that the hotel in Cologne was more expensive. Here they upgraded our room and it was altogether a more comfortable place to be. It also was close to the train station for our short stay. We were allowed to check in early, then we set off to see Strasbourg. We meandered through the streets and made our way to the very impressive cathedral. Inside we found a lot of stained glass, which I love, an astronomical clock, mosaic tile on the floors, and more.

After leaving the cathedral area we went to Petite France. It was fun exploring the canals and seeing where they went.

Monday, March 28 was our last day in Belgium. After cramming what had arrived there in 3 cars into 2 cars, it was time to make our way back to Cologne. On the way back we stopped off in the little town of Monschau, Germany. We strolled through the town and enjoyed what time we had left together.

Covid inspired nutcrackers.

We said our goodbyes in Cologne and Sascha dropped us off at the hotel for our last night in Germany. I chose it because is was a very short walk to the train station. Let’s just say that the location and the man at the desk were the only things to recommend it. I could elaborate, but why? It was just a place to spend the night.

On Saturday, March 26 we went to le château de Franchimont near the village of Sassor. It was constructed in the 11th century. We weren’t allowed to go in because they were closed for the season, but we were able to walk around the outside.

After we finished there we went into Spa. Since the kids were with us we didn’t do much besides walk around and have an ice cream, but we might go back.