We started the day in Umkirch near Freiberg.  We finished there yesterday because that's where we found a hotel with two available rooms.  It was nothing exceptional, but it served our purposes well.

We then got moving sharply so we could get lots of wine tasting done, and we did.

We got to Turkheim in time for lunch, after we had done some damage to the local wine inventory.  We had to cover a lot of ground, and we took our time since we didn't really know where we were going and the country side was beautiful.  Eventually we decided to start in Colmar, and then explore the surrounding towns.

It must be understood that this area of France was really a part of Germany before WWII.  And the people used to speak Alsatian, which is much closer to German than French to my ear.  Thus the character of the place is like Germany, but with much better food.  The elderly Alsatians complain that their children can understand the old language, but can't speak it.  Apparently the French schools don't permit it's use, and only teach French, so it's becoming a lost language.  

We drove north and east to cross back into France and then on to the wine country.  Crossing the border was a non-event.  And the views of the Rhine river were great as we sped through farm country.

We immediately headed for the Unterlinden museum in Colmar since it has some great pictures of what people in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries thought hell looked like.  Very imaginative, and made me think this might be where Maurice Sendak got his inspiration for his drawings of monsters.

In the first picture Mick is trying to explain, somewhat graphically, what one of these monsters might be like, or maybe the extraordinarily gory images of Christ in the museum.  She did make me laugh a good bit.

The second picture is the museum itself.

The middle ages were not a time of great joy.  In fact, from looking at the images from that period, it was pretty grim.  And then came the Black Plague, and it was really hell on earth.  Well somehow, maybe due to the really big wine presses seen here, this church kept it's sense of humor.  

The second picture is for the Resurrection of the Roast Chickens.  I kept the wall tag in the picture so you wouldn't think I was just making this up.  And if you look at the picture itself, you'll see the roast chickens in the fireplace and a few flying away at the top of the frame.  I think this is Dave Barry quality stuff, but I'm a little sophomoric by nature..

The town of Colmar is really pretty.  It is composed of lots of the types of buildings shown in the first frame.  And the main church is pretty spectacular too, as seen in the adjoining frames.  The church wasn't as patched as the previous one we visited, but it definitely showed signs of wear from the wars.

The town also has a unique feature in that there are little canals running along all the streets of the old city.  I assume these were the sewer system in years gone by.  But the sound of running water, the profusion of fountains, and the visual appeal of the running water give this town a special feature that makes it memorable.  

This is how we would typically figure out where we were going.  The same method would be used in the car, but then the map would be in the lap of who ever was in the front seat.  But that never stopped the people in the back seat from "helping".  As the driver I was exempt from this activity, but got my share of grief when I passed the various turns that were "obviously marked" because I was going "way to freakin' fast", so they said..

We picnicked in Turkheim since nothing was open anyway.  We caught the tail end of the farmers market.  We got some real pear juice, a bunch of great cheeses, some sausage, a bunch of olives of various types and we got some local wine of course.  Then we headed to the river to eat, drink, and wait for the wineries to open for tasting again.

You might notice a theme here.  And it would be the Stork.  Yes, Storks are native to the area, and they do live on the chimney tops.  And I have no idea if they really deliver babies or not.  But a bunch of my female friends have ganged up on me with the complete encouragement of my wife to get me to have a kid.  So, to my dear Charlene, et. al., and you know who you are...  

Turkheim loves it Storks, as do all the towns in this area.  And they have a bunch of kitschy stuffed storks that can be found all over the place.  And now one can be found in Caroline's backpack.

We were at lunch and the Stork showed up in the river where we had our picnic.  And then a stuffed stork was hanging, literally, at one of the wineries.  Caroline may have been feeling the motherly urge, or possibly just the wine, and offered a prayer to the god of Storks to get her pregnant.

To top it all off, Caroline bought one of the little stuffed buggers and then proceeded to seduce me during one of our Siestas.  That is what they're for aren't they?  :-)

Well, nothing's happened yet (thank god), and I'm still watching the pill card to see they are still being used.  I'm not ready to end all this fun just yet..

We made it to a bunch of wineries.  But this one made my list for most interesting of the day.  To start it off, the owner has an Ouvert sign outside, which means open.  And the door is locked.  It took him a few minutes to show up after we rang the bell, which a very small tag instructed us to do.

The gentleman that greeted us looked to be around 75 or so, and took us to a room where he pulled out a list.  Then Mickey noticed the refrigerator had a note on it that instructed him to write the dates on the bottles.  Presumably this was for the date the bottle was opened.  We checked out bottles, and the closest one was three weeks old.  That meant that he hadn't poured a taste of that wine in several weeks. 

The final part that really amused me was the fact that the name of the winery was Fuchs.  This is German for fox.  The winery was called Reynaud, which is French for fox.  He was covering all the bases in case he had to change passports again.

We got a hotel for the night in a town called Eiguisheim.  You pronounce it like you are a Jewish mother who just found out her daughter is dating someone from the Jehovah's Witnesses.  Repeat after me;  "Oy-guh-shime".

The town is incredibly picturesque with lots of streets like the ones pictured above.  The houses are all of the same type, which looks like a design from several centuries ago.  And they are well cared for.

The streets are terribly narrow.  If you tried to drive a Chevy Suburban through this town you'd take off everyone's front stoop and flower pots.  And you might bring down some overhanging terraces to boot.

We walked around the town a good bit.  Then we settled into a solid dinner.  It was another of those four course extravaganzas that have become so common to us lately that I won't bore you with the details.  Suffice to say that thinking about breakfast is painful.

I will tell you that I'm very slowly starting to get used to the service.  I have to qualify this comment since it's so germane to the French experience.  You have to be ready to wait, and wait, and then wait some more.  Maybe this helps prepare you for the meal or something, I don't know.  But, I'm not a patient person by nature, and the fact that we can sit at a table for quite a while before we get any water or a menu always bugs me.  However, I can wait a long time after something has shown up.  I just want the service to be casual after some basics have been taken care of.

I'm getting better at it, but I have to admit that I'll be very happy to get back to the rapid service of CA, eventually.. :-)