Ali – Alsace is the regional equivalent of the high school flirt, having been fought over for hundreds of years by France and Germany. Alsace is currently dating France but you never know when Germany will give up austerity and lederhosen and start to look attractive again. Since Alsace has been around a bit, it boasts a wonderful blending of French and German culture.
Maya is off for Herbstferien (fall break) and we are fulfilling our oath to spend every school holiday travelling. The plan is to meet Joe’s parents in Ireland but I couldn’t resist finding a few waypoints to add to the itinerary. When several friends mentioned Alsace as must-see and I noted it was a couple hours north in the general direction of Ireland, I knew destiny was calling. A quick google of Rick Steves Alsace led me to pick Colmar as the destination as Maya had said she wanted to see Venice and I figured Little Venice was close enough to say I’d fulfilled her request.
Our friend Gary – back from the Mühlehorn post (AirBnB hosts from the ship Maya!) – decided to join us on Saturday as a surprise for Miriam’s 50th birthday so we rented a lovely 3 bedroom airBnB right in the heart of Little Venice. We arrived on Friday at 6:30 pm in Colmar, having raced after school got out to make our 4pm train out of Zurich. Our host, Patrick, met us at the apartment in a classic Tudor style Alsacian building 
and got us dinner reservations at an Alsacian joint across the street where we experienced what food from a country named Germance or Framany would taste like. 
Think meat and potatoes wrapped in a delicate pastry and you are there. Joe ordered escargot because we had to go all in and Maya bravely slapped a snail on some French bread (didn’t manage to capture the expression on her face but it was somewhere between someone enjoying a meal and someone about to be sick).
The next morning after eating Pain Au Chocolate from the neighborhood backery, I force marched the family to the Unterlinden Museum because I read it was famous and anyone who knows us would agree we could use some culture. This turned out to be a challenge because the town was so stinkin cute we couldn’t go 10 feet without stoping to go in a shop or absorb some history. Joe was sucked in past the event horizon of a knife store and we feared him lost. I dragged Maya kicking and screaming into Saint Martin’s Church, which is a big gargoyle bedecked gothic church that says ‘tortured souls welcome!’ … And I think at that moment I felt I belonged. See Joe below playing the part of a gargoyle and Maya playing the part of…well herself.
Finally we made it to Unterlinden, which is housed partly in an old convent and has a collection of art that spans the ages. For an art ignoramous such as myself it was spectacular to see the changing styles of painting and say things like, “you know I hardly think this is Renoir’s best work”.
The Unterlinden also has a fun collection of artifacts including the world’s largest house key and the very first water bong. 
After the museum we hurried back to meet Gary, Miriam and Eileen. Apparently Miriam was onto the surprise when Gary packed the car with all the ingredients for an authentic home cooked Thai dinner, as he had been promising to cook for us. Gary and Miriam lived in Thailand for years and Gary still whips up Thai feasts for festive occasions. Gary cooked up a spectacular spicy Thai dinner and sarenaded us that evening, and it was marvelous until we realized we were all sharing one bathroom that night. 
Well what’s a little Thai colon bomb among friends?