Strasbourg: Vinyards, Chateaux, and Bronchitis

After a full day of travelling, we'd left Bruges around 9:30 in the morning and got into Strasbourg at 5pm, we headed into the center ville to find a restaurant to grab some dinner. We ended up at a place called the "Academie de bière" (Academy of beer for those who can't figure it out), a little college bar/pub/watering hole where the food's cheap, the beer's good, and the music's loud. We played nice with our waiter, enough so to get two free rounds of shots (completely unasked for, but barely alcoholic, so not a big deal), and had some delicious sauerkraut and tartes flambées.

The next morning we walked into the center ville again to see some of the sights of Strasbourg, quickly realizing that Strasbourg is truely a working town, and not a major destination for tourism, and for a good reason. Mother and I decided to book an afternoon tour to see a chateau, tour vinyards, and attend a wine tasting, while Dad decided to opt out of the tour. In the meantime, we saw the cathedral of Strasbourg, which is interesting, one of the more distinctive ones i've seen (believe me, i've seen a lot of cathedrals here...) and grabbed a early lunch.

The tour was great, it gave me a chance to see the alsace region that i'd wanted to. The chateau, Haut-Kroenbroug, was breathtaking, pictures to come, and the countryside was great to just drive through, the whole area is full of vinyards and dotted with picturesque red-roofed villages, each with it's own church steaple. once again, pictures will be added at some point. The wine tasting was interesting, I learned some stuff, and tasted some delicious wine. I'd thought about buying some and bringing it home, but decided it would be a looooot easier (cheaper) to just look for it at home.

Mom and I made it back to the hotel around 7, to find that a restful afternoon had not infact made dad feel better, and the general consensus was that a doctor was needed. So we had the concièrge call a doctor for a visit (after office hours in France the doctors make house calls, you only go to the hospital for a real emergency, such as if you're missing a limb). The doctor was nice, very knowledgable, but didn't speak any english, which made for a fun hour of translation for me (I never knew the word for phlegm, learned it then). Turns out that Dad had bronchitis, as well as inflammed intestines. but an anti-inflammatory, a couch syrup, and an antibiotic later and he's back to his normal annoying self ;)

The next day turned into a daytrip to Colmar, a smaller town about an hour south of Strasbourg. Very quaint, and if you're ever going to the region, i'd reccommend staying there over strasbourg, it'll be worth the extra money.

After that, we hopped on the train bright and early the next morning, and headed to Italy, by way of Switzerland...

-Bisoux!