We now have only two weeks left in the beautiful Alsace before we pack our bags to come home! We have seen a lot but still have more on our list, so hopefully we will have enough time to fit them all in!

Fabien and Lotfi very kindly took us on another outing. We had mentioned that all the villages were now beginning to look the same with the different coloured half timbered houses, so they wanted to show us something completely different!

And it certainly was! We traveled about 60 kilometres north of Strasbourg to the village of Hunspach. It is classified as another of the “Most Beautiful Villages in France” , and we could immediately see why!

 

It was extremely different as all the houses were painted white. It seemed as though they had all been painted yesterday. The village was so neat and clean and of course the contrast of the flowers against the white buildings made it “Greg”s dream”!  It took us twice as long to walk through the village as we continually stopped for the “photographer”.

 

We then traveled to the next village, another white village called Seebach. Fabien told us the village had a protestant and catholic part.

We were only going to wander through the protestant part as it was the “more affluent” and therefore much nicer houses.

 

We put that down to the catholic part having more children, hence less money!

 

 

Greg enjoyed the way the houses were set out with the house , barn and stables formed in a U shape with the courtyard in the middle.

 

We visited the former Abbey church of Saint Maurice (above) in the village of Ebersmunster. The interior was decorated in 1727 with beautiful frescoes and gold gilding. It was very impressive as it was situated in a very small village!

We then visited the very different but very pretty protestant church in Kuhlendorf. It was built in 1820 in a style very similar to all the houses in the village except for it’s steeple and the height of the windows!

We then stopped in Strasbourg. The city is UNESCO listed. It was a lovely evening to wander the streets. The theatre and library (above) were beautiful in the twilight and Greg became excited by the reflection of one of the many museums in the River Ill.

We wandered through the many streets . with loads of other tourists and we came to the stunning Strasbourg Cathedral de Notre Dame, known as one of the most beautiful Gothic Cathedrals in Europe. We agree!

 

It’s 142 metre spire was the highest monument in the world from 1647 until 1874 and it is the second tallest Cathedral in France and the second most visited and Greg could not get a photo of the entire cathedral but he did try…….numerous times!

 

As the twilight turned to night the buildings increasingly lit up and it was magnificent.

 

Every night during the summer months there is a light show projected onto the facade of the Cathedral and it was spectacular.

It was titled “Happy Shadows Ballet” and although it was a little difficult for us to follow and comprehend the story line , it was fantastic!

 

It was a great night and we say a huge thank you to Fabien and Lotfi.

You should consider yourselves lucky! These are only a few of the 110 photos Greg took of the outing.

The next day we headed off  to the very pretty little town of Obernai , with it’s medieval streets and lovely half timbered houses.

The central square , Place de Marche with it’s 60 metre tall Gothic spire is one of Alsace’s tallest Bell towers. Of course there is  always time for coffee.

 

Fabien and Lotfi had also mentioned to us about a German Concentration Camp that was quite near to our village, so we decided to visit. We spent about 3 hours at the Struthof Concentration Camp.

We only took a couple of photos as we thought it was not appropriate to take more but we will share a little of it’s history with you. The area in the early 1900’s was a popular winter ski resort for the people of Strasbourg. In 1940 Alsace was annexed by the Third Reich and a Germanisation and Natzification program was established. It was originally a prison but when WW11 approached it became the KL-Natzweiler Concentration Camp.

They converted an outbuilding of one of the Hotels at the ski resort into a Gas Chamber which you can visit today. Over the years that the camp was in operation, there were over 52,000 deportees of 31 nationalities with a mortality rate of over 40 %. The youngest deportee of the camp was 11 years old and the oldest was 78. It was a particularly moving experience and reinforces the atrocities of war.

 

So on a lighter note, we are still having a great time, eating and probably drinking too much , and the waistlines are growing!

It’s that time again. No , not aperitif time, it is time to pack an overnight bag as we are off to Bern in Switzerland tomorrow.

Lots of love

Greg and Rhonda.