alsatiated

just got back from a lovely long weekend (though in this case a 3-day weekend is the norm) in strasbourg. we decided months ago to spend a weekend in the alsace and were rewarded with a good deal on train tickets and a lovely, albeit cold, weekend of christmas festivities.

on this trip we found out that strasbourg in december is full of two things: german food and christmas markets. we experienced both in massive quantities. as a collective foursome, we ate the following: pretzels (both plain and with cheese), spatzle (with cheese and ham), vin chaud, kougelhopf (sort of brioche-ish cake), tarte flambée (basically a pizza with crème fraîche in lieu of sauce), boules de neige (like peeps but huge and covered in chocolate), potato galettes (like latkes but super greasy), 'strasbourg' sausage with cheese, alsatian white wine, pizza/baguette, hot orange juice (sounds weird, doesn't it?), churros, crêpes, belgian beer, chocolate covered fruits, and hot chocolate. actually, listed altogether like that it sounds disgusting.

between eating we somehow managed to see the city. the old town is called 'petite france' - the city is so german they actually have to label one part of it france. the canals, half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets make it thoroughly adorable. we walked through the old part of town, exploring christmas markets on the way. this means we stopped and shopped roughly every 50 meters. the markets put lyon's to shame; a wonderful mix of food and crafts from france, germany and beyond. particular specialties that kept cropping up: little ceramic half-timbered houses, christmas ornaments (from cheesy moose-reindeer in santa hats to intricate carved wood), and all types of gingerbread and other dense cakes.

we also took a brief sojourn into the small town of colmar, only 30 minutes by train. it's been called "little venice" or, more plausibly, "venice of the alsace". we weren't particularly impressed by its canals (i'd put the final count at two, and that's being generous) but rather by its overall cuteness. this compounded with the fact that we were in the midst of a giant christmas market on a saturday in december resulted in ridiculous crowds. still, we enjoyed the city and after dark we saw the city's famed fiber-optic lighting system (because we hadn't gotten enough of lights the previous weekend, evidently).

overall a good weekend. a nice introduction to the alsace region, which i'd like to explore further - either in spring or when i've invested in some warmer socks.