Colmar, Revisited

During Grandpa and Grandma Wilson's visit (before my family came), we also took a day trip to Colmar, which we had visited with the fall students and had decided that they might also enjoy because of the Unterlinden Museum there. It's a museum housed in an old monastery with an eclectic collection, including Medieval art, ironworks, toys, and a respectable contemporary wing. Their claim to fame is the famous Isenheim Altarpiece. We headed to the museum as soon as we arrived. Here are some of our favorites:

This was one of Sophie's favorites ("Vierge à l'Enfant sur le croissant de lune"):




The beautiful space where the Isenheim Altarpiece is housed:



The museum closes for lunch, and so we headed out to find lunch ourselves. Surprisingly, for a small city, Colmar was packed, so we had a hard time finding a place to eat. We happened across a crepe place that had one table left for us...up in a loft. And to get the waitress's attention, we had to ring this bell (whether it really was from the Titanic or not is up for debate!):


After lunch, we wandered around the city for a bit, and were surprised to find a vibrant Christmas market and celebrations.




We also found this Santa and sleigh statue, which turned out to be Sophie's only chance to "visit" Santa this year.


And next to the sleigh was this strange statue of Santa. I think he looks like he was out partying too late the night before...

Family portraits in the picturesque Alsatian area:



While wandering around, we came across the weirdest kids ride, a horse ride. The mechanical horses went around a track, kind of like a pre-monorail ride. Sophie asked to go on it, so Mommy was elected to ride with her. And surprisingly, it was a lot of work to stay on!

We also taught Sophie how to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors" in the train. I don't think she quite gets it yet, but she had a lot of fun trying!