Hornbach Stellplatz

We left the vineyards around Colmar and drove on north and east. Our goal in all this, as Alert Readers already know, is to get to Amsterdam and to put the Grey Wanderer in storage there while we are back in the States for Rachel's wedding and then helping out with our new granddaughter Penelope. But I digress. After a horrific traffic jam near Strasbourg and the crossing of some small mountains, we found ourselves alternating between "La Marseillaise" and "Deutchland, Deutschland, Uber Alles," somehow entertaining visions of Paul Henreid in Casablanca and Kenneth Mars in The Producers. Two of the defining movies of my life.

We thought about over-nighting in one of the Maginot Line

visitor parking lots, but they didn't really seem all that

inviting, however deserted; so we drove on, surmounting a

crest, and finding ourselves back in Germany, which we last

saw way back in maybe July of 2010, and May of 2009
before that; we visited one of the many Maginot Line sites
in 1989; or so

In the village of Hornbach, just over the border, via some good

signage, we found what turned out to be a brand new

municipal Stellplatz (German for camperstop); room for

perhaps 8 or 9 vehicles, very attractively appointed,

landscaped, and with all the amenities; 5 euros; this in a

village of 1200

It was so restful we were tempted to stay for more than the
night; plus there were close-enough-to-ripe blackberries nearby

Electricity, water, sanitary facilities, a euro

each; also direct phone to information, police

and fire

Dining facility

Cooking shelter

And the adjoining community playground was also

impressive

OK, I admit I am impressionable

Even a zip-line

Colmar's Musee Unterlinden

Alsace has been a contested place for centuries. The place names say it all: Musee Unterlinden. There is hardly a more German word than unterlinden. Unter den Linden...the great boulevard of Berlin.

Boulevard.... Language is contested ground too, and Europe is a most interesting place to observe it. So much diversity, so much proximity of historically different languages and cultures, so much communication and intermingling as never before. English is the new lingua franca, I like to say.

The Musee Unterlinden in Colmar is a wonderful little museum, part local history, decorative and fine art, weapons and military matters, music and musical instruments, wine-making, and more. It is one of the more enjoyable "local" museums we have visited.

Giant wine barrels

There are many fine paintings, including this,

said to be France's only Cranach, his Lutheran

allegory Melancholie

But this museum's surpassing masterpiece is Matthias Grunewald's Isenheim 
altarpiece, seen here from above; it takes an entire hall to display its many parts; 
Schongauer's pupils, would-be pupils, and admirers included Durer and

Michaelangelo, among others

One side panel depicting events in the life of Jesus

Crucifixion

A model of the massive polyptych

Annunciation

Sculpture centerpiece

Alas, the Hell/nasty creatures panel was getting a cleaning

Cute and cuddly 15th century nightmare

But there were other things to see; here a glass harmonica, one of only a few 
thousand known, invented by one Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Jesus float from the Easter Parade

Colmar

We drove into nearby Colmar the next day to see the old Medieval town, its Eglise and Unter Linden Museum.

In the Eglise St. Martin, looking toward its masterpiece

Martin Schongauer's Virgin of the Roses; we'll see more of 
Schongauer, a predecessor to both Durer and Michaelangelo

On the back side of the triptych, an image we liked

Colmar's cathedral

One of the many big squares

Along a canal

In the Little Venice district (what, your town doesn't have a
Little Venice district?!)

Ditto, with an ultra-quiet electric-motor-driven gondola ride

So we walked past this restaurant and watched this guy making 
tartes flambees and we were hungry and one thing led to another 
and

Voila! Tart flambee; sort of an Alsatian pizza, tomato sauce replaced by onion 
and lots more meat and cheese than any Italian pizza would include; another 
dish to add to our home repertoire

A beautiful old town, very walkable, scenic, well cared-for; 
and quite affordable, compared with some of the places we 
have visited recently

Riquewihr in the Alsace

From Beaune we headed back east to the Alsace, more great wine country (and sausage and other things), to the little beautifully-preserved Medieval village of Riquewihr, a few miles from Colmar, and headquarters of the great Alsatian negociant, Dopff Irion. We spent the night there, as at Beaune, in a free municipal camperstop. The pix are just scenes in Riquewihr, which we enjoyed very much.

Hotel-Dieu

The Beaune charity hospital, the Hotel-Dieu, was founded in 1443, and operated continuously for centuries. Now it is simply a great museum of life in late Medieval times and of charity and human kindness.

The exterior is not particularly impressive; but the interior

courtyard, with its weathervanes and tiled roof is most

impressive; the Hotel-Dieu must be in the Guiness Book

for most weathervanes on a single building...

The main ward

Detail

Gorgeous ceiling

Surgical--ouch!--instruments

More ditto; or possibly for lubicating your transaxle

Intensive care; aka, rich person's ward

In the kitchen, a spit-timer

Part of the Hotel-Dieu's historic endowment was several

hundred acres of prime (i.e., grand cru) vineyards; Hospices

de Beaune is one of the greatest of wines; and the annual

Hospices de Beaune auction is still the largest of all wine 

auctions

In the hospital's pharmacy

Producing whatever's good for whatever ails

you

The Hospices' artistic masterpiece, Roger van der Weyden's

15th century Last Judgment polyptych

Funny Beaune