Colmar: the little Venice

Colmar: a little Venice

Hello again! Continuing with the topic of the last entry, today I am going to talk to you about Colmar, to finally close the chapter on the Alsace region. Colmar is a small city that is only an hour away from Strasbourg, a city which I already have a quite large and detailed post about on this blog, which you can read here. However, today it is the turn of this cute and special city, which I had the pleasure to visit in January this year.

How to get to Colmar from Strasbourg?

Angel and I took a bus from Strasbourg with Flixbus, which had quite comfy seats and wifi. I don't remember how much it cost but it wasn't expensive. Saying that, take all of the documents that you have because they will ask you for them as if it were a visa. The bus leaves you at the bus station in Colmar, which isn't very far away from the centre.

Colmar itinerary

Colmar can be divided into two parts: the historical and picturesque part, also known as "Little Venice", where the river goes by and the more modern part, which isn't very touristy. Firstly, we visited the non-touristy part of Colmar, the buildings and the cafes aren't as characteristic nor do they have as much personality as those in the old part, although saying that, it is worth having a look around. Little by little, we went towards the historic quarter, where again there were the typical little houses in an Alsatian style that we had already seen in Strasbourg. The small difference is that these small houses in Colmar have brighter colours like you can see in the photos: blue, red and yellow.

All the houses and the tile roofs from which the fisherman catch their fish make this place really magical. As you can see, it was all decorated with Christmas decorations: Christmas trees covered in snow, coloured lights, wreaths and Santa Claus figures that covered the windows.

Nearby to there is a market, which is inside of a building. Luckily that day it was open, so we had a quick look around because it was just about to close. In the afternoon, when looking at the little shops that were open, it caught our eye that one of them sold dried fruits. As they are our weakness, we bought every kind and we sat down in one of the plazas to snack on them. We also bought a Pretzel, well-salted, to try as it is a typical food of the area, as well as in Germany.

Something that also stood out was the House of Heads, which is located just before the Little Venice of Colmar. It is a small house with an original architecture, made up of 111 heads of different types: from shapes of different animals up to every kind of mask. A lot of people don't know it exists and don't pay it enough attention. Luckily, I always usually read what to visit before going to visit a city and therefore, it did not go unmissed.

Going through here, we went towards the Musée du Jouet, looking at the shop windows and as it was already halfway through the day, we stopped to eat in an Italian restaurant called La Romantica. We ate mushroom and cheese pizza, it was really good. It wasn't particularly expensive, surprisingly, seeing as it was in the centre in one of the main squares. The waiter was really nice. We were there for a decent amount of time, we did the itinerary calmly and once we had relaxed, we continued walking.

Advice

When we went it was a Sunday, so most of the shops were closed. It was a shame. Therefore, here is my first tip: don't go on a Sunday.

And my second piece of advice is that if you have time, you should visit another city as well as Colmar. Colmar is very small. In two hours, you can see all of it. We were there for a whole day and we didn't need that much time. If we had known this, we would've taken a bus from Colmar and visited one or two more towns in the Alsace which at the end of the day are all very similar but they all have their own individual charm. For example, there is Eguisheim and Turckheim, which look incredible in photos.

During the evening

When it had turned to night, we took some more photos because the little houses also stand out a lot in the dark and they are full of lights with warm colours. After, as it was colder, we went to a cafe where we had a tea and a three-chocolate tart. It was a very small but very original cafe, decorated with lots of artwork; and as well as tourists there were also locals there. The owner of the cafe was a very old lady, but she had lots of energy. I remember that she had a hunchback, the poor woman, but she came and went, from here to there, bringing, taking and collecting the dishes and cups from each table. She was very nice and kind. However, two teas and a slice of tart cost us around 8 euros.

And I don't have much more to say about Colmar. Without a doubt, it is a small city but it has lots of charm, it is very romantic, as you can see in the photos with those colours and atmosphere. When we went we said that we were lucky as there weren't too many people there, but a month before, during the Christmas market, the city was full of tourists. Something good that had to come from going there a bit later.

And now to finish off, I want to give you a few more pieces of advice. I only had four days of travelling, but if I had had more, I would've visited other cities such as Nancy, which is only two hours from Strasbourg so it is worth going, it has an incredible architecture. In addition to this, I don't know if you known Eltz Castle. It is really pretty and it is three hours away from Strasbourg, in Germany.

And that is the post for today. I will see you in the next entries with different places and cities in France. I hope you liked it. Thank you for reading.

Photo gallery