This weekend was pretty good. Went on a tour of Alsace province in France. Very nice especially Colmar on Sunday.

Started on Saturday morning, drove the couple of hours to Metz. It was nice. City built on a river and a lake (albeit a small lake), which was cool. I have not seen many cities on lakes in this regoin over the summer. For some reason there are not that many in the Netherlands or Belgium. Must be the low lying landscape. I guess lakes are more common in hilly and mountain country. Metz was a small and nice city, I quite liked it. A little hilly which was cool, always adds character to a city. Also, they built the cathedral on the top of one of the slight rises in the city, and are houses built around the bottom of the slight hill so you can't see it. So at one point when I first saw it from a distance, I didn't notice the hill and I thought "Holy S#@T! That thing is huge!!" Sorry for the sacrelige Jimmy. Of course don't try to tell me you have never said that exact statement... Oh never mind. Any ways it took a couple of seconds to realize it was on a slight hill and the cathedral was not actually twice as tall as the normal cathedrals in France. It was a cool couple of seconds though when my breathe was taken away! That seldom happens anymore. It just takes too much stimulation these days, maybe I'll have to go bungee jumping again... NO never mind, I can live with the mediocracy. :)

So, after only a couple of hours saw most of the centre of Metz. Back to the car and drove to Nancy. They are sister cities, I think any ways. I am just basing that on the fact that all the road signs usually group them together as Metz-Nancy until you get real close and then they are actually two cities about 1/2 hour drive apart. Well, they also have a completely different look and feel. Nancy was quite ugly and unremarkable. Very plain and boring. Didn't like it at all. Even the park I walked through in the center of town was like, this is a park? There was only one things remarkable and that was the town center. And to be quite honest it was quite amazing and nice. How to describe it? Hmm. Well you have to look at the pictures, but it's all in very light colours. The bricks on the ground are almost a white marble kind of look and colour. All the buildings are light colored and very nicely restored. Almost looks like it belongs in sothern europe, spain or italy, with the light colors and all. Except a lot better restored. There are also black gates with tons and tons of gold worked into them. Very regal looking, Jimmy would have loved it. Very very middle ages, like a king and queen parade grounds or something. Elaborate fountains in two of the corners (I love those!). Very very nice. However nice it was, it still doesn't excuse the rest of the city. It's almost like they spent all of the city money on restoring (and probably maintaining) the one square, and just ignore the rest of the urban sprawl. Oh well. It was worth the visit just for the square, although I wish I would have known the rest of the city was boring and not wasted 1/2 hour before realizing that.

Then on to Strasbourg where I was staying the night. Got there about 4pm, the drive from Nancy was a lot longer that I thought it was going to be because it was not via a freeway. Well arrived to the throngs of Saturday afternoon shoppers. It was crazy madness. For some reason I didn't know Strasbourg was as big as it is. It's quite a big city, or at least a lot of people come into it on Saturday's. So, check into the hotel and walk around sightseeing. Very dissapointed how early the sun seems to be going down all of a sudden these days though. Between 5 and 6 seemed to start loosing the light. I don't know if it happens quicker over here or what, probably not. But I really noticed the difference between August and September here. Much more pronounced I think that in Vancouver. In Vancouver, September (can be) a quite pleasent month. But here it seems like one week it's summer, well what you would call summer here any ways, that is rain half the time, but at least long days of light, and then like two weeks later it's dark both when I get up and go to work (7am) and when I come home from work (8pm). Bizzare.

Well Strasbourg was nice. It also had the houses with the bizzare criss-crossed beams and painted patterns, same as in Rouen. They are pretty cool looking. Cathedral was similar to the other in France only difference being built in mostly red bricks which made it different and cool looking. All in all I thought it was just an OK town. A little big and I think I was also setup to expect a lot more from it because both collegues here at work had said it was a fantastic city and really really nice. Well it was nice, but not "really really" nice. :) I think I like the smaller more quiant towns like Metz and Colmar (coming up).

So I had dinner right in front of the cathedral. On Sunday I bought a print of the cathedral, and it will be cool when I get it framed because you can see the street/restaurant right where I had dinner. Unfortunately, dinner was not very good. Compared to last weekend in Reims where my meal was really amazing, this one was very dissapointing. Of course that can often happen in the very touristy spots. But often the tourist spots are the best places to people watch and have they have outdoor terraces which are nice to sit at and have a beer and relax after a long day of sight seeing. That is more important to me than the food, oh well, thus hit and miss with dinners.

So after that another early night to bed?!?! I was really really tired again for some reason, and once again no desire to go out and see nightlife. I am getting so old!! Oh well good for the stomach. So up early the next day and first drove another hour and a bit to Mulhouse. Completely unremarkable city. Not even one ornate square to save it this time. Nothing really to tell about it either. I was there about 10-11am, and on a Sunday that means pretty much not a single preson awake or on the streets. So lazy. A few people in church (like 10), but not many other people.

So on to the next town, Colmar. From a work collegues guide book I knew I wanted to see Colmar. It was really really nice!! This time it deserved that phrase! Interesting how you can go from a completely unremarkable place like Mulhouse to an awesome town like Colmar in only 1/2 hour. You have to see the pictures, but basically it is just many many small winding streets with beautfully maintained buildings with the criss-crossed beams and exteriors. Flowers hanging from a lot of windows, the nice shutters, all or mostly all nicely maintained which makes it really picturesque. I wish I was a better photographer, but it's hard to capture the "feeling" of a place. Very touristy though. I'm very glad I went on a Sunday early afternoon, in September though. I sure that if I went on a Saturday in the summer that it would have spoiled the atmosphere with tons and tons of tourist. As it was there was a only a small about of people, just enough. It was getting busier as I left around 3pm maybe, so timing was perfect. It was very nice, but not much interesting to say about it. Just walked around and took photos.

At one point I found a shop that sold the prints I was talking about and they were quite inexpesive, so I bought two big ones a few small ones. Watercolor prints, should hopefully look really nice with the right frames. I don't think I can give them away though, they are not that kind of artwork. Without actually being there I don't think people would appreciate the prints. Oh, also bought this cool liquor. I have no idea what kind it is, or what it will taste like, but it was in the coolest bottle. The lady said it will be sweet, so hopefully good for something? The bottle is completely clear and has what looks like crystals all through it. They are actually sugar crystal the woman says. I hope it not too sweet! Any ways, they are sugar crystals at the bottom and then what almost looks like a fern leaf is twisting up from the bottom to the top of the bottle. Very cool looking, I just had to buy it, and well will have to sample it :)

So that was it for my last sightseeing weekend in europe. Probably for while :( Oh well, the time away will be good to re-invigorate my passion for this continent. After three quiet weeks, I am looking forward to the next three crazy weekends as well. My "diet" ends this week. I am going to Brussels this Friday to meet a friend for one of the big parties there. Then Saturday will be my last weekend in Antwerp, so I will probably go out here. So that will be two days of going out next weekend, already one more than usual. Then it's London the weekend after that. And of course I must do the manditory three days that weekend. It is the biggest party city in the world after all, And I will probably not be back for a while, so I've got to put in the time... :) Then after that it will be my only weekend in Vancouver (till Christmas any ways). So I will probably have three or even four nights out when I get back! Yeash!!, oh lord, bring on the pain!