Day 40 and 41 Finally a Romance Language

June 25 -- This day was the first time on this trip that we encountered hard enough rain that we had to reconsider our plans, which is really incredible considering that we have now been on the "road" for over a month. We waited out the rain by playing Carcassonne and Set at the hostel, and by lunch time, the rain was gone and the world was beginning to dry up. We considered going back up to the mountains via cable car since we had heard of a cool hike near where we had been the day before, but once we took into consideration our late start and the cost of the cable car, we decided to just do a walk by the river along the valley floor. It was a beautiful path next to a raging river.

For dinner, we went up to the top floor of the tallest building in town and were entertained throughout our meal by watching the paragliders land in the field below us. I ordered roesti, which is another typical local Swiss dish of hash browns covered by tomatoes and Swiss cheese. The waitress made me laugh when we told her that we had tried Raclette the night before and that it was almost too much cheese. She responded, "Of course, that's why we order it."

June 26 -- We decided that Switzerland, though beautiful, would put us in the poor house if we stayed any longer, so to France we went. Even though we only drove 2.5 hours, it is amazing how much it feels like we are in a different country (which we are, of course, but it's so unexpected how different it feels from either Germany or Switzerland even though we are so close to both). The first thing I noticed after we stopped for gas shortly after crossing the border was the beautiful change in language. Unlike in Germany, where everyone sounds as if they are yelling at you, even if they are not, in France, even if they are yelling at you, it doesn't sound like they are.

We drove to Colmar and explored the downtown area a little. We hadn't done much research before getting to this town, so we really didn't know where to start or what we were looking at, but it's a really cute, old town. We went to an area of town called Little Venice and decided to take a boat ride through the canal. It was a short but pretty ride. In this town in the olden days, if a house had a single lady living in it, the shutters would have a heart cut out of them. I'm not sure what happened to the shutters after the lady married. Also in the olden days, a house was painted red or blue depending on if Protestants or Catholics lived there.

We are staying at a quaint Airbnb while in this area, and it's in a tiny town out in the country right in the middle of vineyards on every side. We went to a creperie for dinner, since nothing feels more French than that, and made it "home" right before a huge thunderstorm broke.