Kate and I left our homebase of Strasbourg yesterday in order to visit Colmar for the day, in SE France. I was actually supposed to visit this prototypical Alsatian city on my last trip to Europe, in order to study Matthias Grünewald's 'Isenheim Altarpiece', but plans changed. Kate and I were wowed by this dark, early-Northern-Renaissance masterwork (which was created for a nearby church that supported a community ravaged by ergotism), but the town itself was amazing as well. We have started to see common traits in all of the villages and smaller cities here: timber-framed houses from the 16th + 17th centuries (often painted with colours that remind one of birthday cake), canals (used for transport and shipping back in the day), steeeeeep rooves, colourful tiled rooves for important religious/state structures, and a regional obsession with storks. Yes, storks...they come to this specific area from Africa to have their babies every spring.
Unfortunately, life isn't all storks and cake houses when traveling the world. After scamming numerous transit authorities by failing to regularly purchase bus/tram tickets, we were busted yesterday! We were tired on our way back to Strasbourg, and failed to notice the transit employees spot-checking people. That $30 fine really stung...I guess there really are Karma Police.
Too bad about the fine- what happens there to tourists who don't pay their transit fines- do you get tossed into the canal by an angry mob? Forced to eat endless meat platters? Have a stork come to visit you with a little bundle in it's beak? It sure looks nice there! Mom
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