Day 74: Colmar

May 2, 2025

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We got up pretty early, hoping to take advantage of a low sun angle for photographing the beautiful buildings of Colmar. We were also glad to be getting out of our small and stuffy room. The room we could add was also stinky, due to malfunctioning drains.

Our "Chiropractic:" toilet. This is so named because a visit to your chiropractor is advisable before and after trying to use it.

Our first stop out of the room was the small and crowded breakfast space, of this "Primo" hotel. This hotel is truly the first "dud' we have hit on this trip. The reviews on Booking confirm our impressions. We will ruefully be adding to them.

This time out on the town, we tried to follow the list of sights in the Guide, in order, from 1 for 11. But in fact the Colmar experience is a combination of great streetscapes, rooflines, canals, and shops, in addition to the specific named and described buildings. Our photos turned out to be a mix of all that.

Our first named sight is the House of Heads, named for the large number of masks and grimacing faces on the exterior. It was built for a merchant in 1609.

You can see some of the heads a bit better in this closer shot.

A typical head. It seems to be surrounded by grapes, and maybe papayas.

The statue at the top, deemed the Alsace barrel maker was done in 1902 by the famous Colmar sculptor Bartholdi. This was after the building became the Colmar wine exchange.

Here now are some more cityscapes, rooflines, and pretty individual buildings:

These watering can decorations have no specific recognition in the guide books, unlike the House of Heads.

Many businesses were or are still advertised by signs like this. I have a good selection of them throughout this post.

Storks, as mentioned yesterday, play a big role in decoration and the in the self image of the town.

Here is the St Martin church peeking above some other buildings.

I wanted to duck back in to St Martin's because their pamphlet told me that I had missed a famous "virgin", the Virgin of Colmar.

Here she is with baby Jesus. It's amazing at how young an age Jesus learned that two finger hand signal.

I tried for a better shot of the Francis memorial, but they have it in a really dark spot.

Dodie felt it was only fair to also record all the construction scaffolding.

I like to check Last Supper scenes, to see if Mary Magdalene has shown up at Jesus' side. It's hard to tell, when everyone has long hair. On the other hand, except for certain noteworthy mdeieval paintings, Jesus and the other men have beards. So I would call that Mary Magdalene by Jesus' side. Score one for Dan Brown.

In this panel we have a baby Jesus. He is not using that two finger blessing thing, but he also looks about 50, for a baby?

A final thing catching my eye was this stained glass - strange image?

The Colmar Guardhouse, near the church, had been a chapel in 1286, but redone as a guardhouse-court in about 1580. It had also been planned as the town hall, and also had a nuts and oilseeds market off one side at some point.

I looked up at the building on the right in the photo below, and immediately selected it as a good place for our Colmar headquarters. Dodie rejected it, worried that the internal stairs would be too tough. The building turned out to the the "Adolph House" - "documented since the 14th century" and considered one of the oldest houses in Colmar.

Now we are around to the Pfister House, as illustrated on its info panel.

This is its story:

We like this statue, standing in one corner:

I was distracted from further documenting the Pfister house by a shop featuring little gnomes, and also models of some of the Colmar houses, including indeed the Pfister House. I got involved chatting with a lady who like me was trying to capture the gnomes on camera through the glass window. I then tried to call Dodie over to see the gnomes, but she denied any interest in such kitsch. I persisted, coming up with not only the gnomes and model houses but also some stuffed mooses. Give these a "like", eh. Where else are you going to see Alsatian stuffed mooses, from a renowned Canadian photographer!

Alsatian stuffed mooses, wearing fur trimmed red sweaters. How Canadian!

Two more streetscapes (both are the same street!):

In Brussels there is a goofy little fountain in which the water pees from the figure of a little boy. This "Mannekin Pis" is so famous, it is the symbol of the city. Colmar has a similar thing, that we went to track down. We found it, but did not recognize it at first, because it had become dressed, as opposed to the nude image in our guide.

The old customs house is from 1480. It fell into disrepair and was almost demolished, but was restored in 1898. The turret and glazed tiles are from that time.

We were excited now to return to the Covered Market, since of course we love markets. This one was "fine" but somehow did not have the impact of some others.

One of the specialties in Colmar is spice cake, spice cookies, gingerbread men, and the like. We will visit some specialty shops for this shortly. Here in the market, it seemed really costly. At 22 euros per kilo, one of those cakes slices would cost, what?, 5 euros? - too much?

Of course, we still enjoyed looking at fancy breads, unique tomatoes, and now in Spring - asparagus!

Auguste Bartholdi is one of the most famous artists from Colmar. His stuff is known around the world, and particularly the Statue of Liberty. Bartholdi pieces are scattered all around Colmar. Here below is his Little Winemaker, around the corner from the Market.

Also around the corner is the Little Venice area. In fact in the photo below, the terrace out on the water is accessed from within the Covered Market.

A building with "trompe oeil" painted decoration.

Another Bartholdi creation is the "Roesselmann Fountain" created in 1888 and named for a former judge, famous for defending Colmar against the troops of Strasbourg.

Roesselmann is considered the first hero of Colmar.

Through the town we noticed the hanging signs denoting the businesses in the buildings. Probably the most famous sign like this is the pretzel, hung by bakeries:

But there are many others:

By this time we began to feel we had quite fairly seen the town, and yet it was still morning. Now what? We really did not want to return to our depressing hotel room. We enviously looked at the really downtown Hotel St Martin, and wondered if we would have been better off booking there. We dropped in and found that not only was the price the same as at our present place, but both were run by the same company. Next time, this one will be our choice.

Some further wandering brought us into a square where a bit of a baking demo had been set up. Naturally, they were making pretzels (bretzels).

Another store was devoted to spice cake, gingerbread, and for this season, chocolate bunnies!

Again, this stuff is not cheap: about 50 euros per kilo!

You could make, or at least decorate, your own.

We did get some of this stuff in one store or other. It was good, but I would not mortgage the farm for it!

Further wandering turned up further hanging shop signs. We came to realize that these are a famous Alsace thing. The name of Jean-Jacques Waltz, nicknamed Hansi, is associated with them, as he created many. This site tells some of that story. We expect we will see lots more of this colourful art form as we pass through additional villages.

Tomorrow - we will head for those villages. Right now, all we have to do is to survive a night at the Primo!

Today's ride: 7 km (4 miles)
Total: 2,407 km (1,495 miles)

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