Saturday, September 19

From	To	Distance (km)	Average Speed (km/hr)	Max Speed (km/hr)	Odometer (km)	Riding Time (hr:min:sec)	Push-Ups
Dolleren, France							100

(956 words)

Alsace a la Simone

This morning Valérie drove us once again to Basel, this time so Matt and I could spend two hours in an expensive internet cafe. While Matt and I worked on the computers, Valérie went shopping. Eventually Valérie met up with Simone, another teacher-friend from Rothenburg who had driven to Basel to meet us and take us on a tour. Shortly after noon, Valérie and Simone came by the internet cafe, and we all went to downtown Basel for lunch at a cafeteria-style Chinese restaurant. After lunch, Matt and I transferred some overnight bags we'd packed from Valérie's car to Simone's, said goodbye to Valérie, and rode off with Simone.

Simone had offered to give Matt and me a tour of the region in which she lives, which is the southern part of Alsace just west of Basel. We started out on a road that followed the border between France and Switzerland, swinging back and forth several times across the border between the two countries. In the tiny village of Rodersdorf we stopped and sampled some freshly pressed apple cider, which made me think of autumn in Indiana. The cider was delicious. We drove on through hilly landscape to the village of Lucelle, where we took a short walk around a lake and then sat down at a cafe for coffee. It was nice to get to know Simone better (with the entire conversation in German), as I hadn't gotten many opportunities to speak to her in Rothenburg.

After Lucelle, Simone drove us through small towns, hilly farmland, and up and down some forested mountains. In the small town of Winkel, we stopped briefly to visit a friend of Simone's. According to Simone, this friend had spent twelve years in America and would welcome an opportunity to speak English. Unfortunately, Simone's friend wasn't home, but Simone showed us her friend's garden anyway and even plucked two of her friend's tomatoes for us to try. We then rode on to Ferrette, where we hiked up to the top of a hill overlooking the town on which stood some ruins of a castle. Lastly we went to Oltingue, the town where Simone lives, where we visited an old church that dated back to the eighth century. After quickly changing clothes at Simone's apartment and briefly looking at several of her oil and watercolor paintings, we headed north for Colmar, where our Stammtisch was to be held.

The Stammtisch

Upon stepping out of the car just after pulling into the parking lot in Colmar, I was reunited with Francis, one of the students in my German class in Rothenburg. Francis introduced us to his wife, Anita, and we all meandered through Colmar in search of the restaurant.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we found several of our friends already waiting outside. I said hello to Marc, another fellow from my class, and to Anne and her husband Frederique. Anne was in my class in Rothenburg, Frederique in Matt's class. Valérie was already there, and soon Elisabeth and Clarisse arrived with their husbands Laurent and Mattieu. At some point Gertrude and Mireille joined the group, and we were fully assembled. I noticed that it was rather funny that these ten French people would get together in France and all speak German to each other, but that was what they were used to.

Once inside the restaurant we all sat down around a big table downstairs to a nice French meal. I had some kind of dumpling, which seemed quite French to me, and a glass of white wine. We all had a nice time conversing with each other in German, though as the night wore on I thought I began to hear more and more French. As I said once to Francis as we were walking to the restaurant, good friends can come together after not seeing each other for a year and simply pick up where they left off.

After the meal, we ordered deserts and Francis and Frederique pulled out their guitars. I ordered "floating islands," a large desert that, like the meal, seemed very French to me. We all sang songs like we used to in Rothenburg, while we ate our deserts and drank coffee. The food was good, the restaurant was gracious enough to allow our riotous singing, and we all had a great time refreshing old memories and talking about our present lives.

Before we departed, we all posed for a group photo, which some other patron of the restaurant was kind enough to take for us with about five or six different cameras. Upon saying our goodbyes in the parking lot, I climbed into Francis's car and Matt into Simone's. Francis had invited us to spend Saturday night at his house in the village of Dolleren, and to visit with him and his family on Sunday. Simone followed Francis until we were almost in Dolleren. At that point we stopped, Matt climbed into Francis's car, and Simone drove to the home of a friend of hers who lived nearby, where she spent the night. Francis took us to his house, a wonderful old house in Dolleren.

Upon entering Francis's house, I immediately thought of my Grandmother's house in the country in Kentucky. Although it was already well past midnight and I was quite tired, Francis seemed intent on serving us alcohol and talking while we sat on bar stools in the kitchen. After two glasses of wine and lots of laughter, we finally all retired at around 2:45AM. I found out the next morning that Francis was also very tired when he got home, but he thought we wanted to stay up talking, drinking, and laughing. Nevertheless, it was a nice end to a big day.