Pictures definitely needed today - there are not enough words!

Today has been the kind of tourist day you dream about and never seem to have the chance to enjoy. It was a day with lots of time to wander around and thoroughly explore a small place filled with history and beauty - and enough time to stop in that lovely restaurant and have a leisurely meal under the big umbrellas.

Colmar is a real treasure with a Medieval Old Town that turned out to be only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. It was rather funny really, as we attempted to drive there and park close to the Old Town and Little Venice this morning. However, after setting out and trying to follow all the one way streets that ring the town in ever increasing circles - a bit like a nightmare version of State Circle in Canberra - I noticed that we were about to pass our hotel after about a 15 minute journey!

That was when we decided to walk and then if it was too far we thought we could catch a taxi home later - as it would save on both petrol and frustration. We discovered that there are some good pedestrian short cuts and this was a great help going both ways.

The place is impossibly picturesque with so many fantastic 14th, 15th and 16th century buildings it is just ridiculous. I just can't believe that such a relatively large area has survived as such an authentic whole. Perhaps calling Colmar "Little Venice" is a bit of a stretch, but there is no doubt that the few little canals that pass through part of the Old Town do add to the charm of a really lovely place.

While exploring one of the tiny quiet streets we noticed "le petit chat" preening himself on a window ledge above our heads and while I was taking his photo a black cat came out to join him. It was just so cute!

We stopped for lunch at one of the dozens of inviting little restaurants around 2.15pm and I chose French Onion Soup and Alan had a Provincial Salad which turned out to be a delicious tuna salad. He had a lucky escape here because we only found the English version of the menu after he had ordered and one of the other meals he had considered turned out to translate as "Chicken Gizzard Salad". Finding this informative menu set Alan to rummage in the back pack for his notebook and pen and start noting some of the French words for the foods he might like to encounter in the future.

After lunch we continued our stroll until driven home by exhaustion at about 4.30pm. We made ourselves a cup of tea (tea and coffee making being once again a treat in our room at this hotel)which is not luxurious although quite adequate. I had a sleep and Alan played on the computer. When we went down to the restaurant for tea we discovered they have the same menu every night with a choice of the same three entrees, mains and deserts so we cancelled dinner and came up and had another cup of tea.