How similar (or different) are the Alsatian Villages?
 

I'm planning to visit Strasbourg and Colmar in December as part of my first visit to Europe's wonderful Christmas Markets.

I also have a half day trip booked to Eguishiem and Turckheim (alternate is Riquewihr and Hunwaihr).

I'm debating whether I add on another day in the area to see Ribeauville and Kayserberg.

The difficulty is I don't have much time to spare and I am currently choosing between spending that extra day in Nuremberg, Germany (between WWII history and the old town, there seems to be quite a lot to see) or spending it in Alsace.

To this end, how similar or different are the Alsatian Villages? They all look incredibly pretty but I'm not sure if the extra day I'd be allocating to Alsace would be more or less seeing places similar to those I'll have already seen earlier.

Interested to hear everyone's thoughts (especially for those that have also been to Nuremberg and can speak to that angle!).

Most of the smaller wine villages are quite charming - but similar in style. Strasbourg & Colmar have some different attributes in addition to the cross-timbered structures. We were there for 2 weeks last year (third visit). Kayserburg & Riquewihr would be good options since they are close to each other. Eguisheim is just as interesting as the two villages I mentioned - but farther away. We visited most of the villages in the region, and I don't recall anything about Turckheim, and there were no pictures of it in the 1,000 or so pictures my wife took.

Here is her Shutterfly book. Click the book, and on the next page click "full screen".
https://www.shutterfly.com/share-pro...HARPRDWEBMPREM

Stu Dudley

I was just in Strasbourg for 3 nights this past winter for Christmas markets and did a day trip to Colmar. Strasbourg was a beautiful city and worth the visit. Colmar was really charming and larger than I thought. I would rather have spent more time there than Nuremberg where I spent 3 nights.

The Nuremberg market is impressive in size but the city itself was nothing special. We were not at all interested in the WW2 stuff (I don't get the point of travelling to see those horrific places when YouTube does the job unless you have some sort of connection to it).

In fact I thought Heidelberg was a much more beautiful city then Nuremberg and much closer to Alsace. Had some beautiful Christmas markets and IMO the best food in the markets if you love meat!

So my point is if you can find other villages as pretty as Colmar, I would take them over Nuremberg.

This is where I am so torn. I want to see pretty places but I also LOVE history (though admittedly WWII history isn't my favourite, anything medieval or related to a monarchy is more my vibe) and I feel like it would almost feel amiss to go to Nuremberg and not spend time at some of their historical sites given it was such an important part of WWII history.

Basically what it is coming down to is that I use the day I have available to either
1. do a full day trip from Strasbourg to see more Alsatian Villages and likely stop by a vineyard (all by guided tour - I cannot and will not again try to drive on the right side of the road); or
2. extend Nuremberg, and use that day for seeing some WWII sites, possibly popping over to Bamberg for the afternoon/evening if time and energy permits.

UGH! I need to win the lottery and quit work so I don't have to worry about all the constraints currently making me pick :P

How many nights are you spending in Nuremberg, Strasbourg and Colmar?

Nuremberg's old town is a mix of mostly new buildings and rebuilt old buildings and has very few of those. In winter it's brown and gray. The castle area is just about the only thing worth seeing.

I've currently got Nuremberg down for 2 days (1 day will be spent in Rothenburg) and 2.5 days in Strasbourg/Colmar (1 day each + 1/2 day tour) with an extra day to put towards one of them.

I say 'days' because I am the type to arrive in a new place by 8am, drop my luggage at the hotel, and head off exploring straight away. I will no doubt be hit with a barrage of comments telling me to skip seeing these places if I don't have more time but I move pretty quickly and don't know how soon I would return so would rather have a taster than nothing.

I am biased because am not a fan of Nuremberg. You will need half 3-4 hours for the Christmas market (largest single market I have been to) if you want to see it and enjoy it. Probably another couple of hours for the castle area.

If you want to visit the WW2 stuff, which we did not, you will need to add the day there. If not 1 day is good enough.

There are famous medieval sites (castles, cathedrals, cities.....) all over Germany, not only around Nuremberg and in French Alsace.
But it's up to you to chose the places yozu plan to visit.

There are 2 kinds of Christmas markets in Alsace, the big ones that are open daily and others, mainly in small villages but also in Ribeauville, that only operate during 1 weekend. These ones have obviously a local feeling and draw less crowds (except Ribeauville). The big ones attract a lot of people. It is bearable in big cities like Strasbourg and Colmar, much less, in my view, in Riquewihr or Kayserberg which are more enjoyable outside advent period.
Munich is not far from Nuremberg. Why not consider it?
however, if you want to add a smaller village without spending too much time, you could check Obernai. It is close to Strasbourg and very frequent trains.

Do you like visiting cathedrals and châteaux? Do you think they look more or less the same after seeing a half dozen? It is pretty much the same for Alsatian villages.

I’ll be starting the trip in Munich - I’ll be heading to Strasbourg off the back of 9/10 days in Germany.

I have been couple of times in Nuremberg around Christmas time. It is a picturesque "old" city with a big Christmas market. I don't think you will find any sign of WW2 except obviously the remnants of Nazi gatherings and the trial. We visited also the documentation zentrum. I don't have vivid memories of it, apart from the huge place Nazi would gather. Quite impressive (not sure the wording is appropriate), something to see and that helps to understand what it was about.

So far the day I have planned is an early morning tour of some of the Nazi sites (i.e. the Rally Grounds, Courtroom 600 at the Palace of Justice – getting there at opening), followed by a stop at the Handwerkerhof artisan yard on the way back to my accommodation for a quick respite, a wander through the old town to the Imperial Castle for a visit there, finishing up with the Albrecht Durer House and more lingering though the old town before spending the evening in the Christmas market.

It’ll be a full day jam packed with things but I am hoping that should be enough. I did look into the Art Bunker visit and the Tunnels and Passages but the timing of those means I’d likely have to take up a few hours that I don’t otherwise have.

I think you are looking at Alsace all wrong, there are many WW2, WW1, and previous war sites in the area including castles in various states of colapse or fully visitable and the only German concentration camp on French soil. The route north south was a major military and trade route especially during the Roman empire and the development of each village is very much part of that history so that, some towns developed very little in military defences and others had and still have city walls.

Strasbourg and Colmar are interesting just because of their size and are villages but in the large and even include some of the villages in their present space.

For me the settings and history of the villages are often more important than the villages themselves, if you just take Guebwiller the southern most village it follows a stream up into the Vosges which housed an amazing family the Schlumbergers. During WW1 the town was invaded and the men were instructed to serve in the German army. This lead to social turmoil and the family split into three parts. The wine guys bought up all the wine growing land (at knock down prices) and so created the largest AC under one company in the region. The engineers left to found a major internationl oil exploration business while the jewelers left to found a major US jewelery business. You can see the results in town, some money came back, the oil business still has small factory here, the pond that drove their mill's water wheel is now a hotel ringed "lake" etc etc. Walking around the town the different vistas and the access to the Ballon d'Alsace all make this a unique site.

I could go on discussing each town, after all where did the Marx brothers actually come from?

Visiting Strasbourg is worthy in its own right, but each village, still internally divided into Protestants and Catholics, operating under slightly different laws than other French people and speaking their own unique language is worth a bit more time.

And that is before we get onto the magnificant wines and the slightly heavy food (but includes the lightest sort of pizza you can imagine)

Excellent post, Bilboburgler, but most probably in the wrong forum.
It seems to me that nobody here is interested in either Struthof or all the gems you mention.

:-)

Ignorance is a personal punishment

Indeed, it is quite packed!
IIRC, we spent 2 days 2 nights when visiting Christmas markets (the main one and the smaller one in artisans yard), the documentation center and walking around. 1,5 day would have been enough . But don't take it as an advice, each tourist has its own pace. Just keep in mind there will be a lot of people and you will be rather trampling than walking when checking stands or shops .

Also, we did not talk of the weather. If it is a rainy day, visiting villages will not be very interesting whereas in bigger cities, there are always indoor activities like museums or stores, or just places to shelter from rain. it could be wise to leave an open day in a big city and decide on the spot what you want to do. Last December, we spent several days in Strasbourg. Weather was generally poor, so the visit to Obernai was shortened; instead, we spent more time in the city and also visited Freiburg and Baden-Baden. We didn't go to Colmar just because we have been there on numerous occasions.