The Strasbourg académie is in Zone B, so our spring break is the middle two weeks of April. It’s a little weird to have one last week of teaching tacked on after a break, especially because the other two zones are already done teaching and free to go home or travel as they wish. I always feel a little like I’m starting all over again for the first time when I go back to school after two weeks off. But, it was a fun-filled last vacation to explore a bit more of Europe while I still can.
Munich
I would have felt extremely silly had I not visited Germany when I live right next door. So, I made my way to Munich for the first few days of vacances de printemps. Munich is in the Bavaria region of Germany, and kind of reminded me of Catalonia in the sense that they have a different language and special cultural identity. Munich is also known as the northernmost Italian city and draws a lot of influence from Venice and Florence—as explained to me, the philosophy is “sit outside, drink beer, don’t do any work, and watch the world go by”. Sounds perfect for a vacation to me!
Getting there: Flixbus is a charter bus service that has a ton of routes around Western Europe and can be really affordable. My tickets went from Colmar to Munich with a two hour stop in Karlsruhe and it was 40 euros roundtrip. The only drawback for me is that out of the four buses I was on, only one was on time. The other three were over 25 mins late, which isn’t the end of the world, but still annoying.
Accommodation: I booked an Airbnb that was really close to the Oktoberfest area. I had a cute little balcony that looked out over the rooftops and was great for having some fresh air and light in the morning. Only drawback here was that it was about a mile to the Marienplatz area.
Food and drink: German food is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: heavy and focused on meat. It’s delicious, and I had some amazing meals, but I was already tired of it after just the two days I was there. If you’re into sausage, sauerkraut, and creamy sauces, this is the place for you.
The best part about Bavaria is that they really are completely in love with beer. My favorite story from the walking tour was that the opera house burned down and was rebuilt, but caught fire again. It was the middle of winter, so they couldn’t use water and resorted to beer. The opera house burned to the ground, because those crazy Bavarians ended up drinking the beer instead of using it to put out the fire.
Speaking of beer, a visit to Hofbrauhaus is a must when visiting Munich. It is really touristy, but I felt better about visiting it when the guide on the walking tour said that despite that fact, it’s an important place to see. So many famous people have enjoyed a beer (or two) in this beer hall: Mark Twain, Mozart, Lenin, and Hitler. I ended up going twice and had a liter of their dark brew for 8,60€. It’s delicious and goes down easily, and that’s coming from someone who is not a beer drinker! The atmosphere is so much fun, and there are still some older Germans who have their own reserved tables and drink there occasionally.
Things to do: I took a free walking tour with Sandemans, which was a great way to see the major sights in the city like the Glockenspiel, *many* large squares with statues, and various churches of note. I did some wandering of my own and my favorite spot was the Frauenkirche, or Our Lady of Munich, which is famous for supposedly having the devil’s footprint. Legend has it that the devil influenced the building of the church, because it only took 20 years to complete but should have taken around 80. One of the devil’s requests was that the church couldn’t have windows, so they constructed the church with no windows in the back to trick him. When he walked in and saw the windows in the rest of the church, he was so angry that he stamped his foot and left a mark that is still there today.
Besançon
For my second trip, I wanted to go somewhere new in France. I had heard that Besançon is kind of a hidden gem – not too touristy and really beautiful. I made plans to meet up with another assistant, and all we wanted to do was wander around and enjoy what’s remaining of our time in France. We didn’t realize we had planned the trip over Easter weekend, so a lot of things were closed on Sunday and Monday (Easter Monday is almost more of a holiday than Easter itself), but it forced us to explore on foot. I seriously fell in love with Besançon, and it made me really regret not requesting to renew in that académie.
Getting there: It was only a little under two hours from Colmar by train. I did a lot of waiting around in Colmar both there and back because of the bus schedule, but what’s new?
Accommodation: I shared an Airbnb with Kaitlin. It was so great to sleep in a real bed – my mattress at home is basically a glorified mattress pad. Also, a stand-up shower! There were two bus stops a few minutes from the house, so it was simple to get there from the train station and then to go into town.
Food: Since it was Easter weekend, our choices for eating out and grocery shopping were pretty limited for half of the time. There was an Asian buffet a few minutes from the house, and we actually ended up eating there twice because it was really good and not expensive. I also finally tried Quick! It’s kind of like McDonald’s and Burger King but is Belgian. We ate there after running away from an unexpectedly expensive and fancy restaurant.
The most noteworthy restaurant was Le 100 Patates, a restaurant that only serves the French version of loaded baked potatoes. I found it by chance while looking up nearby restaurants on Google Maps and was sold just by the name alone – a hundred potatoes? Sign me up. It’s a super cute hole-in-the-wall restaurant with just one guy running the place. It was so good, we ate there twice in one day! I’m seriously still dreaming of the melty cancoillotte cheese.
For drinks, we stopped at Brasserie du Commerce (can you guess how many times we visited?) for some local wine. It’s a Belle Epoque bar, meaning it has a fancy gilded interior. Drinks were pretty cheap and it was a great place to just relax.
Things to do: Since almost everything was closed our first few days there, we did a TON of walking around the centre ville (this also included a 3.5 mile walk the WRONG way along the Doubs). Besançon is surrounded by the Doubs River, with La Citadelle, an old fortress, overlooking the city from a cliff. Sadly, it was almost 11 euros to go up on the wall of the Citadelle, but I’ve heard it’s a great view! Other spots in the city perfect for strolling are Parc Micaud and Parc de Gare d’Eau, both along the water. Besançon is pretty quiet, so it was really peaceful to just walk around and enjoy each other’s company.
The street at the bottom of the Citadelle is a treasure trove of sights to see. There’s Porte Noire, an old Roman gate that’s super gorgeous, old Roman theater ruins and columns, Victor Hugo’s birthplace and museum, the Lumière brothers’ birthplace, and the Grand Rue with plenty of fancy fountains, a couple museums, and pretty streets.
We also made a stop at L’Intranquille, a really beautiful bookstore topped with a marble dome. I picked up a couple books as souvenirs – Voyage au Pays des Arbres by J. M. G. Le Clézio, and an ESL version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
(click to enlarge the photos and read the captions!)
