The journey from Strasbourg to Schirmeck is exactly 50 kilometers and when you get off the train, you will likely find – as we did – this moderately alarming sign, indicating (even with my limited grasp of French) that you are about to set off (notice French words below: traversee and massif) on a long hiking journey.
Ron’s immediate reaction to this threat of a 435 kilometer Traversee du Massif des Vosges hike seems to have been to disavow all connection to me, as evidenced by this photo where, as far as I can tell, he’s foisting me off onto Jim:
Here we are setting off on our hike – no wait, here we are setting off in initially the exact wrong direction and then turning around and going right back to the “train station” (more French: “Gare”) and starting over:
And now here we are on our hike. If you recall, the museum claimed it’s a 10 minute easy walk from the station.
I can happily report that the Alsace Moselle World War 2 Memorial and Museum (https://www.memorial-alsace-moselle.com/en/) sits less than 20 minutes outside of the little town of Schirmeck:
If you find yourself in Strasbourg, it’s absolutely worth the train ride out to Schirmeck. The memorial focuses specifically on the historical political allegiances of the Alsace region over the centuries as a way to explain the day-to-day life of the citizens during World War 2. This region was the only part of France to be annexed (vs. occupied) by Germany during the war. In 1942, the citizens of this area were declared German by the Nazi government and all men were subject to “enrollment” in the German army.
A de-Francization was implemented – to wipe out all traces of anything French in the Alsace. All French signs were removed and replaced with German. The museum – out in the middle of nowhere – spent a ton of money on immersive walk-through exhibits to convey the abrupt overhaul. The following pictures are not mine but they give a good idea of how the museum tells the story. From a collection of Strasbourg French street signs that were ripped out and replaced with German:
To a walk through nighttime battlefields, where you can read stories of resistance fighters and rescuers:
Here’s another picture that’s not mine – Place Kléber – the square I showed you yesterday, once the Nazis had taken it over:
Overall, it was a successful day trip, especially given how much we get lost in Strasbourg. The countryside is much easier and our success out there softened the blow when, for our final group activity, we went for gelato tonight. Gelato Toscano was a 10 minute walk from our Italian dinner. It took us over 30 minutes of wandering with the GPS to decide we could not locate it. Finally, I wandered into a Bubble Tea place and the counter person helped us out. It was less than 2 minutes away and still somehow unfindable.
One other thing for the Ron fans out there – and if this won’t turn you against him, I guess nothing will. You know how we do a lot of wash in our sink? It’s a questionable hygiene practice, for sure. I do a fair amount of scrubbing and rinsing and a LOT of liquid soap is involved. But tonight, when I walked into the bathroom once Ron had done his “laundry”, it was clear that there was no soap in there at all. The only cosmetic-type items that were anywhere near the sink were a bottle of hair conditioner and a tube of Colgate. Upon questioning, Ron agrees that he has been doing his wash with hair conditioner and, even with this new information, felt no need to re-wash those REI travel skivvies.
Tomorrow we head out for a day trip to Nancy – a mecca for art nouveau architecture.
Goodbye, Kris and Jim! We’ll see you in Spain!
Travels with Valerie 