A Day Trip to Eguisheim from Colmar

Colmar is surrounded by beautiful villages and vineyards. It is a region famous for Riesling and Gewurtztraminer wines. The villages are not far apart and my plan for the next two days was to explore them.

Eguisheim is south of Colmar and not really public transport friendly. A lot of people hire cars or bicycles but I was happy to work around the one bus of the day. This meant a sleep in and chance to recharge from a mid trip slump before catching the midday bus.

On my way to the bus stop I took the time for a quick look at the house of heads, a curious building from the 1500s adorned with 106 figures of heads. A design trend that never really took hold…

Mandatory pastry in hand, bus stop location checked a dozen times, I was ready to go. All of the buses to the villages leave from different spots and with only one bus a day, I went a little overboard in making sure I was in the right place to catch it!

It isn’t a long trip to Eguisheim and the countryside is beautiful. It is all rolling vineyards and as you get closer to the towns there are house blocks alternating with blocks filled with grape vines.

The bus dropped me at the edge of the historic centre and with about 5 hours to spend until the return bus I started off just walking around to get an idea of the town set up. The sun was high in the sky and terrible for photos but I took heaps anyway since the village was so utterly adorable.

This was the ultimate fairy tale village. I’m not sure how else to describe it. The main village is circular with a perimeter street going right around lined on both sides with the most beautiful half timbered, brightly colored houses. Then in the centre are more houses, public buildings and squares with restaurants and shops. It is quite small and easy to walk around in an hour or so. I think I’ll just spam you with photos and you’ll get the idea 😀

I had lunch at a small restaurant in the centre of the village, right by a church. I soon figured out that the strange noises were the storks nesting on the roof of the church. More tarte flambee.

After lunch I kept walking, checked out the church and some shops and retraced my steps from earlier in the day to get some pictures in better light. Then it was gelato, people watching and a bus back to Colmar to finish off the afternoon. The five hours was a perfect amount of time to spend in this truly beautiful village. There were heaps of wine cellars that I could have visited but that wasn’t the aim of my day.

It was a lovely evening in Colmar when I returned and after a little wandering I found some dinner. I managed to venture slightly away from the tourist traps to a quiet restaurant for my new favorite meal, salad with warm goats cheese toasts. Who knew this was a thing?! Delicious.