Citadels and Castles and More!

Last Saturday, we spent the day visiting the citadel at Bitche and castle ruins in the northern part of Alsace. The citadel was extraordinary. I've never experienced such an innovative way of learning about history, in this case, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. We wore headphones that provided historical content about what we were seeing; the sound was set off by sensors in various places. A video on the siege of Bitche in 1870 was broadcast in different underground rooms of the citadel...you felt like you were right there with the French soldiers. See David's post on Bitche for additional information.

After leaving Bitche, we headed into the northern part of the Vosges mountain range to look at castle ruins. David made an ascent to the Schoeneck Castle and took a look around; check out his posts about this excursion. After driving past other castles in that valley and one nearby, we settled on looking at things closer to the ground.

Such as synagogues and cemeteries. We drive into villages, happen to find rue de la Synagogue, and usually find one there. This synagogue was in Niederbronn-les-Bains, a lovely spa resort in the Northern Vosges. Built in 1869 in the "Oriental" style, the building is now the parish hall of the nearby Catholic church.

As we left Niederbronn-les-Bains, we found this Jewish cemetery in Oberbronn, a nearby village.

Hands...

An interesting headstone shape.

Our last stop of the day was Meisenthal, home of the Meisenthal Glass and Crystal Museum, which is located in the former glass works factory. After viewing a film about how glass blowers create beautiful works, we saw incredible pieces of glass that had been made there. The best part was that we got to see a young man create a vase from start to finish, with a colleague providing commentary. This glass blower said that he has followed his father and his two grandfathers in this craft, having grown up watching the process from under the table in the factory.

The former factory is also home to the International Glass Art Centre, where designers and glass blowers collaborate on projects.