Roller coaster rides!

What a roller coaster Saturday was. The European Patchwork Meeting at St Marie aux Mines and surrounding area was fabulous. More about that later.

The end of the day was, however, way more interesting!!

The plan was to meet outside the Theatre at 7pm to get the bus back to the train station at Selestat for the train back to Colmar. Easy! It was on the journey there.

Wrong!!! The bus arrived and we started filing on. Tickets being punched, when all of a sudden the driver says "no more the bus is full". As there were several empty seats still and 9 people from our group waiting to get on the bus Janice & I were a little confused.

After much yelling and shouting the remaining passengers were shut off the bus and it started to move along the road. Janice decided that she should get off too so that the group were not abandoned with no-one able to speak french. St Marie is a very little village and it was nearly dark. Most of the other passengers on the bus were very non-committal, but two Swiss ladies (actually I think one is German, but lives in Switzerland) were very sensible & supportive and they stayed on at the station to translate to the Station Master.

The drive to Selestat is about 40 mins and with limited phone coverage. As the bus we had ridden in was the last for the day the station master had to organise another bus for us and we had missed the connecting train to Colmar, so there we were - abandoned! 15 0f us were at Selestat station and the other 9 were stranded at St Marie. We had been to a lovely cafe earlier in the day so Janice lead the group up there, ready to call the Gendarmes. The cafe people were prepared to drive them to the station and when she told them about the driver they could even guess who the grumpy bugger was.

Long story cut short. They arrived in bus driven by lovely lady that was called out from home - THEN, we all had to sit at the station for nearly 1 1/2 hours for the train. By the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly 11pm. BIG day, but one we will never forget.

Today, on the other hand has been memorable for other reasons.