Day 6, 11 May – Alsace

Not surprisingly by now, we awoke to very iffy weather. We had planned to drive down into Alsace, following at least the northern half of the Tour #20 in the aforementioned France’s driving tours book, and we wouldn’t let any crappy weather deter us. Our ultimate goal was to sample some of the charm of the Alsatian “Route des Vins.”

Once out of Strasbourg, we picked up the tour in Rosheim, historical home of the Bugatti automobile maker. Apparently, it is a bit of a pilgrimage site for Bugatti owners, and I was able to see one of the rarest of modern super cars; the Bugatti Veyron. I reckon he was on one of those pilgrimages. Our first main stop of the day was an old convent-turned-hotel called Mont St. Odile. It sits at the top of a hill in the eastern edge of the Vosges mountains, and has spectacular views from all sides. At that height (about 1000 meters above sea level), the wind was howling and the temperatures were a brisk 48 degrees.

After Angela reached her personal “freezing point,” we headed back onto the route towards the castle of Haute Konigsbourg. This place was impressive. The site dates back to the 12th century, although the current fortress is much newer. The self-guided tour led through all the usual rooms in a castle; the armory, the great hall, the king’s chambers, etc.

The drives through the mountains were amazing, and when we finally emerged from the forest and onto the eastern slope of the mountain range, it was a sea of vineyards; like Napa Valley, but much bigger. We stopped at the first vineyard we found that offered “Degustation et Vente,” “Domaine Ferdinand Engel,” and had our first tasting of the day. We tried a Pinot Grigio, a Gewurtztraminer, and a Pinot Noir. Not “feeling” any of them, we headed on down the road to the small Medieval town of Ribeauville.

Ribeauville was exactly what we were hoping to find; small, intimate, charming. Its only negative was that the city center was not pedestrian-only; so we had to constantly dodge cars coming up and down the “Grand Rue.” The town was filled with small bakeries, butcher shops, pastry shops. After about two hours or so of exploring, we headed down the road to the other “postcard” town in the area, Riquewihr.

Riquewihr is larger than Ribeauville, but no less charming. The oldest part of town is walled, and generally pedestrian-only, so that alone tipped the scales in favor of it over Ribeauville. The various area vintners had a much larger presence here than in Ribeauville, too. I am not generally a white wine person, but the Pinot Blanc that we tried was very tasty; dry but fresh. We wound up buying two bottles of white: one Pinot Blanc, and one Gewurtztraminer, from one of the local vineyards.

Since tomorrow is a “getaway day” for us, we headed back to the hotel via the highway. We had a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant and I’m writing this and dumping our photos from full memory cards.

Tomorrow, we leave France and head into the Eifel region. I think we will go through Trier, the oldest city in Germany and home to the oldest church in Europe, on the way to our next hotel in the small town of Auderath.