The Wine Route! Day 6 - Riquewihr

Thursday, May 26th 2011


My life has become a tangle of vineyards and mountains and wine, small villages and storks and tarte flambee (traditional dish in this region - like a very thin-crusted pizza but better... until you've had it half a dozen times in the span of a few days, that is).

I can hardly differentiate between all the villages and paths anymore, it's all blending a bit together in a wonderful kind of way.

Today we had an excellent stretch of biking to Riquewihr that we took very, very slowly, as you can imagine how tired we were from yesterday. Thankfully, it was overcast most of the day to give us a break from the hard sun.

The seemingly never-ending Wine Road...

See the tiny speck on top? Castle!

Yet another adorable little village we passed through...

I imagine that through the pictures and what I'm saying that the villages probably all seem more or less alike, and while they do share many similarities, they do in fact all have a different little "touch," certain little things that differ between them that make them distinct from each other, though I don't think it's as obvious through the photos.

Some have just one long road which is it's charm, others have cobblestone streets, others are all tall, colorful houses squished together whereas others are smaller and more spread out, some are definitely purely for tourists whereas others have nearly none, others have a small stream or a quaint town square, and it goes on and on.

An old tower and cobblestone streets,
the trademark of this village

A village we stopped in for a drink - see the castle on the
hill in the background?

We decided to stop in this village to explore by
foot a bit more because it was so charming

We hung out in this village for a while to wait out some light rain, and then hit the road again. It got pretty hilly, as you can see below. You could get in great shape on this trip!

Will it rain?

A nice, cool day.

Finally, hours later, we reached our destination for the day, Riquewihr, which I do have to admit is kind of like the Disneyland of all the villages we've seen. That said, it was one of the most touristy, but it was like being inside a fairytale.

Riquewihr

Riquewihr

Riquewihr - it makes a difference when cars aren't allowed on the streets

Macarons!!!

A small square in Riquewihr

Walking along the edge of Riquewihr

Walking through the village

Ending the day with a great meal in a
cozy little restaurant....

... with creepy dolls in the corners.

Love,
Katie

The Wine Route! Day 5 - Chatenois

Wednesday, May 25th 2011

I hitchiked for the first time today!

More on that later though.

We biked from Andlau to Chatenois today, again stopping through villages when we felt like it and enjoying the gorgeous scenery.

passing through a village

Biking along the Wine Road

Most of the time there was a bike path, here was a rare
moment we took the actual road, but there were so few cars anyway!

One of the most beautiful days yet of biking.

See the stork?

Yet another tower with another stork.

We made it it our next destination, Chatenois, but after dropping off our bags we continued to one village over by bike in order to climb about 8km to the biggest castle yet. 

Biking one village over

Start the 8km climb!

It was a proper hike indeed. We were fairly exhausted by the time we reached the top two hours later, with this gorgeous view as a reward (as well as a well-deserved Orangina!)

View from the top - That's Alsace for ya!

On jelly legs, we hobbled over to the castle
Where we learned we had forgotten to bring enough money to go inside.
Womp womp.
We were still able to walk around a bit and see this:

And then, when I thought I wouldn't be able to stand on my own legs any longer, we were faced with those same 8km of miserable downhill climbing, something I've never enjoyed.

However! Why not try to hitch a ride with someone driving back down, as they'd pass where we parked our bikes?

Moments after we made the decision, a car left the parking lot on top of the mountain and Alberto stuck out a thumb, and wham, my first hitching experience that happened nearly instantly after deciding to do so. Huh!

A very friendly French couple drove us the winding ten minutes down to the bottom, where I was thoroughly relieved to have spared my legs that torture. 

Oh wait, now we gotta bike back to Chatenois. Mergh. 

Til next time!

Love,

Katie

The Wine Route! Day 4 - Andlau

Tuesday, May 24th 2011

It just keeps getting better and better.

We headed out this morning to continue biking to our next destination, Andlau, stopping through and passing by many villages that looked just like this. 

In the heart of the Wine Road now!

Biking through another village

I'm really finding myself at a loss for words to describe all this beauty - Hopefully the pictures can convey some of that for you.

Biking along these long stretches of road not only allows your eyes to wander, but the further and further you go, the more hyptonized you become by the beauty and your mind wanders, too, in all sorts of wonderful directions. I wonder if I had a single negative thought while biking during this trip? I found myself lazily trying to form words to later describe what I was seeing and how I was feeling, I thought most often of my family and how I wish they could experience this as well, but perhaps more often than not, I simply rolled through the vineyards and soaked in the sun while thinking not much at all, content to be absolutely present in the moment and marvel at all that was around me.

We made it to Andlau by the afternoon and found an excellent little cafe where we refueled with some coffee and cakes. They had this great little outdoors place to sit, but in between all the buildings so it felt like our own little secret garden.

Not a bad place to refuel, eh?

Alberto had planned us arriving so early so that we could spend the afternoon hiking around the mountains that line the Wine Road, as I've mentioned.

Making our way through the vineyards to
go on a hike!

On our way to the mountains

View from the path

Getting higher and higher - you can see Andlau in the background!

Our path

Arriving in the woods

There were two old castles to see along our hike, both in different states of ruins though either restored or in the process of:

Inside the "castle"

We walked for hours. We finally got to the top and had an excellent view of Andlau from a different perspective this time: 

There be Andlau!

And then, we just kept on walkin' 

Some flowers along our hike

Walking walking walking

Even in good company, there is much silence with so much ground to cover, and again it's been very interesting for me to see where my mind wanders, or if it does at all. Walking through the woods here was quiet and peaceful.

We did make it back to Andlau, however, rather fatigued and ready for a good, hearty meal. Not before seeing some more of this gorgeous little village.

A small stream running through Andlau

Life in the tiny streets

A very elaborately decorated front porch!

The Virgin Mary popping up once again in the middle of nowhere

Til the next time!

Love,

Katie

The Wine Road! Day 3 - Obernai

Monday, May 23rd 2011

Oh, what a glorious day.

The bike ride from Strasbourg to the village of Obernai is one of the happiest, most beautiful bike rides I've ever experienced. There were gorgeous green trails that led us out of the bigger city, where we followed the tiniest of streams through the country, trying not to fall off our bikes from all the looking around we did, whether it be at nature itself or horses or the STORKS, which are everywhere in this region!

Biking to Obernai from Strasbourg

We passed through village after village, some being just one long road long, with quaint little houses and streams under trees, until quite suddenly, we found ourself out of it all and truly at the beginning of the wine road:

The beginning of the vineyards and mountains!

Passed through so many villages that
 I don't remember which one this is!

In one of the villages, a man was selling a lot of fresh, hand-picked cherries for just a few bucks, and so we bought some and chatted while he let us fill up our water bottles at a tap, telling us how he's been eating these cherries 50 years unwashed, never having a problem. My stomach would disagree with this statement 20 minutes later, though one might argue it's because I ate about half that box. We biked on a little further to a grassy patch in the shade and has pit-spitting contests and I stained my tongue bright red with the best cherries I've ever had. 

Biking along the Wine Road

We finally arrived to Obernai, bags feeling considerably heavier, but were able to dump them at the hotel and take the 30 minute walk that it takes to see the whole town.

Obernai

The "Main Square" in Obernai

So tiny, so cute. If you walked to the edge of it, you could see it was wrapped up like a pig in a blanket with the old walls that used to protect it, still there because, well, it's really cool.

Walking around the edge of Obernai

Obernai

Obernai

As you can see, it's incredibly picturesque, and it's a shame that the camera can't catch the feeling of being among all these cozy, gorgeous homes and the tiny, cobblestone side streets we walked down to see them all.

Obernai

Obernai

1564 - the buildings here were OLD,
many having the dates on them like this one.

More to come!

Love,

Katie