I had heard of a cycle path that wound it's way through the vineyards and wine villages of the Alsace region. In fact this was one of the reasons that I was keen to cruise the Canal Marne au Rhin which cuts through the northern edge of the Vosges Mountains through Lorraine. The port of Saverne, as well as boing a lively place in a nice town, was a perfect place to start.
The highlights of this trip were most definitely the traditional wine villages of the Alsace wine route, lying between the Rhine plain and the Vosges mountains - one of the most beautiful areas we have ever been.
We started from the port of Saverne to the town of Marmoutier with its impressive old church traditional houses; a little taste of what was to come!
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| Carving in Marmoutier Church |
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| Marmoutier Church |
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| On the way |
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| Storks nesting at least 6 pairs in bird made and human assisted nesting sites |
Following on we reached Boertch, a lovely village with a triple bucket well, still with wooden buckets hanging. We intended to find a place to stay in Obersheim, but cycling into the walled town of Rosheim was just too tempting. We went straight to the Tourist Information and the helpful lady suggested La Rose De Alsace. Brilliant choice http://www.larosedalsace.com/
Dinner was in a little Creperie down the road. We walked the fortified town with its Romanesque Church. All perfect! And rather more busy than we expected!
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| Rosheim |
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| Rosheim |
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| Rosheim |
The following morning we headed off via Mittlebergheim another traditional wine village. I had a plan to cycle up to the convent at Mont St Odile. It's very high up - I cant remember how high. Anyhow, we made it after a tremendous climb through the woods. I've given it a separate entry, but here is a photo of one of the chapels. And some more photos at the end of this post.
We had planned to stay at Barr, but on arrival it was not quite as nice as we hoped - in comparison to the fabulous quiet wine villages that we had been cycling through.
In Barr I also had the second experience in my life where I have found myself in a hotel room which I hated and had to politely refuse it and then walk out, tail between legs and feeling awful. Anyhow, glad I did because we traveled on a bit and found another wonderful village and hotel.
Ittersviller is where we stayed on the second night. A very good small hotel and wine making establishment. We found this on Booking.com which we found extremely useful throughout the trip both to find nearby places to stay and to easily book direct if we were sure we wanted to stay there. Having the review scores helped to hone down our choices and to see the prices in advance.
Arriving at Ittersviller was just lovely. The vinyards were bathed in the last of the golden evening sun and the welcome was warm - when we eventually found it. It seems that Keiffer is a common name in this village and we kept thinking we had arrived only to find we had arrived at the house of a different Keiffer!
Having only our paniers meant that we could not buy, but they still insisted we taste. http://www.hotel-kieffer.com/en/ The restaurant opposite was excellent in the evening. Great chunky beams and all very Germanic as is almost everything in this region that is French. Asparagus was in season, and that is what was suggested, so that is what we had. Actually it was lovely but so much - I've gone off asparagus a bit now! And it is so white here, I like our slightly green UK asparagus.
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| Restaurant opposite |
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| Hotel Keiffer Wine Tasting area |
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| Getting ready to go in the morning |
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| Another wine Village |
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| Little library in the square opposite pattiserie |
We had a last look around Itterswiller and had another day of vineyards, villages and castles. Here are some photos taked during our final day to Colmar. We did get to Little Venice in Colmar, but is was something of a let down compared with the beauty we had seen on previous days. The main bridge was a building sight and so we saw and we left on the train back to Strasbourg and then Saverne - 5 minutes walk from the port - very convenient!
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| See Stork nest |
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| Chapel in Vineyard |
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| Castle |
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| Walk to Castle |
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| This and following Le Ramstein - Castle ruin. |
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| This and following L'Ortenbourg. Best preserved Alsacian Medieval Castle |
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| Chatenois |
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| Berghiem - worth seeing |
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| Bergheim |
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| Fortified Bergheim |
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| Tractor, narrower than ones in Burgundy. These go between vines. Burgundy wine tractors straddle the vines. |
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| Little Venice, Colmar |
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| Catherdral, Colmar |
Following are more photos of Mont St Odile
