RIQUEWIHR

The drive from Strasbourg to Riquewihr was pretty funny.  M & D both wanted to take the scenic route, so I plugged it all in to our Tom-Tom and away we went.........well scenic is really what we got as we were directed through some areas that we weren't even sure whether or not it was actually a road!

Nevertheless, the Alsace region is full of half-timbered houses, lush vineyards and forest-clad mountains, so it was really nice to see all this up close, rather than whizzing past it on the freeway.

We stopped in a smallish town called Selestat to find somewhere for lunch and after what seemed like hours, we finally found a decent place and were lucky enough to end up with some really tasty toasted sandwiches.

Tom-Tom successfully got us to Riquewihr, a picturesque town popular amongst tourists for its historical architecture.  It is also known for the Riesling and other great wines produced in the village.

After a few issues at check-in which had the potential to see Mum do her nut, we dropped all of our stuff off and went out to explore the town.  Immediately one word came to mind - cute - it was like a tiny village full of colourful gingerbread houses and it was completely engulfed by vineyards on the surrounding hills.  It was an absolute delight to walk around the cobble-stone streets with flower-decked balconies, sculpted windows paved courtyards everywhere to be seen.

Apart from the various wine shops that dotted the main street, there was also an array of different food shops that sent my sweet tooth salivating.  Even though it had just ticked past 6pm, it wasn't long before I was tucking in to a huge slice of apple pie!

We walked around for a bit longer and before we knew it we had literally covered the whole town.  There wasn't a whole lot to do there, so it was lucky that Mum had only booked us in for 2 nights.

Every wine store had a pretty good deal going on, such as 1 riesling, 1 sav. blanc, 1 pinot gris for about 15-20 euro, so Dad came back to the hotel with his hands full.

standing outside our hotel - it was in a great location right in the middle of town, but then again the town was so small that any hotel was basically right in the middle

It didn't cross our minds that because it was such a small town, most restaurants wouldn't be open late.  We played cards and drank beer and wine and ate some cheese and faggots* that Anna had bought earlier in the day and by the time we headed out for dinner at about 8:30-9pm, almost everything was closed!

* some sort of salami stick

Luckily we managed to find a cool restaurant that wasn't just open, but full of people as well.  "Restaurant Winstub L'Ecurie" was really weirdly decorated on the inside, but it was certainly interesting to look at.

even the wine jugs were a little different

Almost as equally as weird was the food.  Dad got stuck into escargot (snails) for entree and even convinced me to eat one, whilst the pie that Mum and Anna had was not a huge hit.

We all hit the sack around midnight, but I stayed up until about 3am punching out some of the blog from Switzerland.

Dad wanted to be in the car by 10am, but getting down to breakfast before hand proved to be difficult.  We only had one shower between the four of us and because the apartment was kind of in the roof of the building, the bathroom ceiling was on such an angle that it made standing up in the shower almost impossible.  Kind of hard to explain, but it was basically a custom-made shower for midgets.

The hotel put on an excellent breakfast, with just about everything you could think of, including boiled eggs which had Anna as excited as I've seen her in a long time haha.

We were in the car and programming Tom-Tom by 10:30-11, so not a bad result really.  Dad got angry though because within 5-10 minutes of being in the car, Mum and I both wanted to hop out and take photo's of the vineyards that were surrounding Riquewihr.
Being Guido, I was in charge of all navigational duties, so stop we did!

Tom-Tom then took us on a bit of a wild goose chase, and at one stage we were literally driving on grass between vines, but magically we appeared on the highway and about 30 minutes later we arrived at the Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg.

Built in the 12th century, the castle bore witness to eight centuries of European conflicts and rivalries between feudal Lords, Kings and Emperors.  It is nestled in a strategic location in the Vosges Mountains, just west of Selestat, and this strategic position is the reason it was used by successive powers.

Having been to a few castles over the past few months, Anna and I were a bit like "oh yeah, another castle", but this one was pretty cool.  There was some interesting weaponry to look at and wince as we imagined the amount of pain they would cause, plenty of photogenic courtyards and some interesting rooms with some seriously old school heaters.

Towering at almost 800m, the Haut-Koenigsbourg boasts an exceptional panoramic view.  On a clear day you cash even see the Alps and the Black Forest!

staring down the barrel of defeat..........literally

Jumping back in the car, all of our stomach's were rumbling, so Dad stepped on the gas and in about 45 minutes we arrived at Colmar.

Mostly spared from the destructions of the French Revolution and the wars of 1870-71 and WW1 and WW2, the old-town is renowned among tourists for its beauty and is known as "la Petite Venise" (Little Venice) because of the many canals that criss-cross their way through magical old buildings.

Eventually we all agreed on somewhere for lunch and apart from the fact that the service was ordinary at best (in fact, Anna and I would have done a runner!), we all had huge salads and they were pretty good.

Colmar was pretty similar to Riquewihr, just that it was a lot bigger, had canals, heaps of tourists and a lot more shops.  Since Anna and I had met M & D in Strasbourg 4 days earlier, Dad had walked into at least 10 stores looking for a man scarf, so when he finally bit the bullet and bought one in Colmar, we all rejoiced!

As we all had salads for lunch, I made the executive decision that we could all do with some sort of sweet pastry, so I ducked into a patisserie on the way back to the car and came out with a mouth watering slice of apple pie and the sweetest of raspberry jam tarts, delicious!

Arriving back in Riquewihr, Anna and I donned the runners and walked our way up into the vineyards behind the town.  Being September, the grapes were basically ready to be picked, so pick them we did, but then we ate them as well haha.

                                      

The views of the pretty little town from amongst the vines was really special and by the end of our walk Anna was at boiling point with the amount of photo's I had taken.

Angry Anna walking ahead of me haha

Dad was keen to play cards that evening as he had been stuck in the "shitkicker" position for the majority of the trip so far and he was getting sick and tired of Anna and I referring to him as "shitty" haha.  Unfortunately for Dad he ended up at the bottom again and he was sure he was getting dealt the wrong cards haha.

Dinner was an interesting experience - we turned up at the front door and were rudely greeted by the most unfriendly old hag you could imagine, I think she was even wearing ugg boots; actually that might be an exaggeration but she was definitely in trackies!  

She ushered us into the back of the restaurant, where there was absolutely no atmosphere, so I asked if we could sit outside.....well it was like I had offended her family or something because she proceeded to bag us in French to the only other people sitting in that area of the restaurant, it was ridiculous.  We so would have stormed out of there if the menu didn't look so good!  

duck breast with vegetables and potatoes gratin au dauphinois - so good

I can't remember what we all ate, but we were all more than happy, which almost made up for the pitiful service, but not quite.  They were lucky that M & D were there because there is no way that Anna and I would have paid for that treatment haha!