Kaysersberg 15 Oct 15

Before crossing into Germany, we decided to go back to Kaysersberg for our last stop in the Alsace, returning mainly because we wanted to collect some more wine from the mad vigneron and also to climb up to the chateau that sits above the town. Accordingly, we parked up and completed our walk, tried some rather nice fruit liqueurs in one of the shops then went back to visit the vigneron and a few more boxes to load into the garage. 

Blienschwiller 14 Oct 15

Deciding that Obernai was the furthest north we would travel in the Alsace, we started our journey back down towards the Rhine, aiming to cross at Neuf-Brisach after first filling up the fridge and larder at the Lidl in Obernai. On the way up towards Obernai we had spotted a lovely village with a superb France Passion stopover in a vineyard, so we headed back to Blienschwiller and parked up amongst the vines at Spitz & Fils. The weather had suddenly become very cold so the heating went on. Suddenly lots of cars surrounded us and people gathered around where we were parked. A white van drew up and the assembly embarked and disappeared up the hill where we could see them picking grapes on the steep slopes. Later they returned and disappeared into the vigneron's house, emerging some time later slightly the worse for wear and carrying lots of boxes of wine. We decided that we need to apply for this sort of work!

In the meantime, we had a delightful walk around the hills and vineyards surrounding this village. Woken early in the morning by the church bells, we packed up and, after breakfast, we bought a few bottles from the very nice vigneron. He explained that the pickers were gathering the very last grapes of this year's harvest. We have to say that he produces some very nice wines and the France Passion scheme is a great way of spending a night in a beautiful spot.

Obernai & Strasbourg 12-13 Oct 15

More very pretty villages on the way to Obernai, where we had spent a couple of days last year, so back on the same site, on the same pitch and a walk into town to find something nice to eat. We walked into the bakers thinking that a nice healthy sandwich would be on the cards and then we spotted a rhubarb meringue pie. Now, if you've never had rhubarb meringue pie, let me tell you that it is worth the journey to the Alsace just to taste it!

Anyway, I digress. We did some more washing at the campsite, wandered around town for a bit, then retired back to the site for a bottle of Cremant and dinner.

On Monday morning we got up early and walked to the bus stop where we paid the princely sum of 2 euro for the 45min bus ride into Strasbourg. There, once again, we wandered around, bought a tablecloth and had a traditional Alsacienne lunch in our favourite restaurant overlooking the river. After a bit more bimbling it started to rain so we caught the bus back to the site and relaxed.

Yep - she made me drive through here!

Bergheim, Haut Koenigsbourg and Chatenois - 11 Oct 15

The joys of motorhoming! We were continuing our route along the Alsace wine route, stopping at a couple of villages en-route (including the delightful Bergheim), when the navigator gave the instruction to turn left. We turned left...and went up...and up....and up, eventually arriving at the castle of Haut Koenigsbourg at 800m in the Vosges Mountains. Well, we quite fancied visiting this castle and as we were here....  Anyway, we had a very pleasant few hours wandering around this beautiful old castle,  albeit the views were somewhat limited due to the weather.

After a warming hot chocolate, we headed back down to earth, did a bit more of the wine route and then parked up for the night on the free aire at Châtenois, where we compared travel notes with some fellow Brits, had a walk and then retired for a quiet night.

Ribeauville 9-10 Oct 15

Further up the wine route to Ribeauville, yet another very pretty town. We parked up on the tiny aire next to a wine producer and bimbled into town for a mooch around. This town is stretched out in a valley and we enjoyed our stroll up the "Grand Rue". We bought some onion tart and green salad for dinner and then visited the wine producer for a good long tasting session. Retiring back to the van we van-watched. Due to the total inability of Jonny Foreigner to park in marked bays, we had great fun watching huge vans shunting around the tiny aire trying to squeeze into impossible spaces.

In the morning we decided that we would climb to the 3 ruined castles that overlook the town, but didn't want to risk the van in the cramped aire, so we moved onto a local campsite. We then packed a lunch and started the long climb up to the chateaux. As we climbed the weather cleared and we were rewarded with stunning views when we reached the top.