Back in Alsace

Tuesday, we returned to Alsace after our 4 days in Burgundy.  We took a northern route on our return, driving through the Vosges mountains and the tunnel at St. Die which is open after years of being closed.  I'm not actually sure when it reopened, maybe several years ago.  Our route took us through the Alsace-Lorraine region; the Lorraine section is in the upper Moselle valley.  We drove through the towns of Vittel and Epinal, stopping for a break at the latter and discovered the Moselle runs through the centre of it.  The towns in this area seem to be plainer and lack the charm of both Alsace or Burgundy, in my opinion.  They appear more "functional" with a focus on industry rather than tourism.  And, there are not vineyards; the climate and geography doesn't lend themselves to that.  Vittel is, of course, famous for its water and many of the towns we drove through had saw mills.  The lumber industry seems to thrive in the area.  Below are a couple of photos of Epinal.  As we went over the summit of one of the passes, we came upon a memorial to the US troops who liberated this area in 1944.  In hindsight, I wish I had taken a photo of it.  It was near the entrance to the National Park of the Vosges.

Since we've been back, I've been taking it easy but Jo and Jeff took another bike ride, this time south to Colmar, a fair distance from here.  Before we left for Burgundy, they had cycled to Strasbourg which is to the north.  It is worth mentioning that there is an incredible system of bike paths around here, independent from the roads.  Further, the Tourism Office here in Rhinau (which is about the size of a postage stamp) has electric bikes available to rent.  They are affordable (20 Euros a day plus a deposit) which gives avid cyclists an alternate option of exploring the area.  

Thursday was market day in the village.  So, we went to pick up roast chicken and potatoes for our lunch.  We passed a group of young children all in bright little vests; Jeff wondered if they were little "gilets jaunes" in training - ha ha!!

For the Dubney's last day in Alsace, we decided to head for Obernai, one of the prettiest of the villages (towns) on the Alsace Wine Road.  I have blogged about it before but on this visit I noticed a number of the shops that have been there for years are gone and some have been replaced with more upscale stores.  One, which looked interesting, sold nougat and spiced bread (essentially gingerbread).  I had a sample of the latter and it was very tasty so I considered buying a small loaf of it.  That was, until I found out the loaf (smaller than a loaf at home) cost 18 Euros or about $26!!  What on earth did it have in it?

We admired the square, the Hotel de Ville with its trompe l'oeil, shopped at Dietrich (a lovely tourist store), walked through the tiny Jewish quarter where you can still see Hebrew written on some buildings dating from the 1400s, and actually enjoyed an ice cream - it was almost warm enough!

The next couple of days will be downtime for me.  I took the Dubneys to Orschweier  Bahnhof this morning for their train(s) to Trier and more cycling.  Now, I will have a quiet few days before I head to London next Thursday.  If anything interesting happens, I will update the blog. However, once I start my road trip along the south coast of England through Dorset, Devon and Cornwall and then on to north Devon and the Cotswolds, I will be updating the blog.  I hope to share some stories along with photos of quaint thatched cottages, charming Cornish fishing villages, and anything else that captures my interest.