Ortenaukreis

Hello from Strasbourg - capital of the North eastern region of France and the official home to the European parliament. Mike and I crossed over the Rhine River on Wednesday morning and we’ve spent the past few days biking through a bit of Alsace. Alsace is in France but bordered closely by Germany and Switzerland . Culturally, this area of France is considered an exception as it was under German influence for much of its history. In brief, the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 led to the unification of Germany as a modern state and the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine, which then reverted to France after WWI as part of the peace deal and then was overtaken by Germany during WW2 and returned to France after the war. You get the idea! The towns are full of colourful, well-preserved half-timbered buildings that in some cases go back to the middle ages. Fortunately, the plumbing has been updated - at least where we stayed. You know how I feel about bad plumbing! Of more interest to us is the fact that Alsace is an important wine growing area. The wines are mostly whites grown with German grape varietals like Riesling and Gewürztraminer. The cuisine incorporates many German styles with French cuisine. A favorite of mine is flammekueche (tarte flambée) – something like a French pizza with lardon bacon, strong cheese, crème fresh and onions. Yum. Alsace is also the main beer-producing area of France because they grow hops here.. Mike made sure to sample a few.
On Tuesday we crossed from Germany over the Rhine River and cycled through Neuf Briesach - an old fortress town. Our overnight stop was Colmar which was a treat ( although super touristy) with winding canals and a beautiful old town centre. We ate our tarte flambé dinner outside that night.
Wednesday night we were in the smaller village of Mittelbergheim (thanks Sharon for the recommendation) at Domaine Wittman ,a family-run winery. This particular Domaine, or winery is one of 20 in the village and has been in the Wittman family for 10 generations. We were warmly greeted by Valerie who showed us to our room, pointed to the wine fridge, and rushed back down to serve a large mid-afternoon meal to the workers. The whole yard was buzzing with tractor -loads of grapes arriving to be crushed and the “ mash (pamace/ marc)“ or remnants carted away. The smell of fruit fermenting was overwhelming - although not unpleasant. We enjoyed some of their Wittman Riesling on a little balcony before wandering the town. Valerie told us wistfully that the younger generation have little interest in taking over the winery businesses and they wonder what will happen in the future. I suppose this is a bit like family farms in Canada. At this time of year it sure does look like a lot of work, but the weather is staying warm, and what a delicious reward.
We’ve had a super 4 days of cycling with the frustrations of travel receding in our minds. I particularly enjoy the early morning rides through the vineyards with only the hum of the farm machinery breaking the quiet. The weather has been perfect - cool, clear mornings with warm afternoons but no oppressive heat. The scenery is stunning , the paths are mostly paved and well signed, and every village we enter seems to be competing with the last one for prettiest Alsatian village. The flowers overflow from window boxes. The area has many preserved medieval towns where we’ve stopped to look around and grab a coffee - Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Obernai. The Vosges Mountains to the west are dotted with old castles.
Yesterday our ride into Strasbourg included 25km of leisurely cycling along the La Bruche canal path. The French really love to cycle and the infrastructure is excellent and the paths well traveled. Navigating with Ride with GPS app on my phone has been easy - we just have to keep our iphones charged up. I see some other cyclists with paper maps and have flashbacks from our trips to Dordogne and Normandy.

After all the bucolic, quiet towns, Strasbourg is a very busy, industrial city - full of tourists, students, a zillion bikes going in every direction and trams. We had to negotiate carefully coming in yesterday to avoid the tracks. We took the opportunity of our single night in town to get some laundry done and soak up the old-town atmosphere. We found a great microbrewery that served not only great beer ( according to Mike) but an excellent tarte flambée. Strasbourg is a cultural hub with loads of churches and museums to visit but we are turning the bikes north for 60 km along the Rhine today so we’ll have to leave that for another time. We’ll stay in France for today with a planned stop tonight at a little village called Roppenheim - known by Canadians who served in Baden as the home of the restaurant known fondly as “the Garlic Pit”.
Some of you might be wondering how Mike is enjoying his e-bike. Just between us, I think he is rather sold. He thinks I don’t notice but he’s running it on “tour” setting - just cruising along. His battery is larger than mine so I’m having to keep an eye on my range. So far the rental bikes have been okay. My pedals make a clackity- clack sound and Mike’s back brake makes a bit of a screeching sound at times, but the bikes have been solid on any uneven surfaces with fat tires and good shocks. So I think we’ll make it,
That’s the news for now. We cross back into Germany tomorrow.
Love Heather /MomRead more