Alsace Walk 2007, Day 7 – 21st July 2007

I slept well and had a good breakfast in the coffee shop at the front of the hotel. To my surprise the packing wasn’t as horrendous as I thought it might be and the suitcase closed first time. Nevertheless it was around 10am by the time I handed in my key and asked for directions to the railway station. It turned out to be a short walk and not too difficult with the case and the rucksack (now really heavy as it had my p.c. in it).

I got to the station at about 10:20am, only to discover that I had missed the train to Strasbourg by 10 minutes and that the next train was at 11:30am. I had asked the train times in my best French and was surprised (but secretly relieved) when the ticket man replied in English (the first time this happened on the whole holiday).

I decided to have a last look around the town and towed my suitcase and rucksack around with me as I trolled around the squares and the city walls for just over an hour killing time.

When I got back to the station there was a train waiting on the single line track. It was very modern and new looking. After a little confusion amongst the crowd waiting it was confirmed that this was the train to Strasbourg and we all climbed on. Once the train was under way the guard came round and checked the tickets. When I showed him mine he said that I should have stamped it in the machine on the platform before getting on. I played dumb and he said, “Are you a foreigner?” “Yes”, “OK, it doesn’t matter” and he pressed on.

I bid a silent farewell to the hills of Alsace as the train headed north. I felt very sad to be leaving. It had been a great holiday, and I really wasn’t ready for it to be over.

The train journey was only 30 minutes and when I got to Strasbourg I found that the station seemed to lack lifts and a left luggage office, though I was to discover later, when I no longer needed either that it had both. I had 2.5 hours to kill in Strasbourg so I dragged my suitcase and lugged my rucksack around the city.

The first thing I discovered was that the front of the railway station has been made to look all “space-age” by covering it in glass. To my mind it looked more like a sausage or perhaps an inflated condom!



I walked up round the centre. I’m sure it was pretty, but the weather was cloudy and I was feeling a little blue.


I found a café for a beer in a busy square called something like “Place du Homme de Fer” or something like that.


I had a very nice beer, but when I tried to order a second one and something to eat the waiter disappeared. I sat there for 30 minutes and eventually gave up. I headed back towards the station and crossed the bridge over the Rhine again.



You can see the brasserie I tried next in the photo, the place with the red awning. I sat and waited 10 minutes before I got a menu and then promptly left when I realised that the only beers this “brasserie” did where Kronenbourg and Heineken!

So there was nothing for it – head back to the station. I had a sandwich and a nice beer standing at the bar in the basement area of the station and then checked out the newsagents. I was stunned to see they had the new Harry Potter for sale. The thought of the 5 hour train journey made it irresistible.

I then had 30 minutes waiting in the booking hall before the platform for the train back to Brussels was announced. I was surprised to see one of the two couples that had been walking the same trail and ignoring me waiting for the Brussels train too. They weren’t Dutch at all they were Belgian – and probably the least friendly Belgians I had ever met!

The journey flashed by thanks to Harry Potter. The only remarkable thing was the lack of toilets on the train. As far as I could make out there were only 2 operating toilets on the whole train, and of course no buffet either.

I got off the train at the Luxembourg station in Brussels and took a cab to Julie’s house. She had lent me the keys as she was off on holiday in Germany with Alan, or so I thought.

After dropping my bags and failing to get connected to Julie’s wireless internet I went to a very nice Italian restaurant (you know the type, no pizza on the menu) and had an excellent meal of tomatoes with mozzarella followed by kidneys Italian sty;e. I was just finishing the meal when I got a call from Julie to say she was back in town with Alan and Alan’s daughter as Julie had fallen and broken her ankle! I still had a bed, but not the apartment to myself (not a problem, and with Alan’s help the next day I managed to connect to the internet).

I planned to go to “The Bank” for a cider and a read of Harry Potter, but on my way there I got a phone call from another Hash buddy reminding me that today was Belgian National Day and to tell me there was a large crowd of my friends were heading to the park outside the palace to watch the fireworks, and would I like to join them?

Inevitably the trams didn’t run all the way into town because of the celebrations and so I was late and then I couldn’t find my friends in the mêlée until after the fireworks, which were, as usual, spectacular.

I didn’t have my camera with me but I managed to get these photos on my mobile phone.







Afterwards Lawrence and Tiffany and I went for just one last beer and then it was back to Julie’s – the holiday was officially over.

Alsace Walk 2007, Day 6 - 20th July 2007

For a change it wasn’t raining or even too overcast when I got up. Breakfast was the usual bunfight buffet, but not too bad as buffet breakfasts go (a pet hate of mine). On top of that the man running the restaurant that morning was very noisy and ebullient. After breakfast, to my surprise, the case behaved itself and closed without too much shoving. Nevertheless it was still 9:45 when I paid up and checked out (having lugged my suitcase down 4 flights of stairs again – why that hotel hasn’t got a lift I just don’t understand).

My first task was to find the COOP – I knew I had seen one yesterday evening but I wasn’t taking a lot on board (including directions), so I couldn’t find it though I did take the opportunity of taking a few photos including one of the emblem of the town, a grape eating bear



and a rather lovely courtyard...



Once I tracked down the COOP I limited myself to 3 nectarines and a bottle of water and then I was off… well I wasn’t because I realised I had already got stones in my shoes (perhaps left over from last night) so I stopped back at the hotel to remove what turned out to be quite a significant amount of gravel from them.

The climb out of Andlau was immediately vicious, but very scenic






And then the sun came out so I was instantly hot and sweaty. On top of that the signposting let me down almost immediately too and I ended walking 3 sides of a vineyard, and then to really welcome me to the final day’s walk suddenly the clouds came over and the sun vanished for the best part of the rest of the walk.

Once again I came across mobile beehives in the woods. I suppose with such a dependency on fruit (including grapes), bees are important.



I got to the first ruined castle, Le Chateau Andlau within a couple of hours.




It had been a huge castle, and it had remained undefeated until the French revolution when it was sold off to a stone merchant who demolished large chunks of it for the stone! As a result not a lot was left now and the structure was unsafe, so there wasn’t a lot to see – so I pressed on.

As I left the Le Chateau Andlau the rain started. It started allegro and quickly rose to fortissimo of torrential rain with occasional crescendos of thunder, lightening. I thought I had got the wet weather drill sorted, but it obviously threw me and I lost concentration on the route. I had been walking for about 10 minutes down hill when I became aware that I hadn’t seen a waymark for a while and then I came to a junction with only one of the two routes marked in a waymark that I couldn’t find on the map. I decided I was on the wrong trail so I headed back to the last intersection, a five minute walk UP HILL and took the other branch. Then the rain really started. If I hadn’t lived in the tropics I think I would have been worried about drowning, and then of course, above the dulcet tones of the MP3 player and the roar of the rain and the crash of the thunder I heard someone singing “Queen of the Night” from the Magic Flute – my ringtone (believe it or not) – my f**king mobile was ringing! I decided to ignore it and pressed on down what I assumed to be the correct trail until – fortunately common sense (and a signpost) emerged – this was definitely the wrong trail. So turn round, swear a lot and go back to where you first came from. I decided that perhaps the person who called me was going to give me good news or say something nice so I stopped and listened to my voice mail. In the pouring rain. Half way up a mountain. On holiday. In The Pouring Rain. And it was an agent “Please phone me as I have this wonderful DBA position in Macclesfield I think you might be interested in” – I should have known better, I’m not a DBA and I don’t want to work in Macclesfield. I trudged on and returned to the first point of indecision and pressed on down the unmarked trail – 100 metres later there was a waymark of the correct size shape and colour – GRRR!

The trail hit some sort of civilization and according to the notes – and I quote

6. You come out onto a road opposite the maison forestiere Tollentoch. Cross the road and walk along the buildings to the right for 10 metres. Then turn left off the road onto a track which heads uphill for ‘carrefore du Luttenbach’. The track is waymarked with a red circle.

No problems… I pressed on up the hill and said “Bon Jour” to a couple of men using a chainsaw (in the pouring rain) and after about 300 metres (all up hill, in the rain) the trail petered out – there were some more bee hives but that was all. It was a dead-end! I looked at the notes and the map and my GPS – I didn’t understand it.

Then I read the next paragraph

7. A few metres further on, just beyond the maison forestiere, you leave this track and go straight ahead up a footpath which is faint at first…

The air was blue – there was no footpath off this trail. If there had been I would have checked the map and the directions as I always did. I wondered why the men with chainsaws smiled when I marched past them. There was no way I was going to go back down again and ask them the way. So I used the GPS and wombled around in the undergrowth and found a trail that went in exactly the wrong direction. But it was raining and any path in the rain is a good one. So I followed it and came out exactly where I thought I would – a long way from where I should be! The only good thing about where the trail came out was that there was a covered picnic area there so I could stop and shelter from the monsoon and dry my reading glasses which were reaching terminal wetness and were almost impossible to see through.

I waited in the dry getting cold for about 20 minutes before deciding to head on up the hill, not exactly ‘off-piste’, but definitely not 'on trail'. But I at least I knew where I was, and where I wanted to be, and the trails seemed to be well marked. In a lull in the storm I went for it and waded up the trail, and by keeping my head I managed to find the right trail again – despite the rain.

It just kept raining and my ‘shower proof jacket’ was dissolving. I am sure the woods were beautiful, but honestly I didn’t really notice. Nearly all my attention was focused on avoiding slipping over, but I did spot this really rather odd fungus growing on a rotting log.



For a moment I really did think I was underwater and this was a star fish!

I pressed on and slowly, ever so slowly the rain eased off to a drizzle and when I got the next major site, the ruined “Chateau Lansberg” it had really stopped. I climbed up to the ruins despite all the danger signs and took some photos to celebrate.







I was sure that everything would be sunshine from now on, and I would be at the next big destination, the Monastery of “Mont Saint Odile” in no time, after all the directions only mentioned one other spot on the way. I marched on and up and on and on and up. I amused myself by trying to mend my MP3 player that I had broken trying to take it and my other dry weather accoutrements off when the rain started – the clip holding it round my neck had snapped – I devised a cunning plan involving, believed it or not, a blade of grass to fix it – and blow me it worked. But I was still climbing and there was no sign of the monastery, and more importantly the restaurant that was there.

I had hoped that the “Kiosk Jadelot” mentioned in the guide would dispense food, but it turned out to be a rather old, deserted, but nevertheless interesting lookout point in the forest, but no food (or anything/anyone else).

I finally got to the top of the hill into a very interesting plateau littered with monoliths and a prehistoric wall.

Surely the monastery would be soon. The map was proving to be mendacious and confusing as to the direction I should go in as it was covered in highlighter and crossings out – even the tour organiser wasn’t sure of the way! Then it started to rain again… Back under cover and execute the wet weather drill in record time (without breaking the MP3 this time). Finally at about 3:15 I arrived at the convent of Mont St. Odile.





Now I am not a religious man, but I did consider it a miracle that they had a self-service refectory as well as a swanky restaurant so I could sit in the dry and eat a sandwich and a wonderfully sweet and sticky pudding and not worry about how wet and dirty I was.

The trail was ‘a piece of cake’ from here, and pretty too.

It was down hill all the way to the village of Ottrot then a short jaunt along the banks of a river to my destination, the town of Obernai.

Except it took 2 hours – not because of any problems, but because it was a long way, but at least the sun was out and the trail was down hill or flat and easy to follow and the views back to the mountains were lovely too.


As I approached Obernai I reviewed the holiday. There was a lot more rain than I had expected and more hills too, not that they proved a problem. I had learned a lot about what to take (e.g. a waterproof rain jacket) and not to take on a walking holiday (e.g. cheap walking boots). The villages were all beautiful, if shut, and I never did get to do a wine tasting, but it was a good holiday and I was really sorry it was over. I really felt I was getting the hang of this walking lark and I was up for another long walk tomorrow, but instead I had a day sitting on a train to look forward to. Just as I got into Obernai, feeling so sorry that it was all, over it started to rain again and so less than 500 metres for home, just for old times sake I performed the wet weather drill again.


The hotel La Cloche is right in the centre of town. I have room 4 which is on the second floor (go figure, as there are over 15 rooms) and of course they had no lift. After a shower I walked through the very pretty town and found a bar and wrote these notes.



I continued over supper (nearly setting fire to the p.c. with the candle on the table). I tried ordering a bottle of Andlau wine for old timesake but they had run out. A nice munster tart (quiche) followed by a pigs shank with saurkraut to follow.

I slept like a log! Not surprising as once again it had been a long and hard route. The trail was 27.6km long and more than a little hilly!



Here is route from Google Earth



If you have Google Earth installed then click here and you can down load the .kml file to have a closer look at the route. Once again all my photos can be viewed by visiting my Fotki album, or by clicking on any of the images.

Alsace Walk 2007, Day 5 - 19th July 2007

It rained in the night and in the morning once again there was a leaden sky. I once again didn’t have a particularly good night, too hot once again. I was a little heartened when I returned from breakfast to find that my room really was a lot hotter and more humid than the rest of the hotel, so it wasn’t just me, but of course that begs the question “Why?”

It was drizzling when I set off. I visited the COOP next door and bought two peaches and a bottle of water and then was off – I didn’t understand the directions until I was en route. There was a short cut which basically meant walking along the main road for a mile or two, or there was a suicidal backloop almost to Wick which was the official trail – I wasn’t there to get anywhere quickly so I took the backloop. Immediately the trail went vertical and simultaneously the rain really started; thunder, and lightening and loads and loads of rain.



Despite that, I had a good time. I had on my hash shower-proof jacket, so after a while I had to stop to transfer my camera and wallet to the rucksack as it was really pouring. I listened to Mozart on the MP3 player and laughed at the weather. It was a shame about the gloominess and lack of visibility because I am sure my loop was lovely – it certainly was steep. When after a couple of hours of walking I got down to the main road the rain had almost finished, but the juggernauts ensured I my felling of being half drowned was maintained.

There was about 2km on road and then just as the rain really ended the trail cut across meadows to a river.



Once over that I was once again back in the forest and climbed and climbed



up to the castles that had been dominating the end of yesterday’s walk.

The first castle was quite small, but the second, “Chateau d’Ortenbourg” was huge.





I was amazed to discover the first castle I had seen had been built to lay siege to the second (wow that must have been a long siege) and that Chateau d’Ortenbourg was eventually destroyed by THE SWEDES in the 17C. It was incredibly large and well defended. I was surprised to see as I left the keep that I had walked in over a very flimsy bridge that replaced the drawbridge over a yawning gap which dropped about 10 metres.

By the time the trail got me back down to the vineyards it was warm and sunny and I slowly dried out. The views back to “Chateau d’Ortenbourg” were impressive.





The first village, Dieffenthal, was pretty but once again shut.





Fortunately. the second village, Dambach-la-Ville was only a short walk and was even prettier, and open, sort of.









The shops were shut but the restaurants weren’t, and that was important as I was starving! I chose one on the main square.



I obviously was a sight as I wasn’t allowed to sit outside and was ushered to an unmade bench table inside. No worries, I had had enough of the sun anyway. I had a beer, and then another one and then ordered Black Pudding! Yum Yum, oh and another beer.



I had a wonderful meal, but almost immediately afterwards I knew I shouldn’t have had 2.5 pints of beer. The first thing I did was to forget to switch my GPS on, the second was to drop half my maps in a puddle. They dried out on a wall and while they were drying I realised that the GPS was off. When the maps were dryish I pressed on and was getting my act together when I received a SMS on one of my two phones. I had to stop and get everything tangled only to discover that it was just a ‘Welcome to XYZ, please roam with us” message. Then it started to rain, so I had to stop, again, and put my damp shower jacket on. As soon as I had done that and got under way again the sun came out and I started to cook, so I had to stop again to take it off.

After about half an hour I was slowly beginning to refocus, and felt so good I decided to take a photo of myself as I was beginning to find a place for everything, my hat, my sweatband, my GPS, my MP3 player, the maps, my sunglasses etc etc.



Unfortunately it was a crap photo and I had put the camera down on a tree stump that was covered in sap so I then had to spend another 10 minutes getting that of my camera, hands, and various parts of the rucksack. This bad luck wasn’t just bad luck – I learned I couldn’t drink that much beer and expect to get away with it!

The walk just kept on rolling out in front of me. Woods, mud, puddles, more woods, more hills. It just rolled on and on.



I loved it and stopped listening to Mozart and just enjoyed the quiet of the trail.

Quite a few of the hamlets, villages, and lone houses had loose dogs that kept me on my toes, but nothing too awful. When the trail eventually returned to the vineyards I once again ‘scrumped’ on cherries, plums and pears.









I managed to get lost in Bernardville by using my sense of direction rather than the directions to lead me. As a result I headed off in the right direction for about half a kilometre before discovering I was nevertheless on the wrong trail.

It was a long walk without these diversions and then when I finally arrived in Andlau at 5:30pm



I managed to go wrong again and add another 3km to my route before eventually staggering into the hotel at 6pm.



I was really really disappointed to discover that my room was on the second floor and that there was no lift – my suitcase felt very very heavy.

I downloaded the maps and photos before having a much-needed soak in the bath. I was stunned to discover that according to my GPS I had covered 30km!



Here is the map from Google Earth of my trail



and if you want to see the trail on your own copy of Google Earth then click here.If you do that I recommend as well as viewing the image from above you look at it obliquely as the hills stand out really nicely.

When I went down for supper in the restaurant there were the same Dutch couple I had seen so many times on the trail. I tried striking up a conversation with them “A long walk today!” “Yes” was the monosyllabic reply from the man, and hen he struck up a conversation with another couple I sort of recognised on the other side of the room in Dutch. I was put in my place…

The food was good. An onion tart (quiche) followed by a stuffed veal cordon bleu washed down with a demi pichet of Pinot Noir (red paint stripper) and finished of with their version of a ‘Dame Blanche’. I didn’t stay for coffee. I went out for a coffee and an eau de vie in the town.

I was really tired, but once again I slept really badly. I couldn’t get off to sleep and listened to the church clock strike all the quarters until 2:15am, and then I finally drifted off.

Again to view the original photos (and loads of others) please visit my Fotki website and/or just click on the image (new feature!).