I didn’t sleep particularly well – firstly the bed didn’t have any pillows only a bolster and secondly the room was hot – so I slept with the window open and despite earplugs the occasional thundering juggernaut woke me from time to time. Eventually the alarm in my mobile went off (at 8am). Breakfast was pretty standard half-hearted buffet. Packing proved to be exciting, as I couldn’t get the case shut – bad news as this is the start rather than then end of the holiday, but after a bit of repacking I managed to persuade it to close by sitting on it. Once I had dumped the case in reception and paid for the beer, wine and coffee from last night I was off at 9:20am. I didn’t head straight out of town but instead gave Turkheim another look and shot a few more pictures.
I reached the next village Niedermorshchwihr at 10am . It was a pretty little village and the church has an odd twisted spire.
I walked round the village hoping to find a wine cellar open – but even the one recommended in the route notes was closed – as was everything else, but it was very pretty.
It was a short steep walk to the next village Katzenthal.
I stopped on the way to take a photo of myself and also found a small cherry tree absolutely groaning with ripe cherries
I took a handful; they were wonderful. In fact along the way I found two other scrumping opportunities taking plums from wayside trees and a blackberry. Katzenthal was pretty but closed too.
The next village, Ammerschwirh seemed to be very close as it was clearly visible across the vines, but it still took a long time to get there along the path through the vineyards.
The trail lead you around the town but I was a little hungry and keen to see a little of the town. Once again almost everything was shut but I did find one boulangerie open where I managed to get some water, fruit and an ice cream. The village wasn’t as pretty as the other villages having been knocked about a bit during WW2.
The trail from Ammerschwirh to Kaysersberg started in vineyards but towards the end I had my first walk in woodland.
The trail was a little confusing but I trusted my judgement and managed not to get lost. The end of the trail disgorged me on the side of a busy main road just outside Kaysersberg. Crossing the road I was delighted to discover that it was market day.
I bought a salami as emergency iron rations and generally had a look around before plunging into the chocolate box pretty town. It was very pretty.
I guess this guy doesn't sell a lot of his wine in England!
I stopped at the Golden Lion for lunch and had an excellent Quiche salad in the courtyard, confident that my manhood wouldn't be impuned as this is a national dish.
Every now and then I could her a clattering noise – I assumed it was a motor of some sort until I saw everyone looking up and pointing. It was a pair of storks snapping their beaks together! The trail up out of Kaysersberg was incredibly steep up past an old ruined chateau.
The tower was accessible with a new spiral staircase, but I decided to give it a miss. I couldn’t believe how the trail just climbed and climbed
Sometimes it was more like rock climbing than walking
It was hot hard work despite the shade of the woods. I came across 2 couples sitting on the path resting and having picnics – the first fellow ramblers I’ve seen. The climb got to me and I stopped for a drink of water and an application of insect repellent on two occasions – I was almost at the top when I stopped for the second time. When I came to collect my bits and pieces I couldn’t find my sunglasses – so I turned round and retraced my steps back about 750 metres to the last stop. I asked both sets of ramblers that I had seen earlier in my best French if they had seen my sunglasses and I was really disappointed when I reached the previous stop without finding them. Retracing my steps back up the hill wasn’t much fun and when I finally reached the second stop there were my sunglasses on a tree-stump – exactly where I left them! I blame the altitude. I caught and past one couple but saw neither hair nor hide of the other couple. The trail finally peaked and after a right and left descended down a path. There were occasional ramps over fallen trees and rocks – I even tried walking over one and ended up having to go down the other side on my arse – they were a puzzle until I realised I was walking down a very hairy mountain bike trail. The second half of the walk had been very different from the section before lunch until finally I immerged from the woods about 1 km from Riquewihr when the trail became a lot warmer but much gentler as it wound once again vineyards.
Riquewihr was again like Kaysersberg chocolate box pretty. I got to the centre of town at 15:36 and celebrated with a beer!
After finishing the beer I bought some macaroons and postcard and then walked the 500 metres beyond town to the hotel.
To my surprise it was modern and the room large and pleasant. They even have a swimming pool but I’ve spent all my time since arriving charging up devices, downloading data and writing this log. Dinner is back in town. I am looking forward to going back for another look. Dinner was ‘interesting’. I presented my voucher at the restaurant and was ushered to a small table where the waitress said something about having the fixed menu which was the speciality. It turned out to be a three course meal with a cheese salad to start and then something that I can only described as ‘Alsatian Hotpot’ as the main course and ice cream (whether you wanted it or not) for pudding. The ‘Alsatian Hotpot’ wasn’t made out of dogs, but was a cross between a Lancashire Hotpot and a Tajine. It had a sort of Arabic name too, but I checked an a lot of the other restaurants had it on the menu too… I ordered a bottle of Tokay from the local vineyard but I was presented with a Pinot Gris – when I pointed this out I was told it was the same thing (which of course it isn’t) – the waitress was a little bossy so I knuckled down and enjoyed it. The food was surprisingly good. The fly in the ointment was the singing from some old guy with a guitar and a very odd pronunciation of English lyrics and the number of flies – I managed to bat one into my ‘Tokay'. I rounded off with a coffee and a cherry Eau de Vie. It was still very early when I finished, around 9pm. I wandered around town but everything and everywhere was closing and when it started to rain I headed back to the hotel and watched a movie on my p.c.
I uploaded my GPS trail to Google Earth
If you have Google Earth installed on your computer you can down load the .kml file by clicking here and then you can play with it yourself and you can see all my photos from Day 2 of my walk on my Fotki site.
Then I was off out into the vineyards. Initially the trail snaked in and out around a road up through the vineyards.
I saw a man using a horse to plough between the vines (though he blew his credibility when I found his 4WD and horsebox around the corner) as well as several other people using miniature tractors for the same job.I reached the next village Niedermorshchwihr at 10am . It was a pretty little village and the church has an odd twisted spire.
I walked round the village hoping to find a wine cellar open – but even the one recommended in the route notes was closed – as was everything else, but it was very pretty.
It was a short steep walk to the next village Katzenthal.
I stopped on the way to take a photo of myself and also found a small cherry tree absolutely groaning with ripe cherries
I took a handful; they were wonderful. In fact along the way I found two other scrumping opportunities taking plums from wayside trees and a blackberry. Katzenthal was pretty but closed too.
The next village, Ammerschwirh seemed to be very close as it was clearly visible across the vines, but it still took a long time to get there along the path through the vineyards.
The trail lead you around the town but I was a little hungry and keen to see a little of the town. Once again almost everything was shut but I did find one boulangerie open where I managed to get some water, fruit and an ice cream. The village wasn’t as pretty as the other villages having been knocked about a bit during WW2.
The trail from Ammerschwirh to Kaysersberg started in vineyards but towards the end I had my first walk in woodland.
The trail was a little confusing but I trusted my judgement and managed not to get lost. The end of the trail disgorged me on the side of a busy main road just outside Kaysersberg. Crossing the road I was delighted to discover that it was market day.
I bought a salami as emergency iron rations and generally had a look around before plunging into the chocolate box pretty town. It was very pretty.
I guess this guy doesn't sell a lot of his wine in England!
I stopped at the Golden Lion for lunch and had an excellent Quiche salad in the courtyard, confident that my manhood wouldn't be impuned as this is a national dish.
Every now and then I could her a clattering noise – I assumed it was a motor of some sort until I saw everyone looking up and pointing. It was a pair of storks snapping their beaks together! The trail up out of Kaysersberg was incredibly steep up past an old ruined chateau.
The tower was accessible with a new spiral staircase, but I decided to give it a miss. I couldn’t believe how the trail just climbed and climbed
Sometimes it was more like rock climbing than walking
It was hot hard work despite the shade of the woods. I came across 2 couples sitting on the path resting and having picnics – the first fellow ramblers I’ve seen. The climb got to me and I stopped for a drink of water and an application of insect repellent on two occasions – I was almost at the top when I stopped for the second time. When I came to collect my bits and pieces I couldn’t find my sunglasses – so I turned round and retraced my steps back about 750 metres to the last stop. I asked both sets of ramblers that I had seen earlier in my best French if they had seen my sunglasses and I was really disappointed when I reached the previous stop without finding them. Retracing my steps back up the hill wasn’t much fun and when I finally reached the second stop there were my sunglasses on a tree-stump – exactly where I left them! I blame the altitude. I caught and past one couple but saw neither hair nor hide of the other couple. The trail finally peaked and after a right and left descended down a path. There were occasional ramps over fallen trees and rocks – I even tried walking over one and ended up having to go down the other side on my arse – they were a puzzle until I realised I was walking down a very hairy mountain bike trail. The second half of the walk had been very different from the section before lunch until finally I immerged from the woods about 1 km from Riquewihr when the trail became a lot warmer but much gentler as it wound once again vineyards.
Riquewihr was again like Kaysersberg chocolate box pretty. I got to the centre of town at 15:36 and celebrated with a beer!
After finishing the beer I bought some macaroons and postcard and then walked the 500 metres beyond town to the hotel.
To my surprise it was modern and the room large and pleasant. They even have a swimming pool but I’ve spent all my time since arriving charging up devices, downloading data and writing this log. Dinner is back in town. I am looking forward to going back for another look. Dinner was ‘interesting’. I presented my voucher at the restaurant and was ushered to a small table where the waitress said something about having the fixed menu which was the speciality. It turned out to be a three course meal with a cheese salad to start and then something that I can only described as ‘Alsatian Hotpot’ as the main course and ice cream (whether you wanted it or not) for pudding. The ‘Alsatian Hotpot’ wasn’t made out of dogs, but was a cross between a Lancashire Hotpot and a Tajine. It had a sort of Arabic name too, but I checked an a lot of the other restaurants had it on the menu too… I ordered a bottle of Tokay from the local vineyard but I was presented with a Pinot Gris – when I pointed this out I was told it was the same thing (which of course it isn’t) – the waitress was a little bossy so I knuckled down and enjoyed it. The food was surprisingly good. The fly in the ointment was the singing from some old guy with a guitar and a very odd pronunciation of English lyrics and the number of flies – I managed to bat one into my ‘Tokay'. I rounded off with a coffee and a cherry Eau de Vie. It was still very early when I finished, around 9pm. I wandered around town but everything and everywhere was closing and when it started to rain I headed back to the hotel and watched a movie on my p.c.
I uploaded my GPS trail to Google Earth
If you have Google Earth installed on your computer you can down load the .kml file by clicking here and then you can play with it yourself and you can see all my photos from Day 2 of my walk on my Fotki site.
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