After a fabulous 5 nights in Austria, our thoughts had turned to the long journey home via the Alsace wine region . On the way up to France we travel through Liechtenstein which was definitely on the bucket list as a new country neither of us had previously visited and then we head north through Switzerland.
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Our last night in Austria had tested our endurance for heat as temperatures stayed in the 20’s well into the night, we had expected a thunder storm in the early morning but it missed us and seemingly hit the valley on the other side of the border. We woke up to news of devastating floods in the Dolomites from a torrential storm – in reality only about 40 miles as the crow flies from where we were in Mayrhofen.
But don’t worry… the rain caught up with us that evening! We found a great park up for the night in Liechtenstein – it was 14 km up the side of a mountain at a café carpark. It was the end of the road before it petered out onto farm tracks and really peaceful. We had probably the most expensive black americano coffees at 13CH for 2 (about £12!)
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We did get plenty of entertainment though. First the herd of inquisitive cows that came to visit us with their clanging bells, then the pack of donkeys that were being moved to a different field by the farmer. They were reluctant to go where they were told and it was a comical 10 minutes watching the charade – I now know where the term ‘stubborn as a mule’ comes from!!
The drive back down to the valley the next day was probably one of the most challenging drives of the trip – 14km of tight, narrow hairpin bends in a complete fog out! Luckily we didn’t meet anyone. The rain continued so after a brief stop to take photo’s of the castle, we continued on our way into Switzerland.
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The drive through Switzerland was wet and windy but as we arrived in the Alsace region the skies turned blue ready for us to get out and explore the area.
We booked into the ‘Les Trois Chateaux’ campsite in the beautiful town of Eguisheim for a couple of nights which is one of the first places we have come across other English travellers for quite some time! It was just a short walk to the town centre which has several wine tasting vineyard outlets. Alsace dry Muscat is actually one of my favourite wines so we had to sample a few!!
Eguisheim is renowned as an area for storks to roost and there are several large nests on the town roofs and the church spire. They are quite magnificent to watch as they fly from roof to roof and perch majestically surveying the goings on below. It is quite a sight to see. We did get caught out with a flash storm whilst we were in town so retreated to a café for a beer and a slice of apple pie.
The next day, we got out on the bikes and cycled through the vineyards to the picturesque town of Colmar. The architecture in the Alsace region is very distinctive with the brightly coloured, timber framed buildings and the centre of Colmar was very impressive. The buildings seemed to be on a larger scale and many on the waterfront of the canal with the reflections just adding to the beauty.
It was a very busy town with tourists from all corners of the world. The cafes and restaurants were bustling and the streets packed. We had a lovely experience meeting a really nice Dutch couple who follow us on our YouTube channel – It was great that they stopped us and we had a long chat as if we were old friends! It does fry my mind a little sometimes that people do know all about us!
As the weather was still on our side, we decided to cycle to Turkheim, another pretty little town with quite a history. We explored the side streets and found a small museum that showed photo’s of the devastation it endured during WW2. It was almost flattened, and it was quite remarkable how they had painstakingly returned it to its former glory.
On our cycle back to the campsite we called back in at Equisheim for a last round of wine tasting. We found a great little bar where you could buy wine flights for €4 with several different flights to choose from. The heavens once again opened just as we were about to leave so what else could we do but buy a small pitchet of dry muscat and enjoy our final proper afternoon of the 6 week road trip!
We had left one more night to get back up to Calais and drove through France on mainly toll free roads up to just north of Reims where I had spotted a P4N on the canals just off the motorway. It was a really quite little stop off – just perfect for what we needed and free which is always a bonus.
With us rushing back for Luke and Charlottes family engagement party, we had been put in charge of buying fizz. A family favourite is the Crémant wines rather than Champagne so we stopped off enroute to the port to get stocked up.
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We had such a great weekend back in the UK. The party was fab and the first time our extended family had all been together since Christmas. It was a full on weekend of fun, food and alcohol! Sadly the only photo that was taken all weekend was of the cat pinching leftovers from the BBQ! But I take that a sign that we were all enjoying ourselves too much.
It was so good to get back home to our little cottage in the Dales- even after 18 months it still feels a little unreal and like we are arriving at a holiday cottage.
I am a little behind in writing blogs so will try and catch up to date in the next day or 2. We have had the most amazing European road trip and I have enjoyed documenting our travels in this series of blogs.
Have a great weekend
Jackie and Richard
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The Alsace is a lovely part of France and we have visited there many times including the towns you mention here.
Last year we discovered Obernai which seems to be an unsung 'jewel' of the area. It is very much like most of the towns in the Alsace and has a huge FREE aire de camping car with toilets two minutes walk fro the town.
Ann