Alsace, France

After my last couple of posts, I have noticed that the email you receive may not offer the best viewing experience. It’s much better to click on to the blog itself. Here’s the link: https://globetrotterwoman.net/

On the right hand side is a list of posts. Click on the most recent. For this one, it is MAY 2022.

My rail journey continues. I just spend three wonderful days in Alsace, France. I had wanted to go to some of these towns for a while now, ever since I saw pictures of Colmar and Riquewihr. Turns out, here is so much more to this area than just pretty half-timbered houses.

The city of Colmar was my base. There is good train service to this city and I had a nice little budget hotel about five minutes from the station. My first day in Colmar was pretty icky weather. I did walk around a bit and see the pretty center, but all pictures were taken with my phone. Those are posted on Instagram (lemsfo).

That afternoon, I headed off to Riquewihr on the public bus. The nice people at my hotel printed out the bus schedule for me. It was a very comfortable ride and economical at 6 euro for a return ticket.

Riquewihr is the town in Alsace that gave Disney the inspiration for the “location” in Beauty and the Beast. Now I need to see that movie. The town is delightful and definitely looks like a fairy tale. Penguin even managed to make friends with one of the locals.

You can see from the last photo in the slideshow, wine is important here. I guess I always knew that, but I didn’t really know HOW IMPORTANT. Every single one of these little towns is dedicated to wine. There are tasting rooms everywhere and the people are so nice.

On my second day, I boarded a hop-on/hop-off bus that goes to many of the local villages. I discovered it while waiting for the public bus outside of Riquewihr. It was a great discovery and I would recommend this mode of transport for anyone wanting to visit the towns and ESPECIALLY if you want to taste wine. See TRIP TIPS, below, for more detail on this bus.

I went to two villages on day two. Ribeauville and Turkheim. Both are delightful, but Ribeauville is where I wandered in to the CUTEST tasting room and met the wonderful Michelle of Maison Xavier Wyman. They make a truly spectactular Pinot Noir and a lovely Reisling. It was such a special treat to hear Michelle talk about the history of the winery, the wines, how they are made and what challenges they may face in the future. I hope to visit this winery again some day but in the meantime, I am looking forward to receiving the wine I had her ship.

Ribeauville is one of the larger villages and is a favorite of many. Turkheim is on nobody’s list but I really liked it.

Turkheim seemed to stand out a bit more, and of course, I was now on villiage number four.

My last day in Alsace was the best, I think. I almost didn’t go out for more villages, but made myself do it. When was I going to have another chance? So glad I did. The two towns I visited on my last day were the best.

The first was Kayserberg. The day I visited there was some odd festival going on that was a cross between the Renaissance Fair and Comicon. People dressed as all sorts of things, but Darth Vader and whatever the other guy was were the best. Vader just wandered about posing for pictures. I don’t know what the big guy’s plans were.

Despite the out-of-place space things, the town of Kayserberg is wonderful. It seems more real than some of the other towns…like people actually live and work here in industries other than tourism. The river running through the middle of town gives it a different feel as well. I would recommend this as a must see Alsatian destination.

The final stop on this trip was Eguisheim. Touted by many a tour book as one of the most picturesque in the region. It is nice, but let’s be honest here. By this time, these lovely little towns were starting to look the same. BUT, what Eguisheim has that no other town has is Storks. Yes, storks. The big birds that deliver babies. You see references to them everywhere in Alsace, but in Eguisheim, you see THEM; a lot of them. They are nesting on top of churches, tall buildings, even chimneys. This was a real treat.

I really did love the Alsace and hope to visit again one day soon. For my next trip, I would plan to taste the wine and be prepared with means to transport it. I would also love to do some of the hikes around the villages that lead to castles and abbeys. This was a good intro, though.

My next stop is Switzerland where I plan to take the mountain trains and look at beautiful scenery. Stay tuned. And, please leave comments. I love seeing them.

TRIP TIPS

The city of Colmar makes a great base for exploring the villages of the region. There are plentiful train connections and the city is big enough that there are numerous and varied accommodation options.

In smaller cities and towns, I like to stay close to the train station. I stayed in a great little hotel called, appropriately, Colmar Hotel. It’s just around the corner from the train station and is really a wonderful little hotel with fantastic staff. I heartily recommend it.

That little bus that does the rounds to all the villages is called KUTZIG. It’s hop-on/hop-off and runs Fri, Sat and Sun in April, May and October and Wed – Sun in June, July and August. That said, be sure to check the website. I am hoping they add service for the Christmas Markets. That would be great. Anyway, here’s the route. At time of writing, the bus runs every 90 minutes, starting at 08:30 at the Colmar train station. You can buy your ticket from the driver or on the app.

Have a great rest of your week.