Walls in Germany

Since we now live in the Alsace region, we figured we need to get to know about Alsace wines! So, we took a trip along the Routes des Vins over the weekend, and got a bit of a "taste." We decided this is a lovely place to live!  We don't have a car here so we rented one from the train station in Strasbourg. Bucky mapped a few "must see" towns prior to the trip so we followed Google Maps' lead. Our first stop was Bergheim and there was practically no one there. We wandered around the streets and ogled at the precious store and home fronts. We stopped in one of the quaint storefronts for our first tasting and left with three bottles of wine. We learned here that Riesling is always dry (which is different from what I thought in the States, but I am now informed).  The next two towns we stopped in were  Ribeauville  and  Eguisheim , both of which were precious, but definitely full of tourists. We wandered around, bought more wine and had a lovely lunch al fres...

The area we live includes the Black Forest , which (according to Wikipedia) "is a  large  forested   mountain range  in south-west  Germany , in the state of  Baden-Württemberg , bounded by the  Rhine  valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. [1]  It is the source of the  Danube  and  Neckar  rivers." It is a popular place for hiking and exploring.  Gengenbach is within the Black Forest so we knew we needed to adventure into it one day while we were there. I downloaded an app called 'komoot' and found lots of trails nearby. We love a loop and found one that was just a couple of hours and set out.  It was beautiful and nice and cool in the shade. There were a few locals on the trail with their dogs, but we were alone much of the time. In the middle of the hike, we found a pool that seems to have been created just for the hikers. The last mile or so of the hike, the woods w...

Bucky and I are eager to visit the towns of this area so we took our first getaway to Gengenbach last weekend. We found a lovely hotel online, Hotel Die Reichsstadt , that turned out to be perfect. It is in the center of the little town, has fabulous food and an amazingly refreshing pool. The first day, we walked around the town, had lunch al fresco and then took a dip in the pool. It was so refreshing I almost wept! The days have been hot (almost 100 degrees) so the cool pool was a pleasure. The rest of the weekend, we wandered around the town and hiked in the Black Forest (worthy of its own blog) and enjoyed the food and drink at Hotel Die Reichsstadt. We are working on learning more about German wines so we took the recommendations of our waiter both nights and were impressed.  Below are some pics from the food/town exploration portion of the visit:  We took lots of pictures of each other across the table so thought I should at least post one! We documented our wines for f...

In a previous post, you may have seen that we found a little watering hole to cool off in.  Since then, we bought used bikes in Strasbourg and decided to take them for a spin along the Rhine and picnic at the coolest place in town! Of course, we packed rose and some yummy things to eat and set up at the edge of the water. We were wise and wore our bathing suits so we could really take advantage of the cold water. It was heavenly!! We can't wait to return!  Our set up Cheers Obligatory selfie View above us It was COLD but felt so good! Our bikes! Me showing off my bike!!  

We found the COOLEST (literally and figuratively) place on our walking path along the Rhine. Is is a refreshing spring where the town has set up bannisters to help you enter the water safely for a quick dip! I think we found our "go to" place during these hot summer days! Bucky posing in the cold water Obligatory selfie The path that takes you to this slice of heaven Stairway to heaven The brook babbles along  

One of the big draws to make this move was that our older daughter, Lucie, lives in Paris and is less than two hours away by train. We coaxed her to come visit during our second weekend in Kehl and she brought her kitty, Louise. We didn't have much on the agenda, just to explore Kehl and Strasbourg, eat, drink and be merry which we accomplished. We even fit in a quick trip to Colmar , a precious town south of Strasbourg about 30 minutes by train. It was a wonderful visit and we look forward to many many more! Dining at Alte Zunft , the restaurant below our apartment Selfie in Colmar Canal in Colmar Looks like Disneyland! Lucie and her dad Louise enjoying one of the balconies!