Sunday 9th April

Yesterdays blog regarding the bells was correct in some respects, all four churches had a big session at 9pm and then another at 7am. What I was hoping to avoid was the all night dingly dangly competition of all four churches striking the quarters as well!

After reading the guide books again, we decided to revisit Obernau and have a look round. What could go wrong, it’s Sunday, all the shops will be closed.

Except for the nougat shop, huge wheels and in the other window enormous ginger bread loaves.

Further along the street and there are huge loaves of bread being sold by the kilo. Lucky me, we had accidentally stumbled into the Spring Market with lots of things we could look at.

The buildings, again, are fantastic.

Lucy had her eye on a shiny red Porsche.

And guess what else? Lots and lots of bars, all open because it was Sunday morning and that’s when I can’t have a drink because I am driving. Even the Tourist Office was open and we managed to get a map of the route and give Stella a bit of a break.

Lots of the windows had pretty Easter displays.

Even the asparagus is enormous, €8.50 for a kilo bunch.

Another half timbered house. Today, we have driven about 20 miles through lovely old medieval towns, after a bit they get difficult to tell apart. So far I have really enjoyed the Alsace wine route, lovely buildings, lovely scenery and some lovely weather – it’s currently 29ºC outside.

On the way we stopped at a Grand Cru vineyard, the Zotzenberg. Five types of grapes are grown here, Pinot Gris, Reisling, Pinot blanc, Traminer and Muscat. Not sure which these were but the difference in pruning technique between these and the Champagne grapes we saw earlier in the week was noticeable even to me.

The view from the top of the walk, we only did a short section of it, we could have walked, or cycled for miles.

Wild Tulips, a protected species 

After our walk we found a Super U with services. The supermarket was closed but we managed to empty the water and toilet, fill up the water tank and do all our washing and drying whilst we had lunch.

Moving on, we came to a set of traffic lights. We’re waiting for them to change so we can squeeze through that opening – note the Stork nest on the top of the tower.

Another town, more charming buildings. This is in Chartenois, our stop for the night.

It also has a tower with a Stork nest on the top…

… and a bar with today’s beer of the day.