A day off the bike in Colmar, then rides to Ribeauville, Obernai, and Strasbourg

Been having wifi troubles the last few nights, so there's a bit of backlog here.

Colmar is a beautiful city in the heart of France's Alsace wine region, so we took a day off here to just walk around and enjoy.

This part of Colmar is called Little Venice.  People can take a little boat ride along the canals.

this house was built in 1537

Well rested, we set off on the bike for Ribeauville, one the many too-cute villages in this popular tourist region.  It's not far from Colmar, so we planned to noodle around back roads and explore on our way.  Our maps from the tourist office show a cycle route that goes through the region, but they are not detailed.  The ride out of Colmar was along a busy road with bike lane: not the greatest but manageable.  After several km we stopped at a traffic circle to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go.  Right away another tandem stopped behind us: and English couple who are here on holiday and were out for a day ride from Colmar, also trying to find the Route de Vins for cyclists.  We followed each other for a few km of scary riding through a couple of villages with lots of traffic and no bike lanes before Ellen and I turned off in search of something quieter.  We soon found a paved lane heading off into the vineyards, and more or less in the right direction: that was good enough for us to give it a try. 





After several km of very pleasant riding, we ended up in a small village and found a sign for the bike route.  We followed this through the villages of Sigolsheim and Kientzheim, then took a detour up toward the hills to Kayserberg.  There are the ruins of old castles scattered all over the hills here.

We returned to Sigolsheim and followed signs toward Riquewihr.  The route climbed through vineyards, first at a reasonable gradient and then more steeply, for a couple of km before a quick descent into Riquewihr.  Stopped to look around a bit and had a lovely snack in a small restaurant: quiche and salad for Ellen and a very yummy crepe stuffed with smoked salmon for me.







It looked like the cycle route from here to Ribeauville would continue to be quite hilly, and I was tempted to head downhill for an alternate (and roughly parallel) road.  But the woman in the tourist office recommended staying on the higher route due to heavy traffic on the flatter one.  We walked the bike up the steep and tourist-packed street out of Riquewihr, turned onto the cycle route, and were immediately faced with a hill too steep for us to climb on the bike.  We walked the bike up, and the rest of ride, though hilly, was manageable.





Because the tourist season is in full swing, we'd reserved a room in Ribeauville at a little B&B right on the edge of the (very small) old center of the village. 

front of our B&B

After cleaning up we walked into the center, and immediately started hearing live music.  It turned out that the village had a music festival that afternoon and night to celebrate the solstice.  There were multiple bands, in a full range of genres, at roughly 100 meter intervals throughout the village.  We walked around enjoying the sounds, ate dinner at an outside restaurant, and continued to enjoy the range of musical talents until after 11.  The town was full of what seemed to be mostly local folks (from the surrounding area).  Lots of friendly greetings, lots of wine and beer consumption.







After breakfast in the morning we set off to continue northward on the Route de Vins.  After a gentle descent from Ribeauville the next 15 km or so were delightful riding: mostly flat and on nice paths through the vineyards.  To our right flat fields of wine grapes or corn stretching off toward the Rhein, with the mountains of the Black Forest in the distance.  To our left vineyards on the gentle slopes leading up toward the Vosges Mountains, with the occasional ruins of an old castle poking out of a hill. 





Every 5 km or so we'd pass through another cute village.  After a while the route became more hilly, first rolling and then some more impressive climbing into the villages of Itterswiller and Barr (where we stopped for a little lunch). 





From there it was a relatively easy 10 km to the village of Obernai, where we found a hotel for the night.





Today we  rode from Obernai to Strasbourg.  First part of the ride was hilly through vineyards, but the last 15 km or so along the lovely Canal de Bruches cycle path.  We saw another tandem stopped along the path, so of course we stopped to say hello.  The owners are a lovely Swiss couple, older than us, who have toured extensively all over Europe.