Day 13: into wine country

We started the day cycling back west, along the Canal de la Bruche, a late-17th-century canal connecting Strasbourg with Soultz-les-bains. It hasn’t been used since WW II, and the locks have all been dismantled. What remains is a really lovely stream that has re-wilded over the past 75 years, and it boasts an impressive number of mature trees along both banks, not to mention a lovely cycle path all along its length.

Cycle path along the Canal de la Bruche

We stopped for coffee and pastries in the little town of Ernholsheim-Bruche. The last few of these stops, I have been enjoying a slice of rhubarb pie made with crème pâtissière (and today’s also had meringue on top). It’s such a treat to have access to readily available rhubarb desserts.

Then we pushed on to Molsheim, where we had our picnic lunch and then turned south along the Route des vignobles. We soon got our first glimpse of the Alsatian vineyards. We soon also got our first taste of the Alsatian geography, when the route moved a little farther west and straight up a hillside—the hardest hill we’ve had to tackle on this trip by far: about a kilometre long and at times on a truly punishing grade. After resting several times and even pushing our bikes a bit, we finally made it to the top and were rewarded with some stunning views of the Rhine valley, including Strasbourg cathedral, which we could clearly make out from 30 kilometres away.

Our first glimpse of Alsatian vineyards

Then it was down the other side and through some of the lovely little Alsatian wine towns, to our destination for the night, Obernai. Since we’re in a B&B tonight, we went out to eat and treated ourselves to a meal of regional dishes—I had a choucroute alsacienne and Sonia had Baeckeoffe, a meat-and-potatoes dish if there ever was one! It was all very delicious and we toddled back to the B&B very full, but not so full we couldn’t manage an ice cream when we saw an open shop. I must say, the coffee ice cream was among the best I’ve ever had. A wonderful end to the day.

Obernai 

A copious Alsatian meal