Day 15: Grand cru

Today was many things, but it it would be a lie to omit the fact that it was somewhat moist. We’ve been rained on worse while cycling, to be sure, but this was probably the wettest day of this trip so far. It goes with the territory, and it was not a terrible day; quite the contrary.

We woke up in our B&B and had our petit déjeuner, although this morning, there were a few slices of ham and a few meagre wedges of brie to be had. The forecast was for a rainy day, so we thought we might hike for some of it, our night’s lodging not being so very far away. We started the 4-kilometre (400-metre ascent) walk up to the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg, a lovey trek with a steady but very doable climb. We reached the top by about 11 am, just as the clouds came rolling in, so we had no view and the castle itself was shrouded in mist (and mystery, I suppose). Whit Monday being a holiday in France, the place was quite crowded with tourists, and we really didn’t feel like going in anyway, so after eating our second breakfast of PB&J sandwiches and tea in the castle’s medieval gardens, we headed back down.

A misty hike

Mysterious Haut-Koenigsbourg

The drizzle turned into light rain just before we reached our bikes (we had arranged to leave them at the B&B for the morning), but by the time we had changed into our rain gear, it had mostly cleared up again, and the cycling part of our day started off fairly dry. After 8 or 9 kilometres, we reached Ribeauvillé, which had been recommend as worth a detour. And to be fair, in more clement weather, I’m sure it would have been lovely, but by then it had started to rain a bit harder, and we were tired, cold, and hungry; a Main Street in which a fairly thick crowd of tourists had to fight with car traffic, and a surly proprietor at the cafe where we stopped for lunch did not improve our opinion of the town.

Then we embarked on the final 5 kilometres of the day—the hardest 5 we have yet to cycle, over two very tough hills in the rain—but they were well worth the effort. We arrived In Riquewihr just after 3 pm and contacted our Airbnb host, who gave us a spectacular welcome. The apartment, right in the centre of town is absolutely lovely, and we very quickly decided to book a second night here.

Riquewihr is a smaller version of Ribeauvillé but has one important advantage over its larger neighbour: the town centre is car-free (aside from residents and morning deliveries). It makes such a difference to how pleasant these towns are, and it was one of the reasons we decided to stay here an extra night.

Riquewihr

We settled in, explored the town a bit, bought a bottle of amazing grand-cru Alsace wine for a ridiculously small number of Euros, and retired for a dinner of leftovers and relaxation.