Alsace--Wine, Castles, and Cooling off in the Rhine

Wednesday and Thursday had four things in common--extreme heat, quaint villages, comradery, and good food.  Other than that, they were very different.


We descended at breakneck speed (and heavy braking) from the cool heights of our stay at Trois Epis down to the wine country foothills of the Rhine Valley.  Our goal, a castle high on a distant hill, remained elusive and seemed unattainable until we actually got there.

We had lunch in a "4-Fleur" town, which is a French rating for how well the locals decorate with flowers.  Four is the highest, and it showed.

2006 REI Slovenia Trip Reunion

Lunch stop

When we departed for the 7 -mile, 2,000-foot climb to the castle after lunch, it was 97-104 degrees, depending upon whose bike computer you could believe. Fortunately it cooled off slightly as we neared our destination.

View from Hut-Koenigsbourg castle

The Haut-Koenigbourg Castle was worth the effort.  Built in the 12^th century, it occupied a strategic position to watch over the wine and wheat routes to the North and the silver and salt routes from West to East. It was reduced to ruins by the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War and then abandoned. In 1899, Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to rebuild the castle entirely with the aim of turning it into a museum and at the same time a symbol of Alsace's return to Germany in 1877.  Germany lost Alsace after WWI, took in back in 1939, the lost it finally to France in 1945.  That explains why the food, architecture, language and some of the food are so similar.



Cooling off at a spring

View from our hotel

The descent in wet jerseys to the town of Ribeauville was a cool delight, topping off our mileage at 33 miles.  Actually, Ribeauville is also pretty cool delight, except for the stifling temperature of our room and the noise from the plaza below our open window at night.

Our Hotel

Today, Thursday, we changed our plans due to the heat and made it only a 32 mile flat ride.  We stopped at a bunker on the Maginot Line, occupied by the French until the Nazis avoided it and just waltzed into the Alsace region of France from Belgium with no resistance.



Maginot Bunker

The pause that refreshed!

Going in for seconds

We crossed the Rhine into Germany and plunged in fully clothed to cool off. Kathy had a minor wipe out going up a narrow path.  All the way back, she
struggled hard to keep up with the rest of us.  Finally, about one mile from our destination, we discovered that her rear brake was partially engaged.  We calculate her effort in the 100+ heat to be at least 50 miles. 

Dinner Venue

After a  leisurely afternoon trying to take naps in stifling non air conditioned rooms, we enjoyed the local beer, wine, and cuisine, which is a mix of French and German.  

Potato pancakes & salmon salad

Tomorrow?  It's supposed to get even hotter, so we will pare our mileage back even more and perhaps spend some time in cool wine  cellars.  Wherever you are, we hope you are staying cool.

Ribeauville-Alsace France



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Colmar, France Area--Battlefields, Forests, and Quaint Villages

Wednesday, July 1

Colmar, France

What a difference 45 minutes by train can make.  We left Basel Switzerland early on Monday, and arrived in Colmar, in the Alsace Region of France.  It really does feel like a different country!  

The "Little Venice" of France

We met our friends Bill and Sandy from Broomfield, Colorado and spent the day together, enjoying the sites, a fabulous lunch, and two museums.   

Bartholdi Sculptue

Auguste Bartholdi, the designer of the Statute of Liberty and many other famous works, hails from this town and we enjoyed the museum in his former residence which included mock-ups of his finished works.  

The 12th Century art in a couple of Gothic churches were rather creepy, and they made us feel glad to be alive in the 21st Century. 

Our home for two nights

When our other friends Ron and Barb from Spokane arrived later in the afternoon, we were taken to our stay in Trois Epis, high above the Rhine Valley floor.  What a delight!  

Bertrand, our guide, grew up in this village and he and his American wife, Laura, treated us to a delightful meal at his mother's home.  

The Gang of Six

The first day of any bike tour always gets off to a slow start, getting the bikes adjusted and the pedals installed.  But once we finally got on the road for our 23-mile ride, it was worth the wait. We rode mostly uphill through forests that reminded us of Oregon.   We came upon WWI cemeteries and battlefields.  We tend to forget about WWI, the Great War, the War to End All Wars.  

German Cemetery--Note Jewish headstone

WWI Trench

However,  walking through the trenches and viewing  vintage film clips taken there during the war  reminded us just how horrific, senseless this and other wars are.  The French and German soldiers were locked in battle for three years here, and after thousands of deaths ended in a stalemate.

View from a bunker

Lookout post (Darth Vader's?)

Lunch with a view, then 14 miles down and up hills in 85 degree temperatures.  

Lunch View

in Niedermorschwihr

We enjoyed dinner in the quaint village of Niedermorschwihr, which seemed more German than French.  

"Sorting Hat" Church

Our Restaurant

Today, we're off to another adventure of food, scenery, wine, and hills in even hotter temperatures.  Life is good!

Basel--the Flat Switzerland

Sunday, June 28

City hall water fountain

Basel is flat and not really the Switzerland one imagines of majestic peaks, lakes, and gondolas.  However, it has Switzerland’s legendary civility, cleanliness, sense of order, and above all, exorbitant prices.   And oh yes, the ubiquitous Swiss army knife logo everywhere. 

The Rhine River, just a 15 minute walk from our flat

Located on the Rhine where you can see both France and Germany, the protestant reformation in the 16^th Century triggered an exodus of Catholics and an influx of rich Protestants.  This created a chain of events which led to the formation of a big printing industry and the genesis of the pharmaceutical giants Roche and Novartis, AG.

Basel City Hall

We arrived on Friday without much sleep but rallied to find our three-story walk- up studio Air B&B in a neighborhood of immigrants, explore, and buy bus passes and Monday’s RR ticket to Colmar, France.  After practically falling into our beers at a café on the Rhine, we decided to go to bed at 7:00 pm. 

Basel is a city of 202 fountains (where you can actually refill your water bottle), 40 museums, and 900 charitable foundations.  So many museums, so little time and standing stamina.    

One of 40 Museums

That said, we caught a modern art museum where we were delighted to see he works of many 20^th Century artists we had only seen in college text books. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time or energy to see the Museum of Broken Relationships and 38 others.  

However, we hopped onto a tram to wherever it took us, and we later managed to take in a two-hour walking tour in the hot sun where we learned some of these tidbits. 

Former Fire Station for Vitra furniture factory

Our highlight was Sunday, when took a roundabout all-day excursion to Germany (on a Swiss bus pass) and a 2-mile death march in the hot sun to the Vitra Design Center.  If you’re into modern architecture and design, this is the place for you!  It even had a 1968 Airstream as a coffee/ice cream food cart.  Our guide’s passion for art and architecture made the tour of the huge campus even more delightful.  

Some fun on the sundial slide

The Gehry Museum of Design at the Vitra Center

Vitra Design showroom

Tonight, Sunday, we enjoyed a (relatively) cheap wine and cheese dinner on our deck before packing.  Then off to France early tomorrow to start our bike trip.  Basel is very pleasant and basic European.  We’re glad we got to briefly experience it, but it’s not on our top 40 list of places visited.  Time to move on.

38 Years and Counting--Our Next Adventure

We're off today (June 25) for an 18-day adventure of cycling  in the Alsace region of France with friends and hiking in the Cotswold region of the UK with Shanti (our London daughter) and her boyfriend.  Thirty-eight years ago today we started an adventure that led us to this one by getting married at Champoeg State Park.  It was followed by a potluck and dancing to the tunes of Salem bluegrass band, Briar Rose.  It was a cheap wedding by today's standards, but everyone had a blast.  Unfortunately, few--if any photos--survived.

38 years later, Anne Amie Vineward

Tangboche Monestary Nepal 1977

Four months later we celebrated our honeymoon with a trek to the Mt. Everest region without guides or porters, eating and sleeping in the homes of villagers. Between altitude sickness, dysentery, and not bathing for nearly two weeks, it's a wonder our marriage survived the rest of the 3rd class trip through northern India, let alone the next 38 years.

Kampong Santang, our home 1978-80

In retrospect, it was the glue that still binds us together and it served as the catalyst for a pivot in our lives. We celebrated our 2nd anniversary by heading off to Malaysia as Peace Corps volunteers, returning in late 1980 after a few months of travel. That adventure forged bonds and unique experiences that continue to this day, and they certainly helped us survive the culture shock of returning to the US as we tried to reinvent ourselves and survive in a tough recession.

The France bicycling part will be with two fun couples we met on a 2006 bicycle trip from Vienna to Venice through Slovenia. In spite of the distance between our homes, we've stayed in touch and  biked together.  We'll send periodic updates as this next adventure unfolds.

Opal Pool with Feruza

Kathy's office while in Ashland

Since our April 18 post, we joined some fellow Airstreamers in Ashland for the Shakespeare festival, did some hikes and road trips with daughter Feruza from New York,  camped on the Metolius River, tasted a lot of wine, attended some cultural events, and tried to get into cycling shape with some rides in the beautiful Willamette Valley.  Kathy also went to Burbank again and remains up to her ear lobes with her position on the national Assistance League board.  

Mt. Jefferson from Timberline Lodge

Metolius River Camp out

For those who ask "Is Ron retired?"  The answer is yes and no. The his team says he retired 10 years ago but just hasn't gone home yet.  If you define retirement as doing what you like to do and on your own terms, then the answer is yes, even if it means going to the office in between our trips.

Oneonta Gorge

Smith Rock State Park

Oswald West State Park

Crown Point, Columbia Gorge

Camping at Nehalem Bay

What Are You Excited About?

Happy spring, everybody!  We’re having an early one, and that’s just fine with us.  Everything outdoors is verdant, fragrant, and colorful.  As we get older, we appreciate these spring days more every year, knowing that they are finite—and so are our own number of springs.  

On the way to Windsor Island, via Keizer, OR

We're excited about a lot of things.  What about you?

Many people have been asking me when I’m going to write another book.  My answer is that I’d like to spend some time reading a few books first, which at my reading speed, will take a long time.  But at least I'm excited about some of the books I bought and some still on the bookshelf. Besides I enjoy writing our blog, and it’s been over two months since the last one.

Kathy at Command Central

We’ve been pedal to the metal since our last post, especially Kathy with her national Assistance League board duties as Finance Chair and a new technology committee she started.  They are overhauling the database and the website for the national organization. Beyond her periodic five-day trips to Burbank, CA, she spends much of the day at her computer and on conference calls.  She’s counting the days until mid-September when her term as Finance Chair expires. 

ABC's Robin Roberts.

But it’s not all work for her or me.  We’ve enjoyed several fundraisers, symphony concerts, operas, and some Academy Awards-nominated movies.    And the conclusion of Glee and the opener of the final Madmen season. 

And we signed up to do something fun—it doesn’t involve fundraising, governance, or any pressing social problems.  We’re among the first Greeters International guides for the City of Salem.  We took the training—learned about former brothels and underground tunnels— and are awaiting our first gigs for tourists and new residents to Salem.  I gave the inaugural tour to a Statesman Journal reporter. Here's her article.

With slave driver (trainer) Sam

One Year ago in March

One year ago I had elbow surgery for a torn tendon.  The prognosis was for a 70% chance to be 70% better—in other words, just half of normal. 

Well, I’m happy to report that it is 90% of normal, so I’m back to Pilates and swimming a mile weekly, Performance Training twice a week, with bicycling thrown in on good weather weekends.  That's the good news.  The not-so-good news?  We're both challenged with low back pain issues, but hey, that's part of the territory and 'adventure' at this age.  Things could be much worse!


Pilates--Impossible 18 months ago



New Wheels

And speaking of bicycling, we finally got our stolen bikes replaced and are enjoying rides together.  We’re so grateful we had replacement value coverage on our homeowner’s policy.   Kathy’s bike is so cool and light weight, and she appears to love everything about it except for the saddle.

 

What’s on our horizon for the rest of the year?  What are we excited about?  An abundance of things:
 

• We’re remodeling our Airstream to make the bed area also a day sitting area.  Hopefully it will be ready for a rally to Ashland, Oregon to see four plays at the Shakespeare festival two weeks from now.
• Daughter Feruza escaping Manhattan for two weeks of Oregon road trips and winery tours.
• Camping on the Metolius River in June with friends Bob and Lisa. 
• Biking for a week in late June in eastern France with friends Ron, Barb, Bill, and Sandy—whom we met on our Slovenia bike tour in 2006.
• Visiting daughter Shanti in London for a week and hiking the Cotswold region (Hobbit-like countryside) for a few days.
• Visiting daughter Skyler in Boston and watching her boyfriend sing with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood.
• Leading a two-week Airstream caravan through Eastern Washington and Idaho on a rails-to trails bicycle and winery tour, formally titled “the Daze of Wine and Roads.”
• Finally, in mid-September after Kathy’s swan song at the Assistance League national conference in San Diego, she will meet me in St. George Utah.  From there we will proceed with our Airstream to retrace my  last year's 880+ mile bike ride from Zion to Santa Fe.  This time, however, I get to stop more for photos and hikes.  We’ll conclude in Durango for a Kelemen family campout.  

Beyond that?  Still a work in progress and some work obligations for both of us.   But that's enough excitement.  What are you excited about?  

 

While you still can, make your future greater than your past.  



The Bobsey Twins on the Buena Vista Ferry