The Hills are Alive

Day 5 – Ribeauville to Riquewihr loop

The air conditioning turned itself on again, this time at 6am. No idea what’s going on here. Would take the batteries out but what if it goes completely rogue and won’t switch off at all??

I’d made a bit of a fuss about wanting to see the picturesque Alsace villages of Ribeauville and Riquewihr so was tasked with organising the day. I’d originally thought a schlep around Ribeauville in the morning followed by a bike ride in the afternoon was the way to go but then decided I didn’t want to wear cycle shorts while wandering about sans bike. Then I found a walking route that took us on a circular loop around the two places so problem solved.

We went into Lidl and got through the till really quickly. Don’t go thinking we’ve broken the curse though – this time there were no sandwiches in the snacking cabinet! Nada. Zilch. I saw two teenage boys staring into the cabinet as if they couldn’t quite believe their eyes. Time to adapt or die so we bought pastries instead.

Ribeauville is a 40 minutes drive from Molsheim. S had found us a free car park which was very close to our planned route – couldn’t have been easier.

Our walk was mainly along very quiet roads that were lined with vineyards. The farmers were in full grape picking mode and we saw lots of tractors carrying big yellow bins full of grapes.

Our first stop was at a little village called Hunawihr. It was very quiet but inhabited and it was nice to see the little children coming out of school for lunch. We had to climb up a steepish hill to see the church and from there we could admire the view. The Alsace towns and villages that have been preserved all have beamed and painted houses. A feast for the eye.

We carried on along our route and when we passed a wood I decided to pop in for a quick wee. S had earlier said watch out for snakes so I was vigilant but I wasn’t expecting one to slither by while I had my trousers down. Needless to say I didn’t hang around.

Next stop was Riquewihr. I had read this was less commercial than Ribeauville but it was extremely busy with tourists. However the little town copes well and it didn’t feel unpleasant. Probably the prettiest place of the three in my view.

The way back was a track that cut through the vineyards. There were beautiful views of the hills and castles perched on top of them. I also spied 2 men having a very passionate snog in the grass which was a little unexpected.

On our way back through Hunawihr, we saw some locals bottling either their wine or grape juice using a very Heath Robinson machine. The ladies very kindly posed for us!

We came back to Ribeauville and stopped in the old town for refreshments including the most divine cherry pie.

Ribeauville was very busy and didn’t have quite the same vibe as the other villages/towns but it’s pretty all the same.

The walk was approximately 7 miles, a bit of up and down but fairly easy. It’s a walk that needs to be done at a leisurely pace, taking in all the sites and drinking the beauty of these places in.

We were pretty tired when we got in and time seemed to fly by. We wandered down to Le Guingette for dinner and some beer.

Tomorrow it’s goodbye to Alsace and hello to Bad Reichenhall in Germany.