Eguisheim – 10th October

What a pretty little town – we did have a brief wander last night to get our bearings – stunningly pretty medieval town attempting to retain much of its original character (with some inevitable 21st century cheesiness).

One cannot deny though how proud the Alsacians are of the history, much of which we were to find out. This morning we went on 1.5hr self directed vineyard tour around the immediate area, what a joy, we are here in the Autumn with all the vines turning yellow, pink or red creating some very pleasant views. It is incredible to think that there is 172km of these vineyards and we were in one tiny part of them.

Finishing the walk in town we bought some quiche tarts and a Kugelhopf cake. Taste and texture like a Chelsea bun but BIGGER, we only bought a small one to see if we liked it – guess what? WE DID! So we will be buying a LARGE Kugelhopf for our travels home.
Back into town late afternoon after digesting lunch and a few zzzzzz’s our next mission was to walk around the rampart sections of the town. These are not like castle ramparts but higher level streets making an elliptical shape surrounding the town. Originally there were two town entrances with people passing through two sets of gates each end (the first gate to collect your taxes before entering). A very interesting walk around with plenty of information points and pretty, pretty little dwellings. One can’t help thinking about what it must have been like to live their in the XV1th Century.

Next on our shopping list was some of the Alsace wine. It’s not a wine we were familiar with so we definitely needed some tastings – I had earmarked some producers from Hugh Johnson’s little wine book and went in search.

Paul Ginglinger was our first stop – tasting several (hic) wines we chose 6 bottles of 3 different types and price range Reisling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris Pfersigberg . On to the next one Bruno Sorg. Janette was feeling a little light headed by the time we had tasted some of Bruno’s vino – this time we went a little more up market and bought 4 bottles of Reisling Florimont – packed with flavour. Carrying 10 bottles back to Hilma was hard work – now I’m going for a run – get rid of all those cake and wine calories. Tonight we will treat ourselves to a meal out so a prudent spending day needed tomorrow when we are planning to cycle to a local market.