29th and 30th July - Ribeauville and Colmar town walks

Saturday and we were up bright and early to try and beat the heat of the day. All our hiking gear was ready, and we were off in the car soon after 8am. It was only a 25-minute drive to the little village, Ribeauville, where our planned walk kicked off from. Strung all over the rolling country at the foothills of the Vosges Range were thousands of hectares totally developed for vineyards. The famous Alsace wines come from this region. Nestled along the foothills are a raft of little villages, all extremely quaint, picturesque and gorgeous to visit. Ribeauville is one of these villages. Indeed, as we started our hike by walking up the main street, it was mind-blowing how pretty it was. 

Alsace wine country - vineyards with pretty little villages

The 3 Chateaux in the distance

The first of the chateaux from Ribeauville's main street

As always, we soon turned off onto a steep side-track. The path afforded us some great views of the vineyards and scattered villages as we gained height. After an hour we arrived at the first of three chateaus we'd encounter on route. All three chateaux are in ruins, and date from the 12th-14th centuries. We are continually wowed by the age of stuff that we come across. NZ is a beautiful country, but it doesn't have anything that equates to poring over the ruins of castles that are 800 years old, or into a monastery that has been lived in by monks for centuries.

Two of the castles, set above white wine vineyards

Ribeaupierre Castle (Saint Ulrich Castle)

Our track

Pelerinage Notre Dame de Dusenbach

We really enjoyed the walk, which by and large was through trees so we didn't find the heat (still daily highs of 34C) too bad. Arriving back at the car a bit before lunch, we opted to flag getting a beer or coffee and instead drove straight home to have a lunch of cold salad. We had similar for dinner because it was just too hot to think about eating potato and meat or sausage, the typical fare on offer at eating places here. The influence of Germany is extremely obvious, in Colmar's food as well as its architecture.

Perfect name for a winegrower!

Everyone here is commenting on how hot it is. Our hosts, both father and son, who let us into this apartment, said it has been seriously hot. Everyone seems to be suffering from it - all over Europe in fact. We saw that the forecast for Ceret is 38 degrees for four days in a row this week! It's 41 degrees in Japan and thousands are conking out, mostly older folk. It is definitely taking its toll on us too. 

The sculptor of the Statue of Liberty was from Colmar

Sunday - feeling pretty wiped out, we decided today would be a quieter day, to catch up on ourselves, the blog, cope with the heat and enjoy a nice meal out. After Skyping with Bella first thing, and catching up with all her family news, we set off on the 2-hour walk around Colmar. Self-guided walks, typically using a map from the tourist office, can often be disappointing, but not so in this case. The town is fascinating. It is not as 'chocolate-boxy' as the little villages set along the foothills nearby, but it has tons of character in its old buildings, cobbled streets, whimsical wrought-iron signs hanging above the shops, flowerboxes, the 'little Venice' canal that you can take short rides on, and the web of streets and alleys winding around the ancient churches and public buildings. The earliest buildings date back to the early 13th century, but there are plenty built in the 13th and 14th centuries. The architecture is very pretty, being half-timbered and plaster, and painted in a variety of colours and kept in very good order.

The House of Heads

Famous painting in the cathedral

The oldest houses in Colmar - c1350!

Little Venice, Colmar

Houses, Colmar

It was a lot of fun wandering around, spotting all the items on the tour sheet. There are plenty of tourists here. In fact this is the first place this trip where we have really coincided with them. We've been surprised by how few we have seen over the last few weeks, and a number of the residents we had spoken to in various places along our trip told us that they seem to be very thin on the ground so far this holiday season. It was quite fun being in amongst all the colour and movement of lots of people, who were equally enjoying the charms of Colmar, but we didn't think we would want to live here. 

A selection of the gorgeous signs of Colmar