We started off today with another lovely breakfast in the dining room of the B&B Bombenger.  They have a very relaxed approach and lay out the seating between two tables, so today we were sharing a large table with two other couples, which made for some interesting conversations and gestures given the 3 different languages spoken.  After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and then re-packed the MR2, with the fact that we had to fit over a dozen bottles of wine into it (on top of the existing stockpile) ever present in our minds.  We worked together and filled every nook and cranny with our clothes and purchases, before setting off down the road into Eguisheim to collect our wine order from yesterday.

We parked outside of the wine makers and, after some joking and explaining where we’d put the wine once it had been brought up to the car, we were on our way with our loot.  We hadn’t realised that today was going to be a decent amount of mileage at over 250 miles, but we phoned ahead to the cottage that we were staying at to let them know a tentative time of arrival.

Once out onto the open roads and into Germany (it proved to be the quickest route, rather than going up through Luxembourg), we made good progress on the well surfaced roads.  There were quite a few sections of road works early on though.   After a while I noticed that we were on an Autobahn, and, after confirming with the lack of roads signs indicating a speed, the SAT Nav showing nothing as a maximum speed and the fact that the odd car was whipping past us at 100+ mph, we decided to stick with the speed of the traffic.  We maintained normal motorway speeds for most of the journey, but did nip up to 135mph on a short, quiet and straight section of the Autobahn.  It still felt strange even though it was 100% legal!

The smooth, fast, well surfaced roads carried on all the way north until we entered Belguim and then normal speed limits resumed.  We only had 15-20 miles to cover in Belgium and due to the Autobahns, plus a safe estimate time of arrival, we got to the cottage over an hour early.  However, Mrs Grollman was standing in the driveway just about to head out to do some shopping, so it was lucky timing!

We unloaded our things into the cottage and set off to get some shopping for the coming week from a local supermarket in Malmedy.  We did have a brief scare after they didn’t accept VISA cards, but we just about had enough cash to keep the locals waiting in the queue behind us happy.

We got back to the cottage and filled up the fridge and kitchen with our purchases before joining the Grollman’s for an aperitif that they’d so kindly invited us up for.  This turned out to be a nice platter of nibbles, including saucisson, tuna pate on toast, paprika crisps and some other nibbles, along with some sangria.  The conversation flowed and we soon found out that both Mr and Mrs Grollman were interesting people indeed.  They both spoke good English and were characterful people too.  Mr Grollman went inside to top up the sangria, but forgot the lemonade addition.  However, we muddled through the next jug with slightly fruity red wine instead! 🙂  After giving us a quick tour of their magnificent barn conversion house and explaining the local area and some other key features of their property, we headed back to our cottage, all but 10 yards away, to prepare tea.

I hadn’t found the right chance to treat myself to some escargot in France, so when I saw them in the supermarket today, I couldn’t resist.  We soon had the microwave oven working and just under a quarter of an hour later, my little snail friends were ready.  I enjoyed them outside with a glass of wine and then Lois brought out the mail meal, which was pasta in a tomato sauce that I’d prepared just before sorting out my snails! 🙂  It was nice to do some cooking after nearly 2 weeks of hotel room picnics and eating out, and a relief for Lois to eat something other than cheese!

We finished off dinner with some amaretto and left-over mille-feuille from the previous night.

After we’d finished eating, we started uploading the blogs from the previous 2 days and sorted through the photos from today.

So, here we are at our final destination…but, there is so much more to come.  We have the Nurburgring tomorrow and then, after a rest day plus a pit walk on Thursday, we have 3 full days of F1 racing!

We look forward to updating you tomorrow!

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Today, my challenge was to give Tom a taste of Alsace.  Over the years I think I’ve been at least 4 or 5 times with Mum and Dad, so it was quite strange being here without them to start with!

The day started well with lovely morning sunshine.  We started with a visit to the “Parc Des Cigognes”.  Storks are a famous feature of the area, mainly because of the way they have been bred and cared for, after numbers dropped to just 9 breeding pairs last century (there are now over 200).  I started taking photos through the net that they were kept behind, but the “stork keeper” then kindly let us into the enclosure to take more close up snaps!  They really are beautiful birds and didn’t seem bothered by our presence at all.

Next we pottered down into Eguisheim.  The village has lovely, old “remparts” – cobbled roads set out in concentric circles.  The majority of the old, wattle and daub houses are beautifully kept and most have stunning displays of flowers in window boxes and hanging baskets.  It won “Village of the Year” in France this year!  We popped to Hebinger’s (a small wine producer that my family have been visiting since our first visit to Alsace 24 years ago) to book a tasting for this evening, before heading to our next destination.

Kaysersberg is another typical Alsatian village with more lovely flowers and Tudor-style buildings, as well as a river running through the middle.  After hiding from the torrential rain that had started just as we parked up, we explored a local market, buying delicious (and cheap) apricots to snack on.  Tom also found some fancy cured saucisson and a jar of terrine to treat himself to when we get home.

We then had a lovely wander through the main street, looking in the odd shop and enjoying more yummy ice cream.  One of the local delicacies is “Pain d’Epices” (a sort of soft gingerbread) and we found one place that sold the spices to make your own at home.  It’ll be a nice way to remember the holiday and relive some memories later in the year. 🙂 The weather continued with sunshine and showers, but we managed to escape the worst of the rain.  We’d found a boulangerie offering some delicious looking deserts on our way through the village and had decided to buy some for dinner on our way back to the car.  Unfortunately, we’d forgotten the French tradition for taking long lunches, and they were shut when we returned. 🙁

After confusing SATNav a few times, as she wanted to send us up a closed road and could not be persuaded otherwise, we found our way to Riquewihr, yet another beautiful town.  We started with a little bit of car tweaking; the speedo had stopped working on the way there.  It turned out that the cable had corroded and eventually simply snapped.  There’s not much we can do about that while we’re away, but luckily the SATNav works our speed out for us anyway, so it’s not really a problem.  As always, I was impressed by Tom’s confidence and quick understanding of the problem. 🙂

We had a short wander down the main street, then decided to find somewhere for lunch.  We indulged in another local delicacy – Tarte Flambé.  We think it’s a batter that’s cooked very quickly and very thinly to produce a sort of crispy pancake.  As it’s cooked, it’s topped with cream and toppings of your choice (in our case, onions and mushrooms).  We shared one with a portion of frites, and it was quite delicious!  Another recipe to search out when we get home!  We then headed back to the car, via a shop that sold lovely Alsatian wine glasses with green stems (see the photos).

On our way back to Equisheim, we stopped off at an E Leclerc supermarket to purchase a few items for tea.  It was unbelievably huge!  The male slipper section alone was at least 10 yards long -I don’t think I’ve seen such a selection of slippers anywhere!  To make up for the boulangerie in Kaysersberg being shut, we found some amazing looking mille-feuille topped with strawberries for our desert this evening.

Back at the bed and breakfast, we parked up the MR2 and headed back to Hebinger’s for our wine tasting.  It was the son of the family who lead the tasting and he was brilliant (and thankfully spoke excellent English!).  I think he has been studying wine at university (now why didn’t I think to do that?!) and explained everything very clearly and with lovely enthusiasm.  It was fascinating how the make-up of the soil can affect the taste of the wine so much, even with exactly the same type of grape.  You carry out the tasting in the cellar where the wine barrels are kept, with some of the seats also made of smaller barrels.  The smell is sensational!  We had to behave ourselves, being aware of the lack of space in Tom’s car, and only ordered two cases.  I think we’d have had to really reign ourselves in if we’d had more room!  After deciding on our order, we asked if we could also buy a bottle fresh from their fridge to have with dinner this evening.  We had decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of Gewurtztraminer Grand Cru, but he insisted on asking us what we were having for tea and then told us that a Riesling would go much better with the cheese!  We tasted it and agreed completely.  He then insisted on letting us have the bottle for free (even though it was worth more than 10% of our total order).  Apart from the fact that their wine is completely outstanding, there’s definitely other reasons why my family continue to come back to this wine-maker year after year.  I just wish they were a bit closer to Sheffield!

Unsurprisingly, the Riesling made a perfect accompaniment to our dinner of bread, cheese and salad, which we enjoyed sitting at the table of our room, in the window, overlooking the three castles on the hillside, the rows and rows of vines and the storks sitting on their nest on the roof of the church.  This may not be Switzerland, but Alsace certainly has plenty to offer to keep us very happy and to keep this holiday as epic as it has been so far.

Tomorrow, we head to Belgium, to our cottage and our first (and only) more permanent stay of the holiday.  It also means that it’s not long at all until The Nurburgring and the grand prix!

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We awoke this morning to the barely believable views of the Eiger out of our balcony and after getting motivated, we headed down for breakfast.  This, of course, took place with equally stunning views out of the windows of the restaurant, albeit through glass… oh, how we did well to cope! 🙂  The breakfast was lovely and the coffee strong!  They also served some funky marbled hard boiled eggs.  Once we’d fed ourselves well, we got packed up, watched some paragliders and checked out; Lois couldn’t help but make a cheeky comment about them honouring the same price next time we stayed, hehe.

We walked to the train station to get the train back down to the cable car station and it was as memorable a journey as on the way up.  We had both been so bowled over with the beauty and staggering size of the scenery up in the Swiss mountains, that I think we were both sad to leave it behind.  The cable car journey on the way down proved as enjoyable (if not a little stomach turning at times!) and was run with the usual Swiss efficiency that we’d become accustomed to.

We were soon back at the MR2 and had re-packed it once more, before heading off north to Alsace.  The journey out of the Lauterbrunnen Valley was gorgeous and we scooted past another turquoise lake, taking in more beautiful scenery on the way.

Our intended stop off for the day was the National Automobile Museum of France, situated in Mulhouse.  We made good time and, after ogling some of the cars in the car park, we headed in.  We started to browse the unique and priceless collection, but, after 40 minutes or so, an announcement came over the tannoy to alert us to the fact that the ‘On Track Spectacular’ was going to start in 15 minutes.

We headed outside with the crowds of visitors and were entertained by 14 or so cars exploring and explaining the automotive history of the last 120 years or so.  It was done with typical French humour and the men that were driving the cars seemed to enjoy playing along with all of the period characters, some of them ladies!  A little too much some might say.

After the show, which lasted 30-40 minutes, we continued browsing the impressive collection that contained many cars that I’d never even heard of, and even many manufacturers that I hadn’t heard of either!  The rest of specimens on show were all in concourse condition and included some lovely Italian sports cars, F1 cars from all eras, a Mercedes 300 SL (the same that we’d seen a few days prior parked in a car park in Switzerland) and even a Bugatti Veyron.  It was fascinating viewing how cars have changed through history.

Once we’d left the museum, we set off on the 30 minute or so journey to here in Eguisheim.  For the first time really in 2 weeks, we experienced rain!  It did need it though, as the air was quite muggy.  We arrived at the B&B safely, got checked in and moved all of our bags into the room.  We have become quite the experts at un-packing and packing the MR2 and so can now do it with ease.

After a brief rest, we headed into Eguisheim itself, which was only a 5 minute stroll.  We had already decided to treat ourselves to eating out tonight and ended up at a nice pizzeria in the town, which Lois’ family had previously had a take-away from a few years ago.  The pizza was lovely, as was the wine.

We then made our way back to our accommodation and shortly after getting back I decided that an early night was in order.  Whilst I was sleeping, Lois was having fun with her camera taking pictures of the surrounding landscape.  Tomorrow she’s promised to give me a taste of both the local area and the local wine!

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