This past week I trekked down a bit of the Alsace Wine Route, an area of the region known for its many vineyards. It was stunning. You can see the full gallery here.

I started driving in the general direction of the wine route. I had a few destinations in mind but, was trying to make some wrong turns on the way. The car's GPS was probably very frustrated with me as I meandered. After some time I came across a mysterious chateau in the fog at Thanvillé which piqued my interest. I parked and then continued on foot up the driveway to the courtyard, excited, it was pretty perfect. (No really, go see the Gallery).

From there I returned to the car and went on to Châtenois looking up at the Church of Saint-Georges de Châtenois. Taking in the scene, it is obvious that both the Church and the vineyards are cornerstones of the region. Backed by vineyards, the main church, faces the town with an authenticity of long and beloved use.

From here I went through Kintzheim to Hunawhir which has a lovely fountain. It is over 400 years old and has it's own history. (Saint Hune is supposed to have used the fountain to wash the clothes of the poor).

My next stop was actually on my original itinerary, Riquewhir. Here I explored the vineyards on the hills surrounding the village. I ate my lunch enjoying the view while crows and ravens darted through the sky above me pursuing their urgent bird-errands. Such an amazing way to spend the day, perfect weather in a fantastic setting. The village itself can boast of brightly coloured lanes of close buildings with historic architecture.

After the perfection of the morning, Colmar, had the odds stacked against it for being a high point of my trip.  Its modern and metropolitan feel left me flat, after the charm of my previous meanderings. The guide books I consulted billed the town as a "French Venice", but I was left underwhelmed. Maybe expectations were too high, like seeing an okay movie that all your friends told you was the BEST MOVIE EVER.

Next, I went on to Petite Camargue Alsacienne to walk in nature and maybe track some birds. Unfortunately, the earlier crow ballet was destined to be the bird-highlight of my day, no great bird finds in Camargue. But I did enjoy a lovely sunset walk before returning to Strasbourg.

Saturday we travelled to a German Castle. Yes, that was as cool as it sounds.

Saturday morning, we hopped in the car and punched in the castles we wanted to see into the car's GPS. According to Mary Blackspeedy (the kids named our car) it would be just 2 hours until we reached the first castle. Just a quick stop for gas, we thought, and then we would hit the highway. Check. Now on our way, right?

No, it seems that Mary Blackspeedy is a little behind the times when it comes to minor details like tunnel construction, road construction, or actually any construction in general. Mary advised us to go straight through a closed tunnel and was rather insistent, about it. She kept trying to reroute us back to the tunnel even after several attempts to go around. That took up a bit of time. Eventually we got it right, sort of. (There are a lot of infrastructure construction projects on the go in Germany right now.) By the time we got far enough away for the GPS to take a different route it was obvious that this was going to take longer than we had anticipated.  So we changed our plans. We decided to visit the Lichtenstein Castle first and then, if there was time, stop by another castle on the way back. Part of our detour took us to a gorgeous mountaintop that had a view for miles. We stopped and had lunch there while para-gliders ran over the mountain edge to glide down to the valley below. Was I a little jealous? Perhaps. We continued and eventually made it to the magnificent Lichtenstein Castle. The Castle was showing off for us, having surrounded itself in its best fall colours..(Okay, seriously you HAVE to check out the Gallery this time).

I think I may go back in the morning..