Un jour a l'Alsace

I awoke early on Wednesday morning in Basel,  so I set out on foot in search of a cup of coffee and a loaf of bread for breakfast. We ate heartily, showered and piled into Betsy's Audi for a trip into fairy-tale-land. Judy had told Billy she wanted to see a castle and and old village - mission accomplished. 

We drove out of Basel and up into the Alsace wine region, just west of the Rhine River. The city quickly gave way to farmland, then to vineyards mile after mile, covering the eastern slopes of the Vosges Mountains. We exited the highway into the little town of St. Hyppolyte, the very picture of an old French village, and drove up into the mountains to Haut Konigsburg, an old Hapsburg castle that was faithfully restored in the early 1900s.  

The castle sits atop the highest peak around, and the views were magnificent. It's hard enough to imagine building it in the 20th century, much less the 14th and 15th. Pillaged and burned several times over the centuries, it looks impregnable. 

The outside temperature was around freezing and the wind was blowing, which hinted at what a brutal existence people lived at the time the castle was built. Fortunately, we had a car with heated seats to take us back down the mountain and over to the town of Riquewihr, perhaps the most well-known of the medieval Alsatian towns. 

First stop was to put something warm into the belly, so Betsy introduced us to her favorite restaurant in the town, the Restaurant de Cerf, and we settled in for some traditional fare - Judy the Travailleur plate, featuring chunks of ham covered in spaetzle and cheese, a green salad, and potatoes gratinee, each served in its own little pot. Billy and I devoured the infamous Alsatian specialty choucroute garnie, about a pound of sauerkraut served with five different meats - a hunk of beef, pork cheek, two different sausages, and a lardon. 

Naturally Riquewihr is pretty touristed-up, but that didn't detract from the 500-year old houses and winding cobblestone streets. Much of the original wall remains intact, and nestled among the vineyards, it was as perfect a setting as a storybook could ever conjure up. Little stores have followed the tourists to the town, so we had a chance to shop a bit for Chrismas presents, spices, macaroons, and a souvenir or two.

Riquewihr is on the "Alsatian Wine Trail," which winds along the Rhine for 100 miles or so, and is dotted every foot of the way with vineyards and orchards. One of Betsy's favorites is Madame Meyer's (pronounced May-yay) in Equisheim, so we dropped in for a visit here in the heart of harvest time. Off the beaten track, we shared the place with a carload of Danes for just a few minutes and then Madame introduced us to a half-dozen of her selections. She was charming, and we met her husband briefly before loading up several cases of excellent pinot blanc and heading back to Basel.

Betsy had invited her friends Denis, a colleague from the BIS, and his wife Jane for dinner, and a raclette was on the menu. Raclette is a traditional Swiss dish, cooked at the table, of melted cheese and potatoes. Over the years, the menu has expanded to include pretty much any little thing that can be cooked on the electric table-top grill, about the size of a hibachi, so we had a couple of different sausages, zuccini, carrots, and broccoli. Raclette always includes a relish tray of cornichons and pickled pearl onions, and Betsy added chutney from South Africa and grainy French mustard. It was a hearty meal, and a fun way to socialize at the table, and a couple of Mme. Meyer's excellent bottles topped it all off. We spent a leisurely evening at the table before Denis and Jane said their goodbyes, and we were shortly into the bed.


More pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pres.nowlin/TheAlsace#