The gang trooped down to the open market nestled about the covered market exterior to grab up a few days of provisions. Chicken roasted on spits, salad makings, pasta and red sauce ingredients, pastries and some assorted snack items loaded the little shopping cart to near bursting.
Back at home we stocked the fridge picked up the kitchen and headed out to do some wine tastings in the mountains. You know, the place you want to taste wines, on twisty roads in the hills.
Niedermorschwihr seemed to be a nice place to park and walk about for a bit. We found a couple of wineries open and after tastings, loaded the back of the cars with a few boxes of wine. Just a few...
Instead of heading back to the house we started north of the wine route to the town of Katzenthal, just a couple of kilometers away. We assumed it would be a quick drive by on our way to the next small wine town, but up on the hilltop above the village we saw Chateau Wineck, a 12th century fortification that is largely still intact. Took a bit of wandering to get up to where the fort is located, but it was well worth it.
Standing midway up the slopes of the wineyards, the tower and keep are still standing after all these years(with a little help from the Alsatian historical society). The keep is mostly open for exploration, but the actual tower is blocked off with a big iron gate. Sure looks like there are a lot of parties up at the fort, we found remnants of many camp fires.
After a good amount of wandering about we got back in the cars and drove further north to Ammeschwihr for a quick drive about the town and a stop for ice cream, because France. While getting ice cream all over ourselves we found some really cool 16th century fortified gun towers and tons of WW2 information.
From there we headed west into the valley to Kayserberg. No real reason apart from me taking the wrong exit on a roundabout. Hey, it happens. Driving along we saw a large castle overlooking the town, so naturally we had to go see it!
In Kayserberg we found dubious parking accommodations behind a hotel which apparently had part of a medieval tower structure in its back yard. Not bad for a parking lot. From the cars it was a long walk up a hell of a lot of stairs to get to the castle. Luckily the stairs and some lovely gardens are well kept and not terribly dangerous.
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| Hotel parking lot with medieval tower. |
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| Mark and Nita |
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| Ryan and Kim |
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| From the gardens up to the castle. |
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| These two again... |
This time when we reached the top of the hill we were able to take to 113 steps up the tower to the very top for some breath taking views of the village and valley below. Some of the best views we have seen all trip.
Early evening we headed home to get some dinner in us. The chicken was great, Nita and folks shelled fresh spring peas, and I whipped up another souffle. Very tasty!
For dessert we played Tart Roulette!(tm) with the big 6 slices of various fruit tarts we picked up during market morning. We each had a plate of tart. Blueberry, citron, apple almond, apricot, rhubarb and rhubarb meringue. The way the game is played is a total sharing scheme. Take a bite and then pass the plate to the right till all the desserts are gone.
No really, we highly recommend Tart Roulette(tm). Try it at your next dinner!
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