Alsatians And Cuckoos

Some of the best moments of our lives have happened while we’ve been travelling

 

We popped Eileen in the car park and checked in to our friend, Maxime’s Le Parc Hotel in Obernai.  We stayed here near the end of our first trip in Eileen, back in 2012 and in Bondi, in January, he insisted that we come back again this year.  We had a gorgeous room, one end of which is below the circular turret, a huge bed covered in thick crisp white sheets, a real shiny bathroom (haven’t seen one of those for months….)  and he spoiled us rotten again.

 

If you have wondered about going to the Alsace, do it; it is a beautiful area.  There are wineries too numerous to count and Le Parc Hotel really is one of our favourite hotels in the world.  I’m going to sound like a biased advert, but it really is lovely.  Maxime’s sister and brother-in-law are now the head chefs and their food is exquisite.  His Mum and Dad are still part of the team and make sure all the guests are happy and attended to correctly.  And Grandma, Helene (92), who set up the hotel after WW2 is still there, greeting guests and looking very happy with her creation.   Go there. I really can’t see how anyone could be disappointed.

http://www.hotel-du-parc.com/en/hotel-spa-alsace

 

 

 

We had a lovely day in Obernai; a walk into town, a bit of reading beside the outdoor pool, a swim in the indoor pool (it was quite a bit warmer than the one outside) and we finished the day with another delicious meal in their restaurant. Maxime joined us later for drinks, having spent the day flying with friends in a small plane to Annecy for lunch…..as you do!

 

 

After a huge breakfast on Thursday, we farewelled our turret room, packed our bags back in Eileen and with a sad “au revoir”, hugged Maxime.  It was very hard to leave, especially as he loaded Rodney up with six bottles of Alsatian wine from their cellars.  Our French ski buddy is way too generous to us, but thank you and merci beaucoup Maxime.

 

Now I know we had finally made it to France, and we only have five nights left in Europe, but Rodney had a hankering to see more of the Black Forest.  So we drove east from Obernai, crossed the Rhine for the umpteenth time and went back into Germany for the last time.  The villages looked prettier and the woods not so gloomy with the sun now shining, and we spent most of the day driving in all directions, wherever the road took us.  We stopped in Schonack to check out the ‘World’s largest cuckoo clock’, which looked more like a house to us.  We had a brief stop in Triberg to study smaller cuckoo clocks and another stop in Shiltach, for cold drinks and slices of Black Forest Gateau; we had to do it while we were there…….

 

 

 

We passed through villages with fabulously silly names that made me giggle, like Ettenheimmünster and Gremmelbach (shame we never got to see Titisee) and by the end of the day we were exhausted.  We were glad to have no rain, but the heat was intense.  Thermometers outside chemists were showing temperatures as high as 40°C and our air-conditioning system, which comprises of opening the windows, did not bring the temperature down much at all.  By the time we got to Hohencamping Konigskanzel near Dornstetten there was no way we were turning the cooker on, so we ate at the campsite restaurant and for the very first time on this year’s trip we had to pull out the desk-fan, just so we could get to sleep and survive our first hot night.

 

 

And Eileen now has a cuckoo clock adorning one of her walls.  It’s not every campervan that has a cuckoo clock!!!!