{"id":4981,"date":"2016-06-25T05:35:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T19:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2025-12-13T05:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:29:47","slug":"alsatians-and-cuckoos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2016\/06\/25\/alsatians-and-cuckoos\/","title":{"rendered":"Alsatians And Cuckoos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the best moments of our lives have happened while we\u2019ve been travelling <\/em><\/p>\n

\"A
A pretty wall and windows in Triberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We popped Eileen in the car park and checked in to our friend, Maxime\u2019s Le Parc Hotel in Obernai.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t seen one of those for months\u2026.)\u00a0 and he spoiled us rotten again.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Our bedroom turret<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you have wondered about going to the Alsace, do it; it is a beautiful area.\u00a0 There are wineries too numerous to count and Le Parc Hotel really is one of our favourite hotels in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to sound like a biased advert, but it really is lovely.\u00a0 Maxime\u2019s sister and brother-in-law are now the head chefs and their food is exquisite.\u00a0 His Mum and Dad are still part of the team and make sure all the guests are happy and attended to correctly.\u00a0 And Grandma, Helene (92), who set up the hotel after WW2 is still there, greeting guests and looking very happy with her creation.\u00a0\u00a0 Go there. I really can\u2019t see how anyone could be disappointed.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.hotel-du-parc.com\/en\/hotel-spa-alsace<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Luxuriating
Luxuriating in Le Parc’s indoor pool. They’re not like this in campsites…….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
A view across Le Parc rooftops from one corner of our turret<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u2026..as you do!<\/p>\n

\"Strolling
Strolling in Obernai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Obernai\"
Obernai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 It was very hard to leave, especially as he loaded Rodney up with six bottles of Alsatian wine from their cellars.\u00a0 Our French ski buddy is way too generous to us, but thank you and merci beaucoup Maxime.<\/p>\n

\"Max
Max and us in the bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 So we drove east from Obernai, crossed the Rhine for the umpteenth time and went back into Germany for the last time.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We stopped in Schonack to check out the \u2018World\u2019s largest cuckoo clock\u2019, which looked more like a house to us.\u00a0 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\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"Apparently
Apparently the largest cuckoo clock in the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Cuckoo cuckoo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One
One of many cuckoo clock shops in Triberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We passed through villages with fabulously silly names that made me giggle, like Ettenheimm\u00fcnster and Gremmelbach (shame we never got to see Titisee) and by the end of the day we were exhausted.\u00a0 We were glad to have no rain, but the heat was intense.\u00a0 Thermometers outside chemists were showing temperatures as high as 40\u00b0C and our air-conditioning system, which comprises of opening the windows, did not bring the temperature down much at all.\u00a0 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\u2019s trip we had to pull out the desk-fan, just so we could get to sleep and survive our first hot night.<\/p>\n

\"Shiltach\"
Shiltach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Shiltach
Shiltach from the riverside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

And Eileen now has a cuckoo clock adorning one of her walls.\u00a0 It\u2019s not every campervan that has a cuckoo clock!!!!<\/p>\n

\"Eileen's
Eileen’s very own cuckoo clock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the best moments of our lives have happened while we\u2019ve been travelling   We popped Eileen in the car park and checked in to our friend, Maxime\u2019s Le Parc Hotel in Obernai.\u00a0 We stayed here near the end of our first trip in Eileen, back in 2012 and in Bondi, in January, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8214,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions\/8214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}