Sunday, July 15, 2012

A Whirlwind Week in the Alsace

The second part of our France tour with Joanne and Simon had us travelling to a small town called Hirtzbach, which is in the Alsace region very close to the German and Swiss borders. Hirtzbach itself is very, very small. We ended up there due to the graciousness of one of Heather's extended family, who have a house in the town that they very kindly lent to us for the week.

Main street Hirtzbach
Frisbee time in front of the house
Hirtzbach was the perfect staging area for our all-out assault in seeing many of the cool things in the Alsace region. Our destinations included:

Rheinefalls - the largest waterfall in Europe. 
The Huat-Koenigsbourg Castle from the 12th Century offers a great view of the Alsatian plain

Like many towns, Eguisheim has a lovely square with a fountain / pool. At least for this kid
And of course the trip had to include a stop for some wine tasting!
In Thann we hiked up to see the ruins of Engelbourg Castle and climbed into the Witch's Eye
The Nazi concentration camp of Struthof was a grim reminder of the region's history
We also discovered that we were going to be close to an annual sporting event. A little thing called the Tour de France - perhaps you've heard of it? But that's for another post....

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