Roschwirr on D35bis, the Route des Vins
The Alasace Wine Route, in light rain
Eguishem is one of the southern towns on the Alsace Wine Route. I rode north, mostly along that route, until I was east and a bit north of Strasbourg. That included the really nasty stretch on the expressway, but was usually very nice, if a bit wet, riding through French wine producing towns and through the vineyards that separate the towns. Beautiful hills covered with vineyards, neat small medieval towns with Wineries and hiily curvy roads with light traffic. Not a bad combination. I first rode from Eguishem to Colmar, in order to find an internet cafe which I was told was near the railroad station. It wasn't, and, as far as I could determine, there is no internet cafe in Colmar. So I rode out of Colmar heading northwest and found the wine route again. Colmar wasn't bad, and I only wasted a few miles on yet another fultile quest for internet access in France.
A typical town on the Aslace Wine Route
Vineyard on a hill
Looking east into the Rhine valley through a vineyard
The rain was intermittent, so I did get some images with my digital camera, but it increased during the day, so I have no images of the last part of the ride. I needed to use my computer in the rain to figure out my routing during that part, so it got very wet, but the camera stayed dry. Since the rain also reduced visibility, images of distant things were grayed out even early in the day, but the clouds and wisps of fog in the valleys and on the hills enhanced the scenery during the dryer times.
A church/fortress ruin high above the valley
A town near the north end of the wine route
Looking west from the wine route
The route is well signed and easy to follow. It is moderately hilly, but there are few steep hills. Many of the tourists riding this route looked inexperienced, but they were, mostly, managing to ride the hills. There are lots of wineries and a reasonable number of fancy restaurants and bars along the route. I stopped at a few restaurants to check their menus, but they were too rich for me duirng a ride, so I just pulled over and snacked several times along the way. There are some picnic benched and other good places to stop alongside the roads.
My last image from today, D35 south of Barr
it is blurred by rain drops on the filter