Bringing the Family Home – Strasbourg
The next part of our trip was filled with relaxation and food! M and I were so excited to show his family our home. The morning started with fresh baked buttery croissants, warm pain au chocolate, and coffee.
The best way to see all of Strasbourg in a short amount of time is the boat tour. So we first stopped at the tourism office and purchased a few tickets. Followed by gelato at Amorinos in front of the Cathedral.
My favorite part about Strasbourg is the amazing architecture. It is a sweet combination of German and French styles. With giant squares and slivers of buildings leaning in every direction.
Another favorite of ours is Waffle House. At this fine establishment you can choose any waffle with a wonderful combination of savory goodness. They fill the waffles with cheese, meat, veggies, and herbs then double waffle iron it. So Good! They also have sweet waffles topped with Nutella, chocolate, whipped cream and other sweet goodness.
So we got some waffles and continued to Petite France, a beautiful little section of the city.
After the boat tour and checking out the Strasbourg Cathedral, everyone returned to our apartment and played some board game. Minor plug for literally the best board game, <a href="http://Ticket to Ride “>Ticket to Ride.
For dinner we visited a charming restaurant that sits on the river in Petite France. There you can enjoy authentic Aslacian food and escargot, a favorite of M’s mother.
It also happened to be Bastille day. So the entire city turned out for fireworks!
The next day started with breakfast at a yummy little cafe, Bistrot et Chocolat. There you can get boards with little samples of breads, veggies, fruit, and other breakfast treats.
After filling up we picked up our car rental car and started our road trip of the Alsace Wine Route. M and I had already driven the wine route in a previous trip (you can read about it here) so we knew exactly where to start. Too Monkey Mountain! Probably Alsace best kept secret.
There you can walk around a giant enclosed area where monkeys hop around, play and hold their hands out asking for popcorn, provided when you enter. We love how close you can get to the monkeys and how you can have a one on one experience.
If you travel a bit further south you will come across a castle on top of a hill overlooking a valley. The Alsace valley is filled with vineyards and scattered little towns.
Even farther south sits the town of Colmar. Colmar is smaller then Strasbourg but still pretty big compared to some of the other towns you will come across on the Alsace Wine Route. It is also the inspiration for the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast! So we had to visit.
As we made our way back up the wine route we stopped in another beautiful town called Riquewihr. We first stopped at a small winery to do some wine tasting. But the woman was terrible and just plain rude. So we continued on. Great thing about the area, there are TONS of wineries. So if one lady give you attitude, you can just go a block down.
We tried a couple other shops in town, enjoyed some cheese tasting and got some more attitude from wine connoisseurs. Eventually we found an amazing store where we emptied our wallets.
For dinner M made his famous delicious Rougaille and I made his favorite white chocolate bread pudding. We stuffed ourselves into food comas then went to bed.
The next day we hit the road at 7:00AM and M drove us 4 hours towards he German / Austrian boarder to Neuschweinstine Castle.
If you are looking to visit Newschweintstein Castle book your tickets ahead of time. You are more likely to get better time slots and you won’t have to wait in line.
We were fortunate enough to get tickets shortly after we arrived. So we grabbed some lunch and walked to the top of the hill the castle sits on. Took some photos and began our tour. Thank goodness the outside is beautiful because they do not allow any photos of the inside.
The castle is nestled between a bunch of hills. Which make a nearby bridge a perfect place to get a photos.
It also allows you to see the worst in tourists. People literally walking to the front of the line with no disregard for everyone that has been waiting…it was getting intense.
The drive home was long but we stopped for some German dinner. One of the members of our group is vegan, which is a bit difficult to accommodate in Germany. Luckily, I think we may have found the only restaurant in Germany with vegan options! Their schnitzel and Aslace noodles were excellent as well. Check out Brauereigaststatte Dinkelacker! Yup. Thats the name.
If you would like to read more about Strasbourg and the Alsace Wine Route check out our other posts: