Through Alsace

June 13, 1996 to June 14, 1996

YAs Rachael and I recall it now, we had a wonderful two days biking through Alsace. We took our time, meandering back and forth through the wine villages and vineyards, enjoying the distinctive architecture of the villages, expansive views across the vinyards and the Rhine valley, ruined castles in the hills, storks, and the warm, sunny weather. We spent the first night in Ribeauville, after visiting Turkheim, Kayserberg, Riquewihr, and other villages. We took the quietest route we could find, which generally involved paved agricultural paths at the uphill margin of the wine belt, and lots of hills- these days were quite a bit more challenging than either of us had been expecting.

Two memories stand out. First, in one of the wine villages we stopped at a wine outlet (not hard to find - it seems like half of the storefronts were wine sellers) and bought three full sized bottles of wine, to take back with us on the flight home. One of these was for a coworker, Jim Spendal, who was a wine enthusiast and Francophile - he and I had in common a love for three book The Lost Upland by the late poet W.S. Merlin, a set of elegiac short stories set in the Auvergne. It's hard to believe now that we really managed to cram three bottles of wine into my bike bags and then carry them all the way to Paris. Sadly, no photo of the packing job.

The other fine memory is of a flat tire repair, I believe somewhere between Riquewihr and Hunawihr. It is memorable for two reasons . First, it is one of only two occasions I can recall when Rachael repaired her own flat tire. (The other was in Damariscotta, Maine, on our first anniversary tour). Second, it's the only photo we have of Rachael imbibing from a bottle of wine. Rachael has long since quit alcohol, but back then we would occasionally pick up a half bottle and enjoy it with a picnic lunch or dinner.

We continued north as far as Molsheim, and then late in the afternoon we angled northwest and away from the Rhine, toward Paris. We stopped at Saverne, at the foot of a small pass over the Vosges, just before sundown. We would have loved to continue on to Strasbourg, but we're out of time - it's still a long ways from Paris, and our flight leaves in a week.

Here's looking at Rachael's entire flat repair career: