Ruins & Ribeauville

Troy & I have had a couple of experiences with the girls where we look at each other & say “bad parenting decision”.  Most of these have to do with hiking up rocks, a hill, or wandering around ruins.  Today we had all of those.  There are the ruins of three castles above Eguisheim (the town where we are staying) & they look so beautiful silhouetted against the Vosges mountains that we decided to spend this morning wandering around castles.  The plan was to explore these, and then drive over to the Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle. 

After walking up the hill, stumbling over rocks, and climbing ruins of stairs, and taking a couple of photos, we decided that we needed to work our way back down the hill, into the car, and skip castle ruins until both girls can wear hiking boots.

Happy Halloween by the way.

So we drove to the charming town of Ribeauville, and it happened to be market day (I love it when that happens), and we enjoyed the very picturesque streets, vineyards surrounding the car park, a wonderfully delicious lunch, and a black pig taking a walk thru the streets.  Delightful, and a much better decision…

Running fun in Kaysersberg

We try to be flexible in our travel with the girls, and after the vineyards, another market, and a bit of driving, Sophia was begging for a playground.  We had been in Kaysersberg the last time we were in the Alsace, so we really weren’t planning on stopping, but as we rounded the corner driving past it, a playground emerged next to a parking lot.  It seemed like a good idea to stop, play for a while, then find somewhere warm for lunch. (the sun isn’t out today – but it isn’t raining!!)

Sophia collected a pile of HUGE leaves! The girls knew exactly what to do with the cut outs!

A straight trip thru the vines

The color of the vineyards has been so beautiful we thought we would let the girls go a little crazy, and run in a straight line as far as they could thru the vines.  There were a few grapes left, gorgeous leaves, a bit of grass to play with, and fun…

Bubble Blessings

We find that bubbles solve a lot of problems for us both on the road & in parks around Europe.  One of the hardest things to do at a new park is to make friends, and if Sophia is in charge of the bubbles, you can be sure she will meet all of the kids on the play ground.  Plus, they are harmless, and won’t break anything in hotel rooms…

Anyway, while walking around Colmar, we came across a toy shop hidden down a side road.  In order to make it’s presence known, the owner had placed an automatic bubble blower on the outside & bubbles were flying down the street attracting children from all over the square.  Alexandra was in the zone in her stroller, but Sophia was delighted. 

And we think she held a few angels while playing.

Absolute Joy…

Colmar views

Half term break

or Fall Break for all of our US friends…  Troy has been traveling so much, and Sophia had a week off of school this week so we decided to head back to France for a few days of wine, markets, and some shopping.  The Alsace is quickly becoming one of our favorite places in France for all the things we like most about France (wine, markets & shopping!) plus it is a medium drive from Munich (about 5 hours) and we feel like we can easily get there for a long weekend.    

We went last year at the same time, but I had an eye infection, and it rained most of the week, so we were looking forward to a bit of a different experience this time, and boy did we get it.  A beautiful drive, amazing fall colors (Munich went straight from Summer to Winter & all of the leaves froze green on the trees & then dropped off), and sunshine for the first couple days. 

Our base was just outside of Colmar, and we thoroughly enjoyed our first day at the market, and then wandering around the town until lunch time.   The girls were a little bored with our photo taking at the market, so we took turns at the play structure next to the market.  Unfortunately, Alexandra was more interested in the wooden boxes and pallets that were lying around than playing on the slide, but at least we all had a good time.