This is Rob. Eguisheim to Les Trois Chateaux

We took a five mile hike today from our rental in Eguisheim to Les Trois Chateaux (the three castles). The hike took us out our front door and through this small town. One of many where wines of the Alsace region of France are made. As you pass through town it is apparent that there are almost as many small wineries as there are homes and businesses in Eguisheim. These are not just tasting rooms, but actual small wineries. It is harvest time and we must be mindful of the small tractors pulling trailers that continuously roll up and down the narrow streets of this hill town. 

As we left town we began a long gradual uphill walk through and along terraced vineyards and then later, along the thick forest bordering the vinyards. Tucked into the forested border, we came across what appeared to be an old labor camp or gathering place with a large serviceable More pictures

outdoor wood fired oven! Further along we discovered an apiary with over forty standard hives and a very unusual "hive house" with colored symbols and geometric shapes over the hive entrances to help the bees navigate back to their own hive! Fascinating. These were not inactive hives, but lively working hives! I thought it was fitting that these hives were colored the natural forest colors, not white! I was so happy to have found those hives and the outdoor pizza ovens. Two of my interests in less than 800 yards! I felt like they had been put there just for me. Gratitude!

Shortly after observing the bees, we began an uphill treck through thick forest paths towards the Les Trois Chateaux. The paths turned to trails and became inceasingly more challenging. It occurred to me that both Cinda and I are in far better shape than we were in previous years, and I remember a time when Cinda would decline a five mile hike like this. We talked about our friends and mentors Jeff and Nicky at Fitness Together and thanked them both out loud on the way up!

I had no idea what to expect at the top(other than an expansive view). I had read about an alternate route to a location near the top, where one could ride a bike or drive, and then park and walk the last several hundred yards. So as climbed up the steep trails to the top I invisioned a visitors center, with bathrooms, maybe a few vending machines and some picnic tables.  It could not have been more different than my vision!

The castles ruins have been left to nature, and other than some very sturdy oak stairs, railings, and gaurdrails installed here an there, they are very much left in an un preserved state. They show every one of their one thousand or so years since the Dukes of Alsace built the castle in the 11th century. After Pope Leo the IX walked the streets of Eguisheim, his home town. 

Cinda, Carol, Maurice and I sat down on the thousand year old walls and ate the sandwiches we had purchased at the boulangerie on our way through town that Maurice packed up the trail.  Might be the best sandwich I have ever tasted!  The bread with firm golden blistered crust protecting a soft white freshraisedstillsmellslikethesteamcomingoutoftheoven flesh. This wonderful bread surrounded the locally made emmentaler cheese and sliced cornichons over a thick layer of fresh butter. 

While enjoying the sandwich, a couple of very slow moving hikers with hiking sticks moved very carefully over the rugged brick and granite terrain. I estimated there age to be between 75 to 80 years of age, maybe much older. Both were in such a healthy, wirey state that it was difficult to tell. Each was tall and was wearing "experienced" hiking clothing over strong well defined legs that could easily have been attached to a forty year-old. I turned to Cinda and commented "I sure hope that is us in 20 years. It is amazing that they could have made the hike all the way from Eguisheim".

After we finished our sandwich, we continued to explore the  Trois Chateaux. Every where we went, I was conscious of the two older hikers, very slowly carefully but very skillfully picking their way across the same uneven ground that we had just traversed. Cinda commented to me" I gaurantee those two didn't hike all the way up here from Eguisheim!". A few moments later,  I stopped to take a picture on the farthest side if the ridge, in a shady area under one of the towers. The woman approached me as she was going up the same path I was going down. She asked me "where are you from?" In very good english with a German or Dutch accent. 

Cinda was close by and she replied for me "Washington State". I inturupted. "In the Pacific Northwest region of the United States". The woman smiled and said "I know where Washington State is. My husband and I lived in San Antonio, Texas for two years and we traveled about the states a bit. Our two boys went to Junior High School in Texas. My husband and I are from Holland."

 I asked the woman "how did you get up here?" She gestured to her husband, standing about fifteen yards away and said "we hiked up from Eguisheim". The woman proceeded to tell me about the 300 mile pilgrimage that she and her husband had walked. Through the Pyrenees from Spain, and on to Portugal. She drew the route with her walkingstick in the dirt, complete with major route points and the location of bodies of water. After the presentation, She looked at me and smiled and shrugged " I am a school teacher".  I commented that this must have been a trip of a lifetime.  Her husband turned from looking out over the fall harvest in the valley. He looked at her, and then at me, and smiled, replying for her. "We did it three times."

I am writing this at 23:42. And I wonder. Why did I not offer to buy them a glass of wine when we all got back to the village? The stories I missed!