La Route des Vins aka Fairytale Road

Because we had a 3-day weekend, thanks to Germany's Einheit Day (Unification of East and West Germany 26 years ago), we celebrated by going first to the Bern Temple.  Although it is called the Bern Temple, it is actually located in the small town of Zollikofen.  

We suffered through Friday afternoon's traffic "staus" for 7 hours before arriving at our 4.5-hour destination in Bern.  Saturday morning we enjoyed a wonderful session with, of course, translations.  Actually, the original was in French, and I listened to a lot of it, understanding more than I thought I would.  It was a lovely way to spend the morning.  Unfortunately, the only shot with the two of us takes Moroni out of the picture.

But here Moroni is in one parting shot.

From there we headed to the Alsace region of France, ready for the much-touted adventure of driving the Fairytale Road, so named by us Senior Missionaries.  We have decided that this day and a half's drive through the vineyards of France, right through the center of many medieval towns, was one of the true highlights of our mission excursions.

Our favorites, the half-timber buildings, were everywhere we looked.

And the architecture of the many Renaissance buildings was equally awesome.

We would no sooner leave a village behind, traversing the vineyards, 

before we'd come upon another village around the corner.

We loved this old stone bridge.

The ripe grapes hanging from the vines were very tempting...

So we were grateful for a family selling their produce on the side of the road.

On the road again, and through another quaint little town.

Note the cobblestone streets.  This one is narrow, but not as narrow as many others.

Notice that cars are parked on what might have been a sidewalk!

This was one of our all-time favorites!

We loved how, as you approached the next little town, the prominent church spire welcomed us.

But once in town, we often found it difficult to navigate the narrow streets.  Yes, cars do go down these streets--just one direction at a time, however.

Out of town and back on the road,

With miles and vineyards to go and more villages to visit.

Nothing like one crooked house after another!

Again, do keep in mind that cars drive down these narrow cobblestone streets.

I thought it a good idea to show the original construction that lies behind so many of the updated, 

but 500-year-old buildings!

You know how things can be rated one star, two stars, etc?  Well, the villages along this route are rated for the amount of flowers displayed from the buildings.  This sign, for example, tells us that Westhoffen, unfortunately, is just a one-flower village.  Most towns we drove through were two, three, and four flowers.  I just forgot to take the picture until the very end.

Obviously, some of these photos must have come from the "four-fleuri" villages!

One town, Colmar, was noted for it's Little Venice.  It was very picturesque, and we'd wanted

to take one of the boat rides, but the next one was a two hour wait.

No steeple here, but an interesting tower!

Riqueville was a pleasant surprise.  

It is France's bigger version of Germany's Rothenberg ob der Tauber!

You can see by the number of tourists that this is a very popular spot!

The old-time public water source.

On the road again...

...this time even seeing a castle in the distance.  Actually, we did see three or four 

castles along the way but didn't venture off the road to check them out.

One interesting thing we noticed along the way were the numerous statues of Christ.  

Since France is rather secular, I am suspecting that these statues are of another era.  

But we must have seen almost a dozen statues along the way.

By this time we'd eaten all our grapes and regretted the fact that we hadn't bought more.

Do these look yummy or what!

Well, Bacchus must have been smiling down on us because we found yet another roadside stand!

Another steeple, another village!

And more flowers!

Another steeple...oh, I already said that.

We got a kick out of these two wine barrels with the stork nest above it.  I have got to research France and storks!  It must be their national bird or something because you see the nests everywhere, and stuffed toy storks are sold at all the tourist shops.

Did I mention there are 103 villages along this 170-kilometer route?

Can't leave out that steeple!

Anyone for a small keg of wine?

Yet another walled city and gate to traverse!

Almost looks deserted, huh!  That's because it's Sunday.

And here's our favorite French restaurant of the trip, La Bergerie

Jim was real adventurous and ordered a steak!  I, however, gave the regional favorite,

Tarte Flambé, a try and totally loved it!

Kind of like a paper-thin pizza crust with melted cream cheese and bits of bacon!

Totally "to die for" as Liz Edmunds would say.

I commented (in French, no less) to the waitress about the many needlepoint pictures throughout the restaurant and guessed that there were at least 30.  I asked if they were machine made and was told that the owner had done them all, and that there were many more in the rooms upstairs!!!

Goodbye, Fairytale Road.  If we can, we'll squeeze in one more visit before we return home!