Riems another day teaser

 Another teaser. Two days of catchup now.... 

All of this will change...this is what champagne fields in France look like.

Riems teaser

Big day. One part was visiting old roman diggings for chalk and limestone which the studious locals had since converted to wine cellar fermentation areas and then making the huge underground caverns as art galleries.

Teaser only. No idea when the full post will be forthcoming.

Into the Heart of Champagne

 It was nice to have our own space in which to construct our own breaky. Although less options than any restaurant buffet it was certainly more comfortable than having to elbow German tourists out if the way to get to the the granola. Let alone the Americans who can't use coffee machines properly. Instead this was all nicely civilised with the six protagonists weaving a merry dance around the space as we all did our own thing in order to exit the premis in the pre-ordained time. This blogger had a bad start with breaking the tripod and jamming the bedrooms sink. (Forgot to include them in the previous plumbing count but there are quite a few of these as well). That combined with the chesty cough that is not going away but slowly spreading throughout the team made it all a bit harder to be in the groove. Nevertheless we all got out the door in time and headed up to the nearby tram stop where J&S deftly navigated the ticket machine to enable us to quickly get up to the train sration we had seemingly just left yesterday (about lunchtime). Combined we all spent a fair amount of euros on tickets thst were never checked ( however that's not the point) in order to spend 30 mins on a local train over to Eperney. Never heard of it before. Many had though as this is the heart of the Champagne region (which is why we came here in the first place so S&N could show us around). 

A very picturesque ride through extensive platations of grape vines was a nice entrance to the town. They have a famous road called the Avenue of Champagne. It's called so because all the big names have their operations based here. It's very fancy and reaks of wealth. These people take this stuff very seriously. The reason is not so for pleasantness that the product bestows on the consumers, it all about how much of their hard earned can be extracted from them in the process. This is where the spin comes in and thus revenues are significantly enhanced when one feels a sense of achievement when simply being able to purchace such a quality product..

The Avenue has all the big names (e.g. Moet & Chandon) with their large admin buildings fronting the factories behind as well as store fronts, attached to salubrious restaurants and tasting areas. These are all discreetly called  Champagne Houses. They've been there for ages and create an extremely popular tourist attraction by doing so. Didn't know about but can tick it off anyway. After N had cleverly sniffed out a free tasting in the tourist info centre we wandered aimlessly up the Avenue looking for something. Anything. Took lots of pics of grand old buildings that were looking immaculate in their finery. Eventually decided to see what all the fuss was about and ducked into a courtyard and demolished a bottle of Collard Picard in very elegant style whilst non-blogger was threatening a young couples dog by describing it as delicious. 

We then had a few hours to fill as the only tour of a house we could get was later on in the day so we wandered aimlessly towards the other side of town in the general direction of that event and found an establishment which could water and feed us for while which was quite pleasant. Heading off away from the pristine surrounds of the Avenue the place started to look very run down, onwards we trudged through the streets of run down buildings  cracked pavements and schools with very high security screens around them.

We'd almost given up hope and were wondering if the six of were going to be the focus of one of those shows on the TV where the audience is saying "well they made bad choices and deserved all they got", but no, into view came a salubrious establishment in which we spent quality time hearing all about the industry through the eyes of this house.

Got the spiel about how it's made, the rules, the aromas, the regional villages and how they're ranked in quality, lots of insight as to why we should fork out so much dosh on a single bottle of the stuff. We hen had a tasting session of thier quality products which was nice.

Blogger is a heathen , couldn't really tell the difference and therefore decide on his favorite. Guess we'll just  have to take our guides advice and keep on tasting different varieties.

After that the timimg was pretty good, so wandered with direction this time back down to the train station and whipped back to Riems in  a carriage that was seemingly full of people coughing and nose blowing.

Back in Riems,  we strolled though the town soaking up the feeling of thr joint as the locals started to settle into thier Friday evening. Lots people out making the most of the pleasant evening. Seemingly not caring that the half moon was the wrong way around. 

Ended up having dinner in the same place as last night as it's close to home. Everyone went to bed early except the lone blogger, labouriusly tapping away on his device...

And so to Riems

Two intros to this post. Skip to intro two to avoid the long winded one..

Ok bloggers this may be a quick teaser or it may end up being the final polished post... actually thinking about that and the way all off this falls together over periods of availability and capability it is definitely a work in progress, constantly updated and refined, so what you consume now may be totally different from the final product and thus therefore indeed is the legal get out clause that whatever you read in this ongoing saga is not necessarily accurate, most possibly incorrect and should not on any level be taken as factual. In a legal sense. 

That's the fineprint as far as commercial legalities of this whole tome goes. Just to summarize... not one word can be taken as truth.

Whew.. glad to get that legal eagle crapition out of the way so I can get onto our adventures. 

It was a big day. 6 musketeers heading across the dry barren desert landscape that precedes the train station. Took all of 30 seconds. No time for wailing trumpets setting the scene for an honest showdown, guns blazing as they dived and rolled into the concrete sanctuary of the station.  Nup pretty boring  just wheeled the lugage into the station and then onto the train.

Intro two:

All went very smoothly.

Up early for the transit we trundled out of the hotel and across the road and into the train station. It was all extremely close and thus too easy. The French train network runs extremely smoothly and extremely fast e.g. ears popping as we went into tunnels. The landscape was consistent all the way across the country, we covered about half of it in the course of a couple of hours. Crops drying out at the end of the season and many brown fields having been prepared for the next crop. 

3 separate trains and we arrived in Riems, trundled our way through a very elegant townscape to arrive at the appartment door and eventually got in. It's very modern in an old building. On the 3rd floor. Has 2 living rooms, three bedrooms, 2 toilets and 4 showers. Not quite sure why. Suspect plumbing  contrstraints may have influenced the design. 

The location is amazing,  literally around the corner is the heart of the town, with the cathedral domination of the area pretty much complete.

Had a lite lunch of bagelely stuff and the troupe split. Some to rest whilst your blogger and N had a wander around the cathedral which is significantly impressive. One of the best given how far up they went. Eventually ended up having a couple of quiet beverages siting on stools watching the locals in their environment. No tourists evident so it made a nice change to actually consume the genuine ambiance.

This town is very well groomed as are the people. We had kids coming home from school, tradies dropping by for a quick one before heading home, people of all types, ages and abilities riding bikes, scooters, roller blades etc. along the smooth street which was shared with consistent  electric busses and the varieties of all sorts of other vehicles. Very interesting and pleasant soaking it all up whilst solving the world's problems.

Together again for dinner at a great pub/restaurant across the road which the owner was a very sharp comedian who could and does cater for all races.

A defrief around the kitchen table by the 6 troupadours before a nightcap in lounge led to rediculous intro to this post. You get that sometimes.

Much ado about nothing much

 A planned late start was derailed somewhat by the previous days debrief and took sometime to get up to speed as the days activities unfolded.  The weather turned this morning in a very Melbournesque way. With a couple of rain fronts drifting up from down south, being pushed by a cool change from the north. Same patterns, just here the directions are upside down. As is the half moon. Pretty sure this is why they drive on the wrong side of the road as well.

The Troupe trouped over to the UnTiers bus and was duly transported into the olde part of town, this time to explore the covered markets which are normally the life blood of the town.

Not so sure in this case as they seem to be more focused on selling immediately consumable products than (say) stocking a restaurant to meet it's daily activities. I.e. one fruit and vegi stand does not feed a city, whereas 5 outlets selling beers and other drinks will keep the diehards happily inebriated at 11 am. We had a very slow coffee whilst the worst of the weather ran itself away outside.

Emerging into the relatively quiet streets we  did some yet more aimless wandering. Sort of  drifted up to a museum to see if that could fill in some time but no, it was shut until later on.

Admired the ancient anti-semntic gargoyles on the church whilst not fully understanding what the sculpturer was thinking at the time. So many shops fronts were perused, some visited most were actually closed..eventually ended up sitting under umbrellas in a tourist courtyard to slowly consume a drink whilst waiting for the 2pm wine tasting to commence. 

This was fun, it was in very clean modern room next to the olde building where the wine is produced by 4th generation family. Apparently the only one in the actual town. A great spiel by a young lass who was very engaging. Found out about winestone (yes it's a thing) and about new wine which is recently produced, not bottled and is only freshly available for a short time after the harvest. Festival this weekend, so we were lucky to get a taste yesterday.

After that we did yet more aimless wandering, sort of trying to figure out where to eat dinner that night. The hours ticked by. Stork nests on churches is a thing too. Pretty much now fully familiar of the town and the layout now as we kept walking past the same places yet coming in from different directions. Eventually we ended back in the same place as the first night here as we new the food was that good. Repeat. Repeat.

Once again walked the couple of kms back to the  hotel for a very brief nightcap before winding up for the day. Didn't do a whole lot but pretty exhausted from it all. Tomorrow we're on  the move again..

Into the heart of the Alsace

It's an interesting life on the road, traveling from one town to the next, playing to a different crowd the same songs, having to put up with the road crew reckoning they're so relevant one should construct a balad with them being main players ele etc etc.. it sort of becomes a blur when after a most fabulous day on the road we are compelled to deconstruct,  in some sort of poetic fashion and then come up with an original riff (five chords or less) to support the whole story. Lucky for this blogger and for those consuming this tome there's not one note of musical ability (or indeed capability) to be consumed here. So whilst one can feel what James was going through while he sat at the keyboard heavily inebriated after a big day out on the road and constucted Stay this here blogger is in a similar situation without any musical ability, only armed with a device holding pics and a desire to whip this out before getting some kip. (Blog post introduction - tick)
The plan for the day was to get up early, traipse through the town and set up the gopro for the standout shot that every tourist does here - as the sun rises and makes the whole thing interesting....given your perception of course. e.g. Light slowly moving in coordination with the planets rotation may not be as fascinating as say Spiderman swinging his way though the scene. It's slow TV.  Lucky though there were fish in the canal that created a constant series of strange ripples... never mind the details. Video available on request. The location was visually superb, audio...it sucked as it was right opposite the market so we had all sorts of peeps noises ruining the ambiance. Still damn good fun though.

From no one around to an hour later the street was full of school kids, milling and yelling as they tend to do. Thought they were waiting for a bus but no no.. they were waiting for the school gates to be opened. When they did all the kids disappeared ( could still hear their happy chatter though) and as this here blogger packed up the kit there were the teachers looking down the streets and urging the straglers to get inside before they locked the gates. 8:00 am Tuesday morning Colmar old town is not a Disney recreation - this is actually the life these families lead. They just happen to be living in a place where strange people occasionally appear doing wierd things like videoing thier home at sunrise.
Blogger (possibly now known to the locals as that really annoying out of towner who was overly protective of his video shoot) powered back to home base on new knees to join the rest of the Troupe for the rest of the days adventures...yep.. so if you're thinking that was an overly verbose description of a minor event....correct.  You can (dear blogger) stop here if you like....
The Troupe is extremely well organized and coordinated. So far no one has missed a set meeting time. Can almost guarantee that if it does happen it will be this here blogger, however let's see what transpires. In this instance we met on time. Blogger and non-blogger being the last to arrive. N&S J&S waiting patiently. (pattern forming here) in the hotel foyer and we all headed over to our favorite one third of a bus to get into town for our chocolate experience as booked by S (doing her job... which is us not having to think about anything).

This was a fabulous (and as I'm thinking about it now I'm reaching over, into the bag  selecting the packet opening it up and the consuming the outcomes. Ooohh laahhh lah...chocolate  experience..yum..yum..)
Lots of fun. We were on a mission to keep this short as we had other things (Britten wise) booked, however the timing was great. We should've walked out with certificates saying we we are now qualified chocolattiers. But we didn't  that's because what we produced was edible  not sellable. The gist of the whole industry is the basic ingredients are indisputably desirable. Making them visually so is an art. The bonus of partaking in an experience such as this is you get to consume the output before anyone else even gets to judge what a shite chocolateere you are. (Point in fact.. on my 2nd of four bars right now).
Timing was crucial now.... one Britten (S) had arranged the choc making experience whilst the other Britten (N) had organized the wine tasting tour afterwards.
These Poms are well co-ordinated and effective. Makes senses that we resonate. After all,  we share the same monarch/spouse where even after all those years of them publically expressing their desires for each other in the sensuous language of sanitary products they still reign supreme over us and all we behold and will become as we move forward as a nation.
Nationalist truisms aside N&S did a great job organizing today's events. The chocolate construction  workshop will be rembererd for as long as the participants wear their aprons (and this tome gets read)....and then there was the wine tour...
Taking the trusted guidance of bloggers gmaps the Troupe duly trudged through the mid day exuberance of the olde town being swarmed  by tourists to our pick up point from which the day got really interesting...our six muscateers  got bundled into a nine seater mini bus and headed off into the amazing story lined region of the Alacase where this blogger may possibly run out of words, expressions and emotions to convey the whole trip but will give it a go....
We drove out of  town, that in itself was an unexpected relief. Headed through fields of vineyards to end up in the village of Kaysersberg.

Nice name. Details and history etc. Are way beyond the capacity of this minor bit of type to express.  The whole region is reaking in historical context. The olde' worlde' forrts etc. go back to 1200's ... like that's a long time ago, and then we saw villages than were totally rebuilt after WW2 in the last 90 years since and to the same designs as to prior that idiocy in order for the locals to maintain their sense of self.
The amount of historical significance was becoming overwhelming. Like... how many different superlatives can one use here?
Maybe time to give up on  that track and move on to the troupe...
Cool village.. had a fortified wall, ramparts, a water race feeding a mill and a lot of associated buildings.
Next we went to a personalized wine tasting experience which was all about the 12 hectares and the associated juice plants that he owns.  Really well run and coordinated delivery going on here.

Whilst the owner of the joint expressed his experience  and passion in his product our driver was slipping into his neither areas to prepare our accompanying fare. Hmmm goats cheese on Bagels. Yum. The wines were extraordinary cheap compared to what any cellar door back home charge and therefore makes entire sense to get what we we'll consume over the ensuing days. So grabbed a few but did not consider shipping.  Leave that sort of behaviors to those well beyond our capacity.
The next village we visited is considered the jewel in the crown of the Alsace region.  From this bloggers perspective this is quite seriously getting ridiculous. Like... how many outstanding fabulous pictures can one take that are bloggable in one day? Let alone a 30 minute stroll through a town where chances are 90 % of the tourist inhabitants have no idea what they are looking at as compared to us 6 muscateers who are fully armed with knowledge from a personal tour guide. Dates inscribed over archways. Wooden family faces carved into building facials. 

We knew it all.
Allowed us to swftly pass through , take a picture,  stop and have a drink, take some photos .. so we can keep the memories for the rest of our short lives, which in the timescale and enduring resonance of the place is totally insignificant. We may (or may not) take away one small dust particle of the billions that make up the stone structures that the original inhabitants spent their entire lives putting there in the first place.
Tourism may wear down the place eventually, it does at least provide a significant income the locals. Better us marauding hordes of tourists throwing around cash as compared to the Germans throwing around explosives and oppression like they've done here in recent times.
We've learnt that as this valley is the one that defines the border between Germany and France it's always been in contention for control by peeps beyond the local boundaries. They call themselves Asacians. they have been owned by varying others over their course  of history. Currently happy to be part of the French conglomerate at this stage.
Back quickly to town of  Riquewir.. Nice place. N & blogger got to taste some freshly minted new wine without fully realising the significance of the small price being paid at the time. And then found a shady spot to sip on a pino noir waiting for the spouses to catch up who'd been distracted by forking out a small fortune to minusculy diminish the size of a couple of extremely large wheels of cheese.
We had to leave the town,  the picturesqueness was becoming overwhelming.

They have their own statue of liberty because the designer of the one bequested to the USA came from here. This blogger suggests thay should actually demand the original back as the notion of liberty is currently not being upheld by the current holders of the object. Plant a seed ...watch it grow.

Our tour guide happily dropped us off back at the front of yhe the hotel (whilst doing a loop of the statue on the way ) in which ( after mandatory kip) we took over the congregation area on the ground floor to consume all the wine and food we'd stocked up on over the last couple of days. Fully planned and well executed. The hotel staff were very generous in the support they provided.  A late night tipple I.c.w. N was enough to extend the verdoseness of thus post as well as the subsequent delay in posting.

Colmar delights

Always on the go...breaky was in the hotel brassierre made up of typical hotel all you can eat varieties of stuff that seem pretty much consistent wherever you go, although there's always an indication of locality and thus thier culture offered somehow. e.g. in SriLanka there is a variety of spicy rice, in the UK - Black Pudding, Scotland - Haggis, here there is a wide variety of croissants whereas at home you're offered little packets of vegemite along with the jams.

On a fairly tight schedule as N the tour guide had booked us in for a cruise on the canal at 10:00am and we'd scheduled in the 25 min walk into the olde' towne'. S  (the genius he is ) asked about buses at reception and go figure, there's  a free shuttle bus that runs around every 15mins and the leaves from just over there. So that is a huge win for all of us and will be making the most of it over the next few days. Unfortunately J seems to be catching the same cold this this blogger seems to have caught and we're yet to blame the cougher on the last plane but it does seem likely. Anyway, into town on a bus that is the 3rd of the length of a normal one yet the same dimensions otherwise..so it's an UnTiers bus. Found our way to extensive port where a guy collects money from the passengers, lines them up and then herds them onto the punts as they dock at the port.

Nice little enterprise they have going here. The 25 minute cruise up and down the small canal was very serene as well as very funny as our comic punter was very good at delivering a well practiced spiel. They call it little Venice and one can see why. It's really tiny in comparison. I guess there are similarities in the fact they have skiny boats on water as well.

After that enlightening adventure we wandered aimlessly though the old town for while with a loose destination of the tourist information place. Dropped into the locsl cathedral which was being renovated.

Thought the loud noise was a concrete saw resonating through the solid stone ediface but eventually realized it was the pipe organ slowly going through each pipe. Fascinating to start with and like water tourture after a while. They're either doing this to make practitioners feel the same as the strung up dude or to simply make sure gawkers don't hang around to long. So we didn't. Stopped for a coffee beside a bustling junk market where non-blogger wanted to purchase a heavy glass lamp to take home where as blogger was tempted with either the samurai sword or the obviously broken first ever commercially made typewriter. All of equal usefulness, luckily sanity prevailed.

We then found the information centre and booked tomorrow's activities and then spent some more time aimlessly wandering around. Eventually booked a spot for dinner, had some lunch joining the throngs under umbrellas in a mini square. Very nice. Tourists everywhere. All gawking at the historical buildings to which the locals like to attach unwanted items to the outside in an attempt to make people gawk at them.

Easily caught the UnTiers bus back to the hotel for few a few hours re-coup where blogger trundled off the laudromat in order to cleanse those pesky smalls again. Had to also do a supermarket stop as the running nose warranted a box of tissues to deal with it.

Back along the totally uninteresting strrets of Colmar residential areas adorning the train line in the rising afternoon heat your blogger arrived back at the room laden with clean laundry, vital supplies and the strange wailing of an out of control youngster seeping in through the windows from.somewhere in the square below. Thought it could've been the cries of a bird but apparently no. Recalcitrant kid.

Whatever,  it was time to get moving again. The six muscateers dressed in the appropriate garb and armed with all sorts of payment techniques headed back into town on the UnTiers bus (use it often enough and it'll stick is the thinking) which was actually full and turning people away. 15 peeps is more than enough for this little piece of freebee happiness.

We got deposited once again back into the olde' town to soak up more of the local Alcase culture. Thinking about that a bit more though.... This area is about a 2km square block of olde worlde charm, which is full of ancient buildings  (each and eveverone having a unique story to tell) whilst outside the coverted olde town theres a typical suburban sprawl in which most of the locals live. So we are actually consuming a manufactured version of the local culture, that being the Disney like version... considering the place is literally swarming with tourists it all of a sudden starts to feel a bit orchestrated. Good pictures though.

We had a very pleasant pre dinner thisrt quenched at the Deer and Beer before heading over to the Fer Au Rouge for dinner. Great company in an interesting place. The nosh not as good as the previous night however fully understand one just can't continually keep upping the anti on this scale.

Walked all the way home though the darkened streets and parks. Felt very safe in doing so. Another debrief by the six of us in the foyer lounge was a nice full stop to a most splendid day.