He arrived on Saturday morning, and I immediately took him on a whirl-wind tour of my city. All the major sights were covered: the cathedral, climbing the cathedral, Petite France, Place Kleber, Place Broglie, the European Parliament building... along with the random sights, such as my favorite cafe, my favorite bakery, the ice cream parlor that I really like, the school where I taught English lessons, and my favorite spot by the river overlooking the restaurant-boats and the "Other Church."
Seeing as he had just hopped off the plane a few hours previous, I think it was a little too much. I was even so excited to see my dad that I totally forgot where the Au Brasseur restaurant was, resulting in us walking way all the way to Petite France when it's located on the other side of the city. All he wanted was a beer, yet I showed him all of Strasbourg in three hours. Needless to say, my dad was exhausted.
Saturday night, the two of us went out to dinner with my host parents to the Marronier, a huge and beautiful traditional restaurant in a far-away little town. It was a fun dinner, especially amusing as my dad was speaking fluent Franglais to my host parents throughout. I couldn't stop laughing, but honestly I'm also pretty proud of my dad's level of French. He hasn't spoken it in a while, and for the most part he could understand the gist of what my host parents were saying. I rarely needed to translate, although I did clarify some of his responses, as neither Raymond nor Marlene speak Franglais.
Sunday was spent on the Route des Vins, Alsace's famous Wine Route. It consists of at least 20 picturesque medieval villages on the footsteps of the Vosges mountains, surrounded by vineyards. I've been on a tour once before back in September, visiting Obernai and Riquewihr and a few others.
Malou suggested five towns, but we only managed to visit two. We started off in Ribeauville, the town that I spent Valentine's Day exploring. It was much more alive this time around, as the sun was shining and the vineyards were green. I guided my dad around the town and up onto the hiking path that I had found back in February, but we both decided that we wouldn't hike all the way up the the three castles.
After an hour or so in Ribeauville, we drove to Kaysersberg, a town I had never before visited as it is not accessible by train. Kaysersberg ended up being the true gem of the wine route, and it is my favorite of any of the villages in Alsace. It's even better than Colmar!
Kaysersberg is a beautiful little place that feels right out of the story books. It's all colorful timbered houses, ivy, flowers, and cobblestones, complete with a medieval stone tower overlooking the surrounding vineyards. I took over three hundred photos, and my dad and I spent more than four hours in the pretty little village. We climbed the tower-castle, we sat by the river, we walked through the whole town at least once... and we ate a very good lunch (and a very good tea as well! complete with chocolate-raspberry cakes!) Even though we only visited two of the Wine Route's towns, neither my dad nor I felt like we had lost out. Kaysersberg was completely worth it.
I will say that although we were on the Route des Vins all day, surrounded by vineyards and wine tastings, neither of us had any wine. My dad stuck with beer (Kronenbourg, an Alsatian beer at least!) and I just had water. I've had quite a lot of Alsatian wine these past few months!
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