Interesting sights including war sites and wineries

by Dale Sevig
(Lakeland, FL USA)

My wife who speaks fluent German and I will be in Strasbourg on May 29th. We may overnight to revisit and then go to Gengenbach Germany to meet up with some old friends from Hamburg for two days and then we're moving to the Alsace for three days.

We toured this area maybe twenty years ago briefly and loved it.

I have reserved a nice B&B near Huttenheim-Benfeld for those nights as a base.

I thought of sort of winging it and splitting up the length of Alsace from north to south in three parts and seeing some of the best villages and a few wineries.

Do you have any suggestions on top sights along the way like the best villages (war sites are of interest), top wineries to stop in at and nice but not overpriced restaurants for at least lunch or maybe dinner

After this we're heading to the Massif Central area of France for eight days to explore. This is our sixth trip to France.

Thank you Dale

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War Sights in Alsace
by: Suzele

Oh this is one of my favorite subjects! I do so many tours on the subject of World War One and World War Two!

Probably more on World War Two because World War One involves a good bit of hiking and not everyone likes that sort of thing.

In fact there's an entire chapter in my guide book on military sites.

Actually there are two chapters if you count medieval castles as military sites ; )

There's already a good bit of info on the website to help you plan your trip...

Or if you prefer I could plan your trip for you (when I'm not busy doing tours of course : )

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Visiting Wineries in Alsace
by: Suzele

I have a really hard time picking out the best tasting wines in Alsace because most of them are small producers (by American standards) and they all take their wine making very seriously.

If you don't know much about Alsace wine, you can try a few glasses of the local wines in pretty much every restaurant in Alsace, if you find some that really tickle your fancy, then you might want to go to see them.

The village where they are located is always on the label.

You can visit a "big" wine producer and get an experience similar to what you would get in Napa Valley in California except that the wine is Alsatian wine.

They'll probably have someone who speaks at least some English.

If you don't know much about Alsace wine, it may be a good place to start because you can ask them questions about Alsace, wine and everything in between.

Or you can go to a smaller more traditional wine producer...

They'll give you a list of what they have grouped according to the grape variety and usually listed from lightest to strongest in flavor.

And you tell them what you want to try and you can ask them questions.

Small producers don't normally speak English, but they may speak German.

You'll find signs everywhere on the Alsatian wine road pointing towards "caves de degustation".

The big guys have shops right on the main roads usually and they have big signs. The smaller wineries have signs too, but they are usually where they've always been for years and years in the different villages on the wine road.

The smaller wineries in Alsace expect you to buy a few bottles of something. The big wineries charge you a fee up front to taste a few wines. Some will give you a choice.

There are over a hundred wine producing villages in Alsace and each village could have anywhere from a one or two to thirty or more wine makers.

There are some great wines all over Alsace. It's really hard for me to name names.

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Restaurants in Alsace
by: Suzele

Alsace has some really great restaurants. Some are expensive and others more reasonable.

If you want to eat at some of these very nice restaurants, but you don't want to pay for an expensive meal you have a few options...

1) Go for lunch. The price will be about half that of the dinner menu and you still get the same great food in smaller portions.

2) Take a "menu". In English they might be called a "tasting menu". Sometimes they even come with different glasses of wine for each course included.

3) Go to an out of the way restaurant. Not all of the well known restaurants are in convenient locations. Some of them are in the middle of nowhere even and most of them have a small hotel or bed and breakfast. The very well established and famous restaurants are expensive no matter where they are, but lesser known or newer restaurants that are off the beaten path usually have better prices.

I have quite a few listed in my guide book for Strabourg and northern Alsace and some of them are really surprisingly reasonable...

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