Post-Hike Evening in Ribeauville
22 May 2018
Vineyards along the roadside, overlooked by the castles we just visited
Back in the car after our long hike, we decided to swing around the outer edge of the town. We followed Rue de 3 Décembre around past vineyards and great views of the town and castles on the hill beyond. We tried to find the significance of the name of the road, but the only thing I see is that it was the day after the coup where Napoleon III reclaimed the throne as Emperor of France. Maybe it was named because of that, maybe not. There is so much history here you could only imagine how many significant dates there are!
From there we drove toward Hunawihr, a small town just to the south of Ribeauville, but one which we had also seen parts of from St. Ulrich. We turned on to the main road through town, went up just a few meters to the curve, then jammed on the brakes.
There was a giant stork standing right in the middle of the road!
Alsace is known for many things, one of them being their local stork population. Last year we were here after they had left for the winter though, so we didn’t get to see any. We knew we were right in stork season now, so we had high hopes that maybe we’d see them up in their nests. We had no idea one would be standing right in front of us!
This was a pretty big bird, much larger than we would have thought. Standing on the ground it was easily looking right in our windshield at eye level. I’m not really sure where the image of the stork delivering the baby began, but it is certainly big enough that carrying a baby wouldn’t be a surprise. We watched for a moment or two before it walked across the road and disappeared in the bushes. It was quick and without pictures, but our first stork sighting in Alsace stood right in front of us!
We looped through the streets of Hunawihr just looking, then made the way back to Ribeauville where we found parking again on Rue Klee and walked past the large vineyard cross and through the archway. Funny, of all we’ve seen through Alsace, that little intersection is probably our most traversed and familiar.
Dinner was planned at the hotel restaurant, where we had amazing choucroute garne last year. Aiming for something different this time, I went with the pork knuckle and Beth chose the bibeleskaes. The pork was good as expected and we’ve had our fair share in the region in general, but the bibeleskaes was something a bit different. It’s like a cottage cheese mixed with cream and served with slices of thin bacon and bread. Unique for sure. We also ordered a small carafe of Gewürztraminer wine... which we soon after learned is a bit of a faux pas. Turns out that this wine is never paired with a meal in Alsace. Oops. We enjoyed it for sure, but maybe will try to be a bit more as the locals next time. I will say that it paired exceptionally well with the local Munster cheese we had for dessert!
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