Our last day by car

We started our morning wandering through the market, which happened to be on the doorstep of our hotel. Besides the usual fruit, veggies, cheese and meat, you could also find clothes, jewelry, shoes and kitchenware.

In the stores you could find pretzels - although they call them brezels - in many different shapes and forms. I had a sugary donut version, while mon mari had the traditional kind. We also picked up some local meat, and two types of cheese, including the mountain town Munster cheese.

Riquewihr
Driving a bit south we came to the picturesque town of Riquewihr, which was a bit more medieval than where we stayed. Once inside the fortress gates, the town looked pretty identical with its pretty buildings. So we wandered the streets, trying some more wine, picking up some munchies, and then went on our way.

Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg
Veering off the wine route, we drove up the mountain to a large castle situated on top. The road wound its way through the colourful forest, filled with all sorts of moss-covered trees. Getting near the top we parked our car along the road and hiked our way to the castle. Packed with tourists, we walked around the walls, through the forest to our remains, and continued hiking back to our start. A great place to enjoy the fall weather and scenery.

The last leg of our car-guided trip
Getting back on the wine route, we made our way towards Strasbourg. After seeing a few more picturesque towns, we decided to speed up our trip and find the main road. With the blink of an eye, the mountains and vineyards were no longer, and instead we were driving through prairie fields of corn and an odd cabbage field.

For most of our trip by car, we've been able to make our way without much difficulty with the signs set in place. However, when going off the beaten-path, the country-provided maps are very much useless. As are the road signs, as they point to the next small town, which isn't on the map.

In hindsight we came across a very useful tool for when driving in Europe - Michelin maps. They are much more accurate than google maps (which, to note, can be very wrong), and their website can even give you directions from place to place. Highly recommended for those who want to drive in Europe.

Traveling in a big city by car
We quickly arrived in Strasbourg, and within the same amount of time became very confused. A much busier city than we were used to driving in, we tried to make sense of where we were and how to get to our hotel.

By far, Strasbourg was the worst city for driving directions. Unlike all the other French towns we've been in, there was not one hotel sign listed to help us find our way. To make matters worse, our hotel was situated in the old part of town, which meant we had to cross the channel circling the town on only a handful of bridges that actually allowed cars to cross.

Finally finding a bridge, we weren't even sure whether we were in the old town or not, and felt like we were traveling in circles. We knew our hotel was by a church, but since there were enough in the old town, it didn't really help as a landmark.

Since we were able to stumble upon the train station and our car rental agency much more easily, we decided it was less stressful to drop off our car and just walk to our hotel. As much as we liked the freedom and ease of transport our car provided us, a big city was not the place to have one.

Strasbourg
Once we finally arrived at our hotel, no longer having to worry about dropping off our tank-filled car or finding our way, we were starving. We broke open a bottle of wine and brought out some previously bought rations and had a relaxing feast.

Finally unwinding, we made our way through town to check out the train station to purchase our airline-priced train tickets to Paris. Knowing that we were leaving at noon the next day, we planned out the rest of our stay in Strasbourg and prepared for the last days of our trip.

After seeing the beautiful, smaller towns of the wine route, Strasbourg was a bit disappointing and overcrowded for our taste. The buildings looked mostly the same, and the only thing that was outstanding - and quite outstanding at that - was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Ridiculously huge, it dominates the square and its bells ring throughout town. Inside was just as beautiful and the amount of work done is simply amazing. With such beautiful buildings it is hard to conceive how much work must go into something so magnificent, especially since most of our buildings now-a-days are so plain. I wonder what the impact of creating such a beautiful and grand building now would do to the economy.