Trixie Traveler in Alsace-Black Forest: Day 6: Villages of the Alsace Wine Road and WW I Memorial

We are in the same hotel tonight so don't have to worry about luggage down and such. I am feeling really tired this morning and the climb today is even more than yesterday - 800 meters of probably 6-8% grade. I should have mentioned before that we are in the Vosges mountains. It looks like a beautiful day with sun and pleasant temperatures. I plan to just do my own thing today but when I tell Philipp I will not be riding today, he says he will drive anyone who wants to see the WW I memorial at Collet du Linge. Some of the bike riders will make it to this point. Others will stop at a somewhat lower high point and not make the climb all the way to the memorial. Sarah and Thomas join me in the van. We pick up Carole and her bike part way up the mountain. The drive up to the memorial is beautiful with green mountainsides covered with grapevines and little villages dotted around. With the sun out, it is spectacular.

The memorial turns out to be more than I had expected. I thought it would be just a couple of trenches in the ground but instead it is a museum and an extensive area at Le Linge of trenches, bunker ruins and crosses marking places where bodies have been found as recently as 2010. You can walk around in the trenches and get a feel for what it was like to be in there. Of course, now the stone of the trenches has moss and grass growing on it and wildflowers. The fighting at Le Linge between the Germans and the French was one of the bloodiest confrontations of WW I. The trenches of each side were just a few feet apart and really, in the end, after three months of intense fighting, they were basically in the same place. The loss of life of 10,000 men for basically nothing seems like such a waste!I in contrast to what happened in the trenches, there were beautiful views of the area from this mountain top. The sun was shining today, something the vintners in the area will be thankful for.

Phillip comes back in the van with Dave, Kathy, and Billy who will spend some time visiting the memorial. Sarah and Thomas, Carole and I get in the van for the ride back to the hotel. We have a nice lunch with Philipp at the hotel restaurant when we get back.

At our briefing with the guides, we have a glass of gewurtztraminer and Munster cheese, a classic combination of this region. Both are really good. We are on our own for dinner tonight. We have dinner with Thomas and Sarah and Kathy and John at Hôtel Restaurant "Au Dolder" Brasserie Alsacienne in the town of Riquewihr. It is quite delicious. We all have specialties of the region. It's been a nice relaxing day for me. I hope to,have good energy for cycling tomorrow.

Wanted to make a correction from a previous post... The name of the sparkling wine from this area is crémant, not cremont.

The German cemetery at Le Linge