The Alsace Region of France - Castles and Medieval Villages
The Alsace region is located in the extreme Northeast corner of France, bordering Germany and Switzerland. Also an area of major combat during World War I and II, Alsace is known for its famous wines and medieval villages, but you may not know that there are easy inn-to-inn (or village-to-village) walking, bicycling and driving tours along this route.
The walk/trek is commonly known by several names: "Castles & Medieval Villages of Alsace" - "The Balcony of Medieval Alsace" - and "Walks Along The Wine Route." Distances between the ancient towns on the famous Alsace wine route are short, and the altitudes (between 430m-645m/1400-2,000' ) not very high. You can make your own arrangements and backpack through this area, or do what we did. Arrange for a tour organizer to handle everything. Many choices of tour operators: Mountain Travel Sobek, Explore U.K., Sherpa Biking/Walking Holidays, and La Pelerine. After reading all the literature, it was a tough choice but I prefered the less expensive price and towns included in La Pelerine's 7 day-6 night package with 6 days of walking.
We decided to spend extra time both at the beginning and end, staying in Alsace and doing a little exploring on our own. The easiest and closest point would be fly into Zurich and train through Basle to Colmar, about 1-1/2 hours from the Zurich Airport vs. flying into Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and taking a 4-hour train to Colmar.
A few days in Colmar at the beginning was easy to work out. Strasbourg at the end was more difficult because the European Congress meets in Strasbourg the first week of every months and reserves 90% of the hotel rooms. This was going to take a little more work to figure out. Furiously reading and interneting, the Wissembourg Tourist Bureau (on the border of France and Germany) sent enough literature to sway us. It would now be two days in Wissembourg before training to Strasbourg at the end.
It was a plan...
