Last week my wife and I spent an incredible day biking the Route des Vins, and since trying to plan this day, routes, etc was a tad stressful, I figured I'd share our experience. First off, we are fit but we aren't avid cyclists but we are good with a scenic 20-30 mile day if it is something potentially memorable. And this was...
- We drove 20 mins from our base in Colmar to Kayersberg to rent E-Bikes at Alsa Cyclo. I had booked online a month prior very easily and it was 90 Euro total for the day...included lock, bag, helmets and bike pump. We showed up at opening 9:30 to pick up bikes. Personally, I would've rathered an earlier start but it did give us time to have breakfast and ease into the morning. Vincent at Alsa Cyclo was incredible. We told him our planned route and he actually had a map of that exact route and had us download the Loopi app. He helped us load in the most scenic version of our plan, went over everything and off we went. I will say that we considered just renting in Colmar and going from there but I would highly recommend starting at one of the villages. Kayersberg was perfect. -We rode about 30-40 minutes through beautiful hilly vineyards on a designated bike bath and arrived at our first stop in Riquewihr. This is a beautiful little town and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. But this is definitely where an earlier start would have helped as this was by far the busiest of all the towns we visited, and by 10:30am no less! We had a great ham sandwich and croissants at a tucked away patisserie and two wonderful wine tastings at Famille Hugel and Domaine Zimmer.
- We then headed on a short ride to Hunawihr which surprisingly stole the show for me. We rode through the very small town and came upon a beautiful little church (Mixed Church) sitting on a hill in the middle of the vineyards surrounded by flowers. We parked and walked up to, around and inside of it. I can't describe the quiet and peaceful views from here. You can see the 3 castles of Ribeauville in the distance. After our entire trip, that stop is one that still lingers. We then stopped randomly at Mittnacht Freires for a tasting in what would be our favorite tasting of multiples we had in a week. Emma was so great and we bought a bottle of the Pinot/Syrah blend.
- On to Ribeauville where we stopped for dessert and iced coffee at Cafe Paula (recommended by Vincent at bike shop who lives here). We strolled the beautiful streets and did a little window shopping before walking up about 10-15 minutes of the 3 Castles trail...long enough to be able to see them up close (especially Ulrich). We intended to do the entire hike but it was warm, steep and we were enjoying the biking and strolling. Ribeauville wasn't empty but not super busy and was definitely a worthwhile stop.
- I didn't expect to have time to visit Bergheimwhich was a fantastic stop. A very quiet and quaint little town. We stopped to read our books in the square and popped into the local church (as we did with all the towns). The tranquility of Bergheim was very welcome and it had some of the best half timbered houses of all the towns. -We headed out around 4:30pm back toward Kayersberg and thoroughly enjoyed the 50 minute bike only path ride back through the vineyards. We arrived back at the bike shop just prior to 5:30 closing, turned in our bikes, and walked 10 minutes straight up to the Shlossburg Ruins...a worthwhile stop. We then meandered back down and over the old town bridge and through the town of Kayersberg, which was very nice and lively!
- We drove back to Colmar to freshen up and have a nice dinner. All in all, a highlight day for our week long trip. There was very little I'd change. Maybe we could have arrived and visited Kayersberg early before renting. I can't recommend food too much because we ate breakfast before and a big dinner in Colmar so we nibbled pastries and desserts in the towns. Full ride was about 18-20 miles.