Saturday 4th July – Week 3 – Koenigsbourg

Off through the back roads of the Alsace today to visit the hill top castle - Haut Koenigsbourg. The castle had been a ruin, but was fully restored at the start of the 20th Century. It had been first built in the 12th Century and is located on top of a 700m hill, that had views of the Alsace plains, was a perfect defensive stronghold, that is until the Swedes destroyed it in the 17th Century. In 1870, The Alsace and part of the Lorraine became part of Germany as a result of the Franco-Prussian war. It remained in German hands until 1918 and it was during this period that Kaiser William II had it restored to its former glory.

We spent a couple of hours in the interior of the castle, which was very much a defensive fortress whose primary purpose was for the defense of the lands surrounding them. The views over the Alsace, were surprisingly still quite hazy, but it did show that for as far as the eye could see, all there was was vineyards.

After leaving the castle, we stopped in a couple of small villages, but not finding anywhere that grabbed our fancy for lunch, we headed back to Ribeauville, but then had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to wait while the heavens once again opened, in yet another attempt to a.) clear the air of humidity and b.) provide a job creation scheme for the campers who were still mopping up after yesterday's deluge. We decided that once again, a pup tent was no place for anybody over the age of 5 during a torrential down pour and that as we had survived the previous days down pour, we would be OK to survive the latest.

We got a hell of a a fright at one stage, while driving around. A bolt of lightning hit the ground very close by which made an almighty bang. Just as we were hitting our heads on the ceiling of the car, it's accompanying thunderclap went off as well. That's the second time in Europe that we've got very close to lightning bolts and both were pretty spectacular.

We spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking round Ribeauville and having a late lunch / dinner of Beef Bourgonogne. When we returned to the campground, everything was OK, but the door of the tent was half open, but nothing had been taken. A couple of minutes thought about why somebody would look into the smallest tent in the campground brought us to the conclusion that it must be kids, just as one went by with an obvious look of guilt on his face.

There was a local outdoor disco on at a park up the road, so we went up to that for an hour or so, enjoying the 70's and 80's music and the dancing girls on the stage. The DJ with his curly dark hair, mustache and sequined, sleeveless top was also a sight to behold. The disco finished at 11pm and then the drums started, so we walked back to the campground and were soothed off to sleep by their rhythmic beat.