Luxembourg
We spent a lovely weekend with our friends in Luxembourg. I’ve known Aidan for over 20 years. He married his lovely wife Jill and moved to Luxembourg about 8 years ago. They have a house full of excellent creatures; two teenaged boys who provide endless entertainment as surly, mostly nocturnal lads with cavernous appetites. Their 6 year old Max, who is like a fusion reactor of limitless energy, until plasma confinement fails and he crashes; only to reboot about 20 minutes later for another round of “Ben, can we play basketball / table tennis / fighting / football… etc”. Then their regal massive maine coon cat Sugar, and the brilliantly smart and daft-looking giant poodle, Enda.
After amazing food, drinks, runs, swims, shopping and learning about every single player in the World Cup (thank you, Max), we left on Monday morning. We filled up to the maximum with cheap Luxembourg fuel (about 25% cheaper than neighbouring countries) and made our way to Germany, to visit the Völklingen Ironworks. This visually stunning world heritage site is a giant 19th century ironworks, suspended in time. Rusting in the German sunshine, this place oozes an industrial and controversial past; the giant blast furnaces and blowers, railways and cooling towers, gantries and platforms at dizzying heights. It was like a film set or the stage for an epic computer game. The smell of oil still hung heavy in some rooms. It’s a strong recommend for a visit if you’re ever in the area.
Strasbourg
We drove on to Strasbourg next. It was originally our planned hotel stop, but this was thwarted by the loose definition of ‘central’ provided by Hotels.com. We stopped here nonetheless, visiting the pretty canal-side area in the old town. It was busy and touristy, very hot and after a couple of hours, we elected to head to Obernai, where we’d accidentally booked for the night.
Obernai
What a lucky break. Driving into Obernai we were greeted by a beautiful little town. Old traditional french buildings fanning along the town square, with little streets packed with small bars, patisseries and boulangeries lining the way. We were booked into the Hotel la Diligence (ironic title given our non-diligent booking). On checking in, the lovely receptionist upgraded us to their balcony suite, and we were rewarded with a beautiful room with the best view over the square. After a dinner of Tart Flambee (local pizza-like speciality – another recommend), we retired to the room and enjoyed an evening sat on the balcony, watching the world go by.
Colmar
Our next stop, Colmar was only 30 mins away directly, so we built in lots of interesting stops on route. What a lovely drive it was too. We’re now deep in the Alsace region (famous for wine and Alsacians) and so the route was rich with rolling vineyards. We drove up into the Vosage mountains, and stopped at Mont Sainte-Odile, a fancy old monkery/nunnery which seemed to double as a hotel but still required silence and religious fervour. Then after a very-brief stop in Dambach-La-Ville (which was shut), we made our way to Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg. This is an enormous 13th century castle, high on a hill in the Vosages. A long drive up and a long walk from the parked car, it was worth it to see such a well preserved castle. Our final stop before Colmar was the exquisitely pretty Riquewihr, which was anything but closed, rammed as it was with tourists (like us, I suppose).
Arriving in Colmar, we stayed at the Novotel Suites, on the edge of the old town. We’d booked parking, which while paid-for (€20), was convenient. We went to explore the town. It’s very hot (like everywhere right now), but it’s a pretty town with small canals running through it – La Petite Venise (sic) sits in the centre of the old town, but doesn’t quite live up to its namesake; the canal boats looking more like overloaded homemade coffins. We managed to get a booking at the excellent Bord’eau restaurant, overlooking one of the canals and enjoyed a superb if pricy dinner.
Chamonix / Les Houches
Our final stop of this week’s leg is Chamonix. En route, we drove around the east of Lake Geneva, and up the mountain pass from Martigny. I felt for our poor car, accustomed as it is to Scottish summers, I pushed it up over Col de la Forclaz at 1527m in the crippling heat (watching the oil temp rising).
Chamonix is one of my favourite places in the world and somewhere I’ve been many times. We’ve come here for a couple of days of hiking, running and enjoying the quite stunning scenery. Also, we’ve booked for 3 nights, to enjoy stopping for a bit and to wash some clothes!
We’d booked to stay in Les Houches, looking for an apartment with washing machine, cooking facilities and air-con. Two out of three ain’t bad. Well, actually, it is. The described ‘portable air con’ was a fan with a water reservoir under it, that as far as I can tell, did quite literally, nothing. Fortunately, studious use of blinds, closed windows and cooler night-time airings proved effective to enable comfortable sleeping. Aircon is very rare in the Chamonix valley; one French-custom that I suspect will have to change.
On arrival, we stopped first in Chamonix for some shopping, filling gaps and replacing poorly chosen items in our bags. We have the advantage of our car being taken back to the UK in August (❤️❤️ Emma & Mark!) and so we’ll be able to send the unsuitable clothing with it.
On the way to checking into our Airbnb, we stopped at Carrefour and bought supplies. We parked up and got into the tiny, rather overfilled apartment, making ourselves dinner for the first time since leaving Edinburgh. We put on our washing and streamed a movie that evening for a very homely night on the road.
The next day, I went out for a Trail Run from Les Houches, pushing up a vertical 500m of ascent, crossing some sketchy couloirs, and coming back down past a massive barky mountain-dog protecting his flock of baby goats. Good doggy. I then joined Shona for second run in the valley.
Back at the apartment, we showered, changed, had a bite for lunch then took the Bellevue cable car up into the higher mountains, sharing the car with a team of mountaineer tourists making an attempt on Mont Blanc. We did not attempt it, instead electing for the far tougher Mont Lachat, a full 4km round trip. In fairness, it was pretty steep, hot and had stunning views. We saw a rock avalanche from the top, and on the way up, heard the giant cracks and pops of the Glacier de Bionnassay calving. I thought of the Mont Blanc climbers, crossing that glacier. With day-one Chamonix syndrome (got overexcited and did too much), we rested back at the apartment before driving into Chamonix for dinner at the always outstanding Bighorn Bistro for a huge burger. Mmm.
We woke up sore. Might have done a bit much yesterday. We had a slowish start before driving along to Les Praz, the other side of Chamonix and took the La Flégère gondola to the head of the Lac Blanc trail. This steepish trail runs up to a beautiful alpine lake – up at around 2350m, before heading back round to the gondola in a circuit. The way up was good – new trail shoes for Shona helped with grip, as did the hiking poles we brought with us. The way down was a little sketchier, with bolted ladders and ropes in some sections. Still, a lovely long hike out in the spectacular hills. We finished the day with pizza at JOIA in town before watching some of the Climbing World Cup taking place in Chamonix town centre. Another great visit to this outstanding adventure town, a place where we are guaranteed to be the least fit people here!
Addendum
We started this trip by navigating our way between European cities. Bruges, The Hague, Amsterdam, Cologne… by the time we reached Luxembourg, we’d realised that the focus was off. We love a city break, but we were on repeat, finding pricy parking, staying in soulless hotels, and while enjoying the differences, just seeing variations on a city theme. Also, with the heatwave, we were choosing the hottest places we could be.
So, we’ve reoriented and started building in smaller, more unique stops. Electing to avoid major cities. Additionally, we’re aiming to stay for longer in some places, to avoid the daily driving commitment and slow the pace of booking/research/exploring. We’re all for speed tourism when time demands, but the biggest advantage of our new lives is that we have no demands on our time.
Travels with Sklaroffs 