Eguisheim, Moselle, Rothau, and a boat lift

The next morning, we thought we might use the swimming pool at the campsite, but as it was decidedly cool that day, we chickened out. 

We visited the village of Eguisheim, which still nestles quietly within its circular walls.  Streets in concentric circles, enclosing a central castle/ manor house. Buildings dating from about 1220 to 1610 keep each other company.  We walked the outer ring to find it full of quaint houses and amusing little shops, one of which was a mushroom shop: everything you can think of to do with mushrooms, and then some you can't !  This was run by a very charismatric young lady who soon had us tasting all the different flavourings: needless to say we couldn't leave empty handed, buying some things we thought we might need, as well as some things we didn't really need at all. 

A little further on, we passed 2 elderly women having a good gossip on the doorstep, with cobbled streets and wonky gables crowding round as if to listen.

We also looked in a couple of Vinters yards: this place is definitely on the tourist trail, and the prices reflect this, being vastly inflated versions of the bargain we got at Albersweiler.

Our next aire was at Rothau, near the Moselle, and next to a municipal campsite.  We walked into the village, but were rather dismayed by the heavy traffic thundering through what must have once been quite a nice community, now with only a handful of shops.  A closed-down factory, presumably once the major employer in the area, could explain the decline.  However, the aire was in a lovely spot next to a water mill, by a bridge, and with Swiss-chalet type cottages nearby, and the man running the campsite and aire was most charming and helpful.  By the end of the evening the aire was full, despite a large and slightly disturbing sign saying "if you hear the flood alarm, evacuate immediately, only taking your passport and insurance papers with you..." 

We got some information about Struthof, the only concentration camp in France, just up the road from Rothau. We also picked up a brochure about the Memorial de L'Alsace Moselle, which was also up the road, and the campsite man kindly phoned them to find out some information, so we decided to visit there the next morning.

I have to say we were pretty unimpressed by the deviation which left us stranded in front of a junction with a no entry sign on one side, and a dead end on the other. After a bit of swearing, we in desperation followed the disabled access signs to the Memorial, and found ourselves in a huge car park on top of the hill right next to the entrance.  Looking down, we could see cars and coaches far below, and realised the other car park was actually at the bottom of a long series of slopes which you are supposed to walk up, presumably meditatively. However, perhaps it was just as well we landed nearer to door, because by then we weren't really in a mood for a meditative walk!

A rather ugly building housed an imaginative presentation, using a fascinating array of media.  This was the story of the people of the Moselle region, who changed nationality 4 times between 1870 amd 1945.  It started with a huge wall chart filling a whole room, accompanied by a narrative on the ipod audio guide.  Railway carriages and luggage, rooms full of books you could pick up and read and sofas you could sit on, a conference room with press cuttings on the walls, and so on, all depicted a different aspect of the story.

Next, a total change of subject, and on to the Plan Incline (boat lift) at St Louis, in the Bas Rhine region. It was built in the 1960's to replace 17 locks which formerly took a day to go through. The actual lift time is 4 minutes, and the entire procedure apporximately 15-20 minutes.  This is all achieved with the use of counterbalancing, so it only requires 2 x 120HP electric motors.  This is quite a feat, considering the weight of the bath is 900 tonnes!  We saw a boat going through, and quite a crowd had gathered to watch the whole procedure.

In this region the countryside quickly changed from wooded hills and vineyards, to open mixed arable farms: fields absolutely immense, with no hedgerows or fencing, nevertheless a pretty landscape with rolling hills.