Alsace Wine Tour – Rodemack to Hinsbourg

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Rodemack to Hinsbourg

Rodemack has been a great place to explore, a small town with a lot of interesting places and a large free aire de camping cars. Today we are moving on, heading for Hinsbourg, another small town but at a higher altitude and in the forest, this should be more comfortable in the heatwave.

We are up and drink coffee early, sort out the Hymer, then drive to the service point and empty the cassette, grey water and fill up with fresh water, all without charge, that’s what we love about France, it’s really set up for motorhomes. I drive down the hill, past the old gateway into the town and stop at the boulangerie to purchase a baguette, then we are on our way. The journey takes us through many small towns and villages where the speed limit is 50 km or as low as 30 km an hour, yes, it takes time, but we are relaxed about how long it takes. Travellling in our motorhome is wonderful, there is a real sense of freedom, no pressure to do anything and no reason to be anywhere at a particular time, so we amble along and enjoy the sights.

So far on this trek we have passed through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany without stopping at a border, that is a great thing for anyone travelling and doing business. Our lunch stop in in a lay by, there is some shade but we are still roasting hot. We arrive in Hinsbourg, finding the municipal campsite easily, Hinsbourg is a tiny village, more a hamlet where the campsite is located a short distance from the nearest houses. There are good facilities here, showers, drive-over grey water disposal and tall trees for shade. A notice at reception tells us that is we arrive outside of reception opening times to find a pitch and settle in, so that’s exactly what we do. There are several pitches that we consider, but finally opt for one in the trees, overlooking a field of barley on the other side of the road and having a good level surface.

A very large raptor circled over the forest in front of us, after consulting the books I decide that it was a juvenile golden eagle, my recognition skills for the raptors that we don’t see very often are not perfect. Our usual raptors are buzzards and red kites with an occasional osprey, so it’s good to see something different.  When we put up our folding chairs and sit in the shade one of them makes an ominous tearing sound, the stitching across the top of the canvas has given way. Several safety pins are soon deployed to make a repair, but after looking more carefully it’s obvious that the chair will not last much longer. We have been using those chairs for many years, a good indication of how old they are is the prominent union jack sticker and the words MADE IN ENGLAND! How long is it since we could buy such simple things as folding garden chairs that we made in England?

I am waiting outside reception at 6pm when the site manager arrives, we do all the business in French, I pay €13.60 for our pitch which includes use of the toilets, showers and barbecue area, water and disposal. Electricity is available at a reasonable price, but as our Hymer only uses electricity for the fridge it’s not worth us having it. The fridge works very well from gas, especially now that I have fitted auxiliary fans to help with the cooling.

After our evening meal we walk through the town, no businesses, nowhere to eat or drink, for us it’s a great place to stop. There is also a large sale des fêtes, no signs outside but it’s huge, more about that in a future page.

We play games and relax before going to bed.

Hinsbourg

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