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Live the adventures of Dan Walker's travels through reading his travel journal. The travel journals are listed below in descending order of date. To search the travel journals, use the keyword search at the bottom of the page.

Journal Entry:

Tuesday, April 09, 2019 23:47:13

France,Germany 2019: 1 - Costa Rica to Riquewihr, France

Saturday, April 6, 2019

It was an interesting start today. We were to leave San Jose on an early flight, but Marilynn received a note on her phone to say the flight had been delayed by 90 minutes. Our connection in Toronto for the flight to Frankfurt was 1 hr 10 minutes, so that was no longer a possibility. About half the Air Canada flights we have flown on have been delayed!

We contacted Air Canada to book us on a flight 5 hours later. Marilynn called the Lufthansa bus company to change our trip to Strasbourg (for which they charged 40 euros, almost a full fare) and I tried to find a number for the Avis office where we had reserved a car. Apparently their phone numbers are secret, but fortunately we had booked through Expedia. They tried to call Avis, but although they had a number no one answered. They said they would keep trying. Just before we left for the airport they called to say the pick up time had been changed with no charge.

There was a real mess at the Air Canada check-in as everyone not aware of the time change was trying to change connecting flights. When we got to the agent the computer didn't show our flight change, but I had the confirmation email, so the agent called a supervisor who worked for awhile on the computer to eventually get us correct boarding passes. This is to be a relaxing no plans trip, but it was sure off to a high stress start. The flight to Toronto was on an old 767 with very limited overhead bin space and seats that barely reclined.

We had a few hours to wait in Toronto where we enjoyed a gourmet meal in the Signature Lounge. The menu there is excellent, the food absolutely superb and service is first class. We had fun talking to passengers at neighbouring tables and doing serious damage to their wine supply.

The flight to Frankfurt was on a very well equipped Boeing 787-8. What a difference from the flight from Costa Rica. The bed on the Frankfurt flight was one of the most comfortable we have had on an aircraft.

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Arrival in Frankfurt was on time, with no line up for the quick and friendly immigration, but we had over an hour to wait for our bus to the central train station in Strasbourg. Avis was almost beside the bus stop. They had a brand new (just over 1,000 km on it) Peugeot 208 SP waiting for us. The even upgraded us to one with a custom GPS system, which made finding out way around simple. It was a really fun car to drive.

We drove to the medieval town of Andlau, where my good friend from Victoria Ralph Hayes has an apartment. It is a very beautiful, well preserved town. The 40 stairs up to the apartment were a bit too much for my knee replacement, which does everything well except climb stairs . We looked around the cozy apartment, and Marilynn took some photos for Ralph, but we decided to move on to another ancient town, Riquewihr,stayed in the St. Nicholas Hotel in a ground floor room.

Once I had arranged a place to park the car we went to the hotel restaurant for a not spectacular dinner. We hadn't eaten since breakfast on the plane. It was not necessary to be rocked to sleep after we collapsed into the comfortable beds.

Monday, April 8, 2019

After a not great experience for breakfast in the hotel restaurant we walked most of the streets in this ancient town, where buildings date back to the 1400s, stopping here and there for snacks, wine or beer. There is a very large Christmas shop, which I took a quick look through before retreating across the street for beer. Two pints later Marilynn emerged, so we shared an order of the local Fois Gras, a major product of the area and very good. There is nowhere to change money in town and the one ATM machine was broken down, but most places accepted credit cards.

Dinner was at the towns one Michelin star restaurant, where they provided a 7 course dinner with different wines for each course. The tastes ranged from amazing to one I didn't like at all. The service was excellent, however the bill was more than our car rental, which might account for the fact that there were only two other couples in the restaurant.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

We found that none of the eateries in town serve food before noon, but are open for drinks. There was a sandwich shop with no tables or chairs so we took our purchases to a restaurant to eat with tea and juice. Quite a few people here go in for beer for breakfast.

After recovering the car we headed first for the village of , where we got some great photos of storks in their huge nests on the peaks of building or chimneys. There area a lot of them in this area. We then drove to the town of where we found banks and ATM machines. A kind bank employee came out to help walk us through the ATM process, so we now have cash funds. Although this town had the same narrow streets and ancient buildings as Riquewihr it was lest touristy and had more practical shops. Marilynn bought an English style leather hat that looks good on her.

On the top of a high hill behind the town we could see the ruins of a large castle, so we set off to try to find it. The roads now were winding through narrow valleys between high hills – very beautiful countryside. We finally found a dirt road that climbed into the hills, and eventually an impassable side track that led to the castle, so we had to give that up, but we found at the end of the road a large, ancient church and monastery.

Back in Riquewihr we had a huge delicious dinner then bought some fruit and juice at the only shop selling that sort of thing and headed home for bed. We'll try for an early start to Colmar in the morning.