Windy Miller Tour Blog

So we got up, packed up and got on our way and I thought we’d be stopping halfway between Molsheim and Luxembourg but Dave said it was only 3 hours or so – so we’d push on and get there…

What you all don’t know is that this entire trip has been based around an Abba 99 tribute concert in a park in Luxembourg – one minute’s walk from a particular campsite (Camping Bon Accueil) that was only 15 minutes on the scooter from Luxembourg City.

So I rang that campsite and…

They were fully booked 😔

“Fail to plan – plan to fail”, I hear you say !!!

I continued to Google and found another campsite – not too far away and rang – but they were full too 😔 😔

Third time lucky – we got in – for four nights (until Saturday) at Camping Gaalgebierg – but it was 35 minutes into Luxembourg by scooter (non-motorway route) – or a free shuttle bus (which runs all day) from the campsite to the nearby railway station – so I felt that was a acceptable alternative…

We arrived, set up and had a BBQ to use up the pork chops and sausage Dave had bought the other day and he cooked it to perfection 👌

We got back about 9pm and I said I’d fix us a snack 🧀🥖🍇

The previous evening when I’d searched for the beanie hat (freebie from Ducati when we went to MotoGP at Silverstone back in 2017) I came across the 200 fairy lights (that I’d previously bad-mouthed Dave for taking out of The Van at the last festival we went to in The Van when I wanted to put them up and couldn’t find them 😂)

So I asked him to plug them in for me – they were on a big roll & I said it was fine to leave them like that but look what he did !!! ❤️

(I’ve taken 

Awww I LUV My Dave, I do 🥰 (the guy next door even came & took a photo !!!)

So we popped the music on (low), had a snack, a drinkie & a chat and it was a lovely end to a lovely day 😊

• Location: 48° 32′ 31.32″ N 7° 29′ 59.56″ E

After departing Little Venice, we made our way to the station and picked up a couple of tinnies for the way home !!!

And when we’d left Strasbourg on Friday, there had been no conductor on the way back so we took a chance & (luckily) nobody asked us for tickets on either the train from Colmar to Strasbourg or on the Strasbourg to Molsheim – result !!!

• Location: 48° 4′ 21.45″ N 7° 20′ 48.37″ E

We left the restaurant just before 7pm then made our way to Little Venice – only a few minutes away…

And it was idyllic…

The audio tour states that the place is steeped in legend with elves and a werwolf who keeps them in order…

And it was like a little fairytale village…

Everywhere adorned with flowers… (which they apparently swap for soft toys and Christmassy things once the summer is over…)

Sadly we didn’t manage a gondola ride this time but we will definitely be back !!!

… and us !!!

• Location: 48° 4′ 28.38″ N 7° 21′ 37.42″ E

So we managed 22 of the 27 attractions then caved just after 4pm and went for a well-earned sit-down….

We were in the Alsace region so had to try some local wine and went for a Muscat – which was very palatable…

Dave also ordered a beer (or three) 😂

And we had a couple of Tarte Flambées – one with chicken and one with ham – and they were delicious 😋

And – as ever – we put the world to rights over the next 2 and a half hours or so…

• Location: 48° 4′ 33.53″ N 7° 21′ 32.01″ E

We’ve previously experienced walking tours with guides, hop-on-hop-off bus tours with audio, land trains and boat trips both with audio but we’d never done a self-guided tour (which – as you travel at your own pace – I thought sounded great !!! 😊 )

I had pre-Googled & selected what appeared to be the best – the Colmar City Tour with Touring Bee at €7 per person. But even with our (supposed) plethora of IT knowledge 😐, it still took us a little while to actually get everything downloaded and ready to go…

AND Dave had to use the ear wax headphones again 😂 !!!

I thought it said it had 13 stops and took an hour and a half – which sounded about right – especially in the heat 🥵

It was about 1:45pm when we finally got going and I was intending to do a selfie of us in front of each point of interest but it started getting really hot and after attraction 13, I actually checked and there were TWENTY SEVEN sights to visit… 🫢

Here’s a few of them…

• Location: 48° 4′ 32.46″ N 7° 21′ 10.44″ E

When we arrived on-site at Molsheim last Thursday, there was a lovely Polish man, Jarek, pitched next to us and whilst we were chatting (he had excellent English so once I’d used up my half a dozen or so Polish phrases, we could still chat !!!) and it was he who mentioned Colmar, describing it as beautiful with lots of waterways “like a little Venice”… He said it even had gondolas !!!

I was sold ❤️

So we managed to blag an extra night at the campsite 🏕️ (even though they said they were “complet” (full) and decided we’d have an easy morning and we’d catch the train just before midday.

Clearly we took it too easily and ended up running for the train 🚆, which we did manage to catch 😅 but we didn’t have time to go and see the lovely lady in the office to purchase tickets… 🎟️ Dave tried to buy them online once we were on the train but struggled…

There was no conductor on the train to Strasbourg (where we changed) then we boarded the connecting train to Colmar. A lady conductor asked to see our tickets and I said (in French !!!) we’d had to run to catch the train so could we please have two return tickets from Molsheim to Colmar but she said she couldn’t do returns and charged us €40 just to get to Colmar. And it even wasn’t a ticket – it was just a receipt – it felt like a fine 😐

I started twittering saying it was a ridiculous amount of money but (as Molsheim to Strasbourg return was €20 return for both of us) looking at the map below, it’s a fair old distance and was probably about right…

We made it back safely and historically (as it’s always been warm & lovely plus we didn’t use to have such good mobile wifi) we would always sit outside The Van putting the world to rights – with alcohol…

So when My Dave – on our 29th Anniversary – asked me if I would sit outside with him for a final drink – how could I refuse ? (but I did go inside first for lights, beanie hat, coat & blanket !!!)

• Location: 48° 32′ 31.28″ N 7° 29′ 59.44″ E

So it was gone 7:30pm and we knew we had the scooter ride home 😳 to go plus a big day the next day (in COLMAR – MY-NOW-FAVOURITE-PLACE-ON-THIS-TRIP) and I just said, “I can’t be bothered to Google reviews of good restaurants – can we just get a BK ? They never let me down” so we bombed off on the scooter to the BK at Gare De Strasbourg & parked up.

Dave commented that it was busy – which was good – as everything should have been cooked fresh – so we ordered and this huge order arrived with FIVE burgers 🍔🍔🍔🍔🍔 TBH when it was €30, it should have red-flagged but I just bibbed my phone as usual…

I took the tray back to the counter and said “Je pense que trop de burger” 😂 (I think there’s too much burger) and showed her my receipt where she pointed out that we had actually ordered “Baby Burgers x 3” 😐

I mean – there’s just no hope for us – we’ve both been in IT for ALL of our lives and we weren’t even remotely under the influence of alcohol (which I appreciate is rare 😂 ). Dave said it must have been in the basket from the previous person…

Yeah right…

And all of that would have been fine – if the bleedin’ food would have been HOT – or at least WARM – but it wasn’t 😔 I always go BK over McD as they’re just better but the Frenchies have managed to destroy my image of BK – I’m not sure I’ll ever eat one ever again…

And – as the main burgers were smaller than the UK ones normally – we both ate one of the baby burgers – which we really shouldn’t have…

Then I was worried I might be a bit chilly on the ride home and Dave said the “wets” were in the scooter – but they although there were two pairs of trousers, the pair I had to wear – clearly weren’t mine (see below) 😂

• Location: 48° 35′ 3.72″ N 7° 44′ 2.62″ E

So one of Dave’s new toys is a 360 degree camera and (bless him) he’s worked hard so that even if you are only viewing this on a phone, if you bob your finger on the video & move it around, you will get a 360 degree of the surroundings – go on – it’s only short – give it a whirl !!!