Strasbourg to Epinal (12 Apr)

Our train trip from Strasbourg to Epinal, was supposed to take 2hrs 30mins and be direct. However, they are completing rail works for the next 3 weeks, so a lovely French gentleman (wearing the only suit and tie I've seen all trip) checked the train app and informed me our train would terminate after about an hour and then we would have to hang around for about an hour to catch a replacement bus, then another train to Epinal.

Sounds just like being back in Melbourne 😊

The train terminating after about an hour all went to plan, but then we had mixed messages about whether there was a replacement bus or another train would run. We finally discovered there would be another train, we just had to hang around for about 90 mins to wait it's arrival. No biggie as the weather was lovely.

Here's a shot of the countryside taken from the train:

Once we arrived at Epinal, we had a very short walk to drop off our luggage at a 'Nanny bags' whilst we went to find the ancestral home.

Epinal is lovely and quite a large town. After about 30 mins we found the building Sue was wanting to see and got some great shots of her GG Grandfathers daughters home:

Here's a couple more shots I took as we wandered off to our next destination Chateau d'Epinal (which is on the hill in the 3rd photo). The first shots are of the Moselle River:

    

Great walk to the Chateau which allowed us to (well and truly) stretch our legs. We explored the remains of the Chateau ruins which sits 387 metres above seas level. The 13th century chateau was built on a rocky ridge by the Bishop of Metz. It was mostly destroyed by the troops of Louis 14th in 1670. The pics show me walking across a bridge towards the castle, views of Epinal from on top of the ridge, the Chateau ruins & us reaching the top:





Having exhausted everything we could see at the chateau, we headed back to collect our suitcases from Nanny bags and find our airbnb accommodation. What we discovered 20 mins later was our airbnb was literally behind the chateau!!

Interesting place, with 17 steep steps we had to manoeuvre our suitcases up - our muscles are growing by the day 👀😈. After a cuppa & some recovery time, we headed off to find a place to eat dinner. We found a great pub which had the Basilica of Saint Maurice as it's backdrop. Both the dinner and the scenery were outstanding. The only thing I still find a bit hard over here is all the smoking. Due to the great weather we've been having it's lovely sitting outside to enjoy the sunshine, but we are finding more and more we'd prefer to eat inside due to the constant smell of smoke as you are eating.

The Basilica is a Catholic religious building constructed between the 11th and 13th centuries. Here's some shots of what we were looking at as we ate dinner. Check out that blue sky as well:



Back to our accommodation with full tummies and looking forward to a great nights sleep.

Tomorrow we are off to Colmar.
 




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