France - Munster

  We checked in and started our tour of Verte Vallee Resort in Munster, France.  The view from our room on the 5th floor was great and the rapids from the river below could be heard as soon as we opened our window.  To the right -

To the left -

A little ghetto panoramic for you ;)

  The outside area was awesome to walk around in and enjoy the sun, the flowers, and the bench right on the river.  I sat on the river and wrote a blog entry, while Candace went in the hottub and pool area, and layed out in the sun.  Thanks Drew for reassuring me about bringing the Labtop.  It's been invaluable and allowed me to write my blog with some pretty cool scenery.

Checkin Video - 

  The resort/hotel also had a Sauna, Steam Room, and "cold pool" where we could utilize the method that we learned in Budapest.  We didn't get to do that yet though because we headed out front where they had a barn full of mountain bikes that you could just take for free whenever.  Grabbing a couple, we headed out for a pleasant bike around the town of Munster.

  Several times bigger than Eguisheim, we had fun biking down the main shopping area and grabbing Candace a light sweater plus eating blueberry and munster Crepes at a table alongside the road.  We saw some cool houses along the way - decked out in flowers like Eguisheim

  As well as some great views of the surrounding country -

   We also visited a couple parks where I got a close-up of the birds that were making huge nests all over the town.

  We followed the river back and soon were in the square in front of the Cathedral, tasting various cheeses and jams from the vendors who had setup to represent the local businesses in and near the town.  This tempted our appetites, and since we had eaten our picnic already at that bench along the river at the resort earlier in the day, we again biked through the town searching for a good place to eat.  Though we found several restaurants, something kept tugging at me to go back to the resort and so we headed back there for dinner instead.  We picked up a bottle of Muscat wine that we could enjoy along the riverside in Paris the following night (always thinking ahead) and Candace guided us back to the resort where she continued on showing me a path she found earlier that ran along the river at our resort -

Taking us to a bridge -

And to a beautiful lake area -

Where "gods" viewed over their sanctuary -

  Scooting back over to the hotel, we got changed and were down to dinner in no time.  I wanted to post a picture of everything we were getting, because I knew it would be a special meal, but I forgot for like half the things!  There were 6 items that we had as well.  The first two were just gifts from the chef - 

A fig with mango and cured meat  concoction -

Then came our Veal/ Lobster appetizer 

and Risotto, which was our second favorite thing of the meal and a "specialty" of the chef.

  The other "specialty" of the chef that night was rabbit, our favorite dish of the evening.  It was unlike anything I'd had before. 

  The meat was fall-apart tender, and was layered above some sort of spongy-potato-like food.  To the side were Cabbage-wrapped mashed potato balls with blueberries…

  For dessert we had the "chef's choice" rice chocolate soufflé with chocolate ice cream on top.

  We had one glass of wine each from grapes we had never heard of, plus our Dessert wine, which was a Spanish wine from the year 1979.  It was a very dark, sweet and unique wine.  Though the bill was about the cost of a room at the hotel for the night, it was a special meal to remember to go with a special time!

  Heading up and changing, we elevatored down to the hot-tub / sauna area.  

  Unfortunately it was closed, so we walked around outside a bit by the river and then I was able to get us into the pool area through a door that I found.  Wandering around in the dark and closed pool area, we checked out the sauna and steam room but they were powered down.  Heading back upstairs we also powered down ourselves so that we could get up early and get into the sauna before we had to leave for Paris in the morning.

  Which by the way was awesome (the sauna)!  Nice and hot, Candace kept pouring water on the rocks.  I moved from the cold pool, to the warm pool, to getting a jet massage, to a bubble massage, then to the hottub, and then finally into the sauna where Candace was.  She was the first to leave the room and enter the "coldtub" which was as cold as the one in Budapest and invigorating.  We will be having a sauna and coldtub combo where we live soon enough.

  The steamroom was eucalyptusy nice and we were soon off to Paris from the tracks at Munster -

  Candace found a friend at the station while we waited for our delayed train - 

  Then we were off to Paris, making it there after our train broke down and the French charged us 70 Euros for a 3 hour train ride and we just thought that was interesting since we'd been paying nothing for trains that were 8 to 10 hours long over the course of the last few weeks.  Oh well, they must be desperate so if they need the $ no big deal, lets just hope they are not greedy because that always comes back around.  Ready for a night on the river in Paris, we were excited to check in with our host Shayne who lived in view on the river and a 2 minute walk from Notre Dame in the heart of the city, DANG, how can you even get that type of deal for $70 a night!  Air BNB Baby.

Jason & CandySue