Photographing my travels: Alpine Bridge champagne and Alsace trip

On Monday 19th September, I had my first sight of the luxury coach which tempted me to this trip. I was to discover that the coach was truly luxurious and the trip had a lot of bonuses. We set off from Peterborough to Cambridge, Stansted and Ashford to pick up more people. Trevor and Marion, the hosts were joined by me, Mike, Sarah and their daughter Charlotte; Pete and Anne and Christine. We met up with David, Wal and Christine then at Ashford there was Guy and Lin; Richard and Elsa, Chatterton and Mary, Dianne, Patricia, Dinah and Jean. We had a snack lunch with champagne on the coach, played a lot of Russian Chicago and eventually arrived at Les Grains d'Argent Hotel in Dizy near Epernay. Inside of the coach. There was also a galley with fridge.

The next day we were off for our first visit - Moet & Chandon.

A little hitch to our trip (an understatement) was that the power steering went on the coach. Poor John trying to turn the coach on a narrow lane and Trevor facilitating the growing traffic jam - I decided not to record this with photos. Taxies were arranged to take us to our next visit. Tricia stayed with John to translate. That sterling team organised the repair of the coach so it was back with us by 9.30 am the next morning. While they were busy with the hassle, we all swanned off to Hautvillers and had a walk around the village. We then had another tasting at Champagne Lopez- Martin. Lots of champagne purchased here.

Before setting off for Alsace, we visited the Champagne Mercier cellars.

We left the Epernay corks behind and travelled about 5 hours east over the Vosges mountains. The Motorway services restaurant closed as we arrived but that did not stop our merry bunch from enjoying their lunch!

Just to prove that the coach made it to the top. Scenic view on the way.

A brief stop at the picturesque village of Kayserberg then we arrived at Riquewihr and Hotel Schoenenbourg. We met up with Susanne who had travelled from Germany. This was the view from my hotel room.