An Afternoon in the Kaiserstuhl

Every Thursday, Rhinau has a little market and one of the stalls has been nicknamed by Sue and Keith as "the chicken lady".  We were planning to stay in for lunch so I decided to walk over to the market and pick up a freshly roasted chicken.  As I often do when I am here, I paused on the way at the village's bombed out church to reflect on the impact WWII had on so many places over here.

The front of the ruined village church

Sign on the church

The "Chicken Lady" and her van full of roasting chickens

After lunch, Sue and I decided to head to an area called Kaiserstuhl (Emperor's Chair) in South Baden, mainly in Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald county.  We drove south down the French side of the Rhine about 22 km to Markolsheim where we crossed a bridge into Germany.  Our first stop was the Krauterhof in Burkheim (Herb House) which I had been to before.  There you can buy just about every herb and spice - fresh and/or dried - that you can possibly imagine plus check out an amazing array of teas, soaps, oils, incense and other herb or spice products.  The place is well known enough that tour buses come just so the people can shop. 

Some of the stock at Krauterhof

When we were finished there, we visited the village of Burkheim, not far from where the shop is located.  The Kaiserstuhl area is famous for its wine and apparently it also produces walnut oil.  As you look across the hills, you see miles and miles of vineyards and forests.  The village itself is charming and what makes it even more interesting is that there are photos along the main streets showing what it looked like in other times of its history. 

Buildings on the main street in Burkheim

More of Burkheim

The Village Well

Interesting "food" shop we went into

The amazing selection of noodles it had - we picked a garlic/onion one for dinner this evening

 

Photo of the street during WWI

Entrance to a winemaker's house

Intricate woodwork on one of the buildings

Looking across the hills of the Kaiserstuhl

On the way back, we stopped at another of the Kaiserstuhl towns, Breisach.  It was bigger than Burkheim and didn't have quite the charm.  However, there is a castle which towers over the town.  So, it was a lovely afternoon in Germany exploring some places I hadn't seen before. 

Castle and one of the streets in Breisach