Return to the Vosges

I felt like I had unfinished business in the Vosges mountains after my first visit last week, the roads leading up to the route des cretes meeting at Markstein looking interesting, I had to squeeze in one more visit before the winter.
Today I took the direct route from Basel to Altkirch to Thann, an obvious route and very little traffic, but still the road was too long and straight to be interesting, it felt more like a highway in places despite the lack of traffic. Not a bad route though, and the distance would be covered very quickly by a small grupetto.
There was one small climb which popped up on the mapmyride profile, it was lined with trees planted by Napolean III, not far from Altkirch.
Once I was in Thann, it feels like you're back in some magical wine kingdom, which in fact you are. All the villages here are so well kept its a joy to cycle through them. Definitely must do the Colmar to Strasbourg section when its warm again next year.

Today the main climb started from the almost completely dry lake beyond Kruth. Theres a very generous 14km climb up 600m to Markstein from here. No downhill or flat, but it really is nice to climb upwards at speed and so I really liked this ascent. Towards the top there was heavy frost across the road and my rear wheel was slipping. As I climbed higher, I could see snow on the Grand Ballon, and soon enough I was in areas with small amounts of snow sitting in shaded areas by the roadside. Much colder than last week, but the autumn colours of the forest were more intense so it was for sure a good day to be on the hill.
Theres still more climbing beyond Markstein, and there I joined up with a local mountainbiker. Hes retired, and cycled over 14000km this year! Too cold for the road bike today for him. We made a pact to meet up at the Trois Ballons next year, an event he has cycled 10 times before. The finish of this event is La Planche des Belles Filles, a 12% climb at the end of a ride over 200km. As the Tour de France will be finishing at the same resort in 2012, it will be nice to get to know the climb before the masses of Germans, Dutch and English, let alone the French, paint the road all colours and names next summer.

The descent to Munster is much steeper and faster today, though I need to take it easy at the top in case theres anymore ice on the road. Florian at work told me about the famous smelly Munster cheese, so I make an effort to locate a fromagerie (not difficult at all). It really is quite strong, but there are worse smelling cheeses than this one. Wish the town would do something about its massive cobblestoned roads, they really are painful.
Also made a stop in Turkheim wine cave, my first visit to a cave. Its busy, several languages being spoken all sampling the wine from a very long tasting bar. Outside, cars are filling up with crates of fine wine. Would be very nice, but I dont have any suitable pockets to carry a wine bottle, but I'll be back for sure. Turkheim really is on the outskirts of Colmar, so depending on train times it would be worth finishing a ride here and having a meal with wine before a few km down the the station.
But then theres plenty more options in Colmar for enjoying the food and wine and architecture of Alsace.

 Route on mapmyride