Visit to Mulhouse in 2006
During his year as President in 2005/06 Richard Hensby suggested a trip to Mulhouse in France (Alsace) in order to visit the Schlumpf Motor Museum. The visit was duly arranged and eight Rotarians set out on 27th March, returning on the 29th. It was a very busy three days!
Research into travel arrangements revealed, to our delight, that EasyJet have a daily service to the Basle/Mulhouse airport from Liverpool. Very handy.
We lodged at the four star Hotel du Parc, where the Rotary Club of Mulhouse meets each week. This proved to be an excellent hotel which was centrally located in the city.
We had contacted the President of the Mulhouse club in advance of our visit in the hope of being able to attend their meeting on the 27th March 2006. What followed exceeded all expectations, with the Rotary fellowship being superb.
We were collected from Basel-Mulhouse airport by President Thomas Bitsch and his wife Isabelle and taken on a scenic tour of the countryside before arriving at their home in Rantzwiller. Here we took an aperitif and were joined by many local Rotarians, some of whom were accompanied by their wives. We later had dinner prepared by Isabelle and exchanged many experiences and anecdotes.
The morning of the second day was used for the visit to the museum, which is first class, and we had a little spare time after lunch to explore the city. By 5 p.m. we were collected by Thomas, Isabelle and their daughter Caroline and driven to the winery of Materne Haegelin & ses filles in the village of Orschwihr between Mulhouse and Colmar. The winery is now supervised by Regine Garnier-Haegelin who is the wife of Patrick, our guide at the museum.
Patrick, Regine and their family proved to be excellent hosts and we were also joined by several Rotarians from Mulhouse who had been with us on the previous evening. After a tour of the cellars and an extensive wine tasting we all moved to the dining room for a lovely meal which was rounded off, appropriately and coincidentally (being from Wakefield), by rhubarb pie. It was superb.
Whilst at the winery we were informed that Lola Konig, who had been with us on Monday evening and is the wife of Rotarian Friedrich Konig, had offered to show us Freiburg the following day. We therefore abandoned plans to visit Colmar and caught an early morning bus for the 85 minute ride to Freiburg in the Black Forest area of Germany. Here we were met by Lola, who is an official guide for the city, and we deposited our bags in lockers at the railway station.
Lola told us that most English speaking visitors these days are from the USA or Australia, with the British not coming in the numbers which had been seen in the past. They are missing out, as it a very interesting city with a 55 minute coach service from Basle-Mulhouse airport.
Freiburg has a population of about 200,000, with about one in seven being students at the university and other institutions. There is a magnificent cathedral which was miraculously untouched during the bombing of WWII. Most of the surrounding buildings which were damaged have been re-created as authentically as possible. There are interesting lanes and passages to explore and lots of pavement cafes, restaurants and inns.
We sampled some local wine in one of the cellars of the oldest inn in Germany. The "Zum Roten Baren" dates from 1120 AD and there is a list of all the innkeepers from that time.
After further immersing ourselves in the history of the city it was time for more feasting, this time at "Sichelschmiede" on Die Insel (the island), where we had Maultaschen mit Salat, (a local pasta type dish) washed down with more German wine. From here we just managed to catch the coach to the airport for our return journey.
A truly memorable experience was created for us by our hosts from Mulhouse, one which we were enthusiastic to reciprocate if we were given the opportunity. Fortunately this was to be so and on the 12th July we welcomed the now Immediate Past President of the Mulhouse club, together with his wife and daughter.
The following are his memories of our visit in March and his report to the Mulhouse club of the hospitality which they received in July.
Ken Pinder 20th November 2006.
For further information
Thomas Bitsch's report to the members of the Rotary Club of Mulhouse can be seen by following this link:/index/reportfromthomas.html
Schlumpf Collection
http://www.collection-schlumpf.com/en/schlumpf/
Hotel du Parc
http://www.hotelduparc-mulhouse.com/index_anglais.htm
Mulhouse
http://france-for-visitors.com/alsace/mulhouse.html
Materne Haegelin & ses filles
