Wolfram Adolph is a renowned expert in church organs and church music. I have already thought that his educational tours were extensive and full of information. His knowledge of the northern part of the Vosgues added a great deal to the enjoyment. However, I didn't know that he was also a food expert and gourmet. The restaurants he chose were excellent and reasonably priced, ranging from more homemade to exclusive cuisine.
In a 2-hour-drive, we drove on the B10 through the Palatine forest until we seamlessly passed the scenery from Hirschtal in Germany to Lembach in the Alsace region in France. There was hardly a visible cultural difference except the colours of the half-timbered houses. The Alsatian half-timbered houses had coloured walls which we don't see as often in Germany.
Our first stop was a small town named Wingen where we could enjoy one of Strasburg's head organists(titulaire) Prof. Marc Baumann. He spoke German fluently and probably English as well. A beautiful concert in the ecumenical church. Prof. Baumann also joined as to a nice restaurant in Pfaffenbronn. A beautiful Tarte Flambee(Alsatian tart prepared in the woodfire oven) and a delicious green salad with fresh garlic was waiting for us. Prof Baumann was good fun and we had a lot of amusing stories about the Catholic church. Church insiders are a lot more critical about the church, expressed their ideas with sarcastic humour. Our dessert was a heavenly Zwetschgenkuchen(damson pie) with vanilla ice cream on top. The bottom was made of butter puff pastry instead of the usual yeast dough we commonly know. Zwetschgen or damsons are a kind of plums but rounder and smaller, the flesh sour and firm which makes it easier to bake or process.
In the afternoon we visited an organ building factory owned by the well-known organ builder Alfred Kern. His son Gaston Kern gave us an elaborate presentation about the mechanics of the church organ. Our program has been modified just to our liking, as we had the honour to listen to three more concerts by Prof. Baumann and M. Francois Fuchs. We arrived dead-tired at our Hotel Roi de Soleil in Strasburg Mundolsheim, just adjacent to Reichstett where my former Couchsurfing host Thierry lives. We didn't manage to catch up this time, so this trip had nothing to do with Couchsurfing. The hotel was a brandnew 2 star hotel with clean ultra-modern shower and comfortable bed. There was no real reception but instead, a breakfast buffet which was amazingly rich compared to the rather cheap hotel price.
After breakfast we headed for wine tasting at the famous "Cave Vinicole de Cleebourg" in Cleebourg. It was a bit early for wine tasting but we had a beautiful presentation, a movie and freshly baked Gugelhupf or Alsace sweet raisin bread. We continued our journey to Bruchweiler in Germany where the other Strasburg titulaire organist Prof Pascal Reber indulged our senses with organ music from 5 epoches.
We passed the border to Germany again to be pampered with a lovely 4-course-lunch in Nothweiler. A beautiful little town in the middle of the Palatine Forest and a cosy little 3-star-superior restaurant and hotel serving probably the best of the upper middle-class cuisine. Our last stop was Weißenbourg at the French border to see the organ in the old cathedral. It was still under renovation, we couldn't hear it and the stairs were not particularly safe. Suddenly it started to rain cats and dogs. I have been to Weissenbourg many times and we decided to drop the city tour and headed home instead.
A very memorable weekend with interesting company, beautiful scenery, impressive old churches, Silbermann and other Baroque organs, excellent high quality music, newly acquired knowledge and fine food
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