Day 8 - Basel, Switzerland

Day 8, May 2, Wednesday - docked at 2am and they call that a “day”?

Viking people were so good at rearranging our return to USA on a short notice. I will summarize as follows: Arose at 4am to catch a $50 cab ride to Basel, Switzerland, train station (driver: which station? Me: How many are there? Driver: 3 Me: no idea. (we look over the tickets in the dark and he spots correct station. This is all in German which he barely speaks and no English; said he was from Serbia) where we catch the train (199 kilometers per hour) to Frankfurt airport to catch a plane to Amsterdam, to fly to Boston, to catch an UBER, to take us back to our car at Halliwell's to drive back to Canton. We make it in time for my 3pm Dr. appointment where I begin to heal, barely as of now.

 

Late entry, May 7, diagnosed with pneumonia this morning and now on powerful antibiotic.

TILL NEXT ADVENTURE. DAVE WRITING, LISA TAKING PHOTOS.

Having hot chocolate in Switzerland train station - not many photos in Switzerland as we woke up at 4 am to get a taxi to the train station at 5:15 for a 6:08 departure to Frankfurt

Day 7 - Black Forest

Day 7, May 1, Tuesday

I mentioned, above, one of the nice people we met on the boat. Jim and Karen are at the top of that list. Karen is a scuba diver and Jim is in the process and will complete his open waters on an Aggressor Dive Boat in Honduras this June. Needless to say, we always had something to talk about. They both also have varied backgrounds with world wide experience and are interesting people. Other nice couples were Kimberli and Brad from Minneapolis, MN as well as Shawna and Steve from Utah. The dining arrangements on the boat insure that passengers meet. All the tables seat 6 or 8 people from all over the country. It would be difficult to be isolated on that boat.

Hearken back to the astronomical clock in Strasbourg. Here is a very short video which shows a bit of the clock. It's at least 20 feet high. You can see longer vids in Youtube but I posted this short one because it has a written explanation of the clock(s) just below the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwe7BAwVNE

Now back to Tuesday, May 1.

Boat landed at Breisach, Germany. First was a 90 minute bus tour (thank God) of the Black Forest. In medieval times the main road from Paris to Vienna led thru Breisach over high mountain switchback passes. Dizzying and unbelievable that horses and carriages could do it. We stopped at a waystation which was making and selling cuckoo clocks, glass ware and black forest cake (not so sweet and lots of crème). A chef demonstrated making a Black Forest cake in front of a large crowd. I could not find a video of that demo but here is a similar one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Zhg1HHZlQ

Lisa went on a guided hike into the forest but I could not breathe so had to stay back where they make wine. Somebody had to guard the wine. We got to watch the world's largest cuckoo clock operate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlXaBWH4fV8

Back to the boat where I took a nap and Lisa went to Colmar, France. She will let you know what was important. Colmar was home to Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty. At one of the round-abouts they had a smaller version of the statue. Strolled around the city and went into another beautiful cathedral and more half-timbered houses.

 Swan by the boat

 Dining Area

 Black Forest

 Cuckoo Clock

 Black Forest Hike

 Black Forest Cake in the Black Forest

Astronomical Clock

 Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty

 Canal with half timbered houses in Colmar

 Kimberli and Brad

Karen and Jim

Day 6 - Strasbourg, France

Day 6, Monday, April 30 (all the rest have 31)

Strasbourg is the cultural center of Alsace, a territory between Germany and France which has changed citizenship many times. It is currently French, politically, but thoroughly mixed culturally. Another great cathedral, Notre Dame. Tallest medieval building in Europe, 426 ft. (seen one great, magnificent, towering, unbelievable cathedral, seen'em all). Stained glass windows the size of your house. Tapestries even bigger. It also contains an astronomical clock. Not an hourly, daily, monthly clock like you have on your wrist but a clock which starts at the beginning of the world. Can you dig it? I think it was here it finally hit me that the people who built these cathedrals had a sense of persistence which is entirely foreign to us. In a discussion with a friend, Jim, on board, he said it best. They had a different concept of time than we do. Imagine planning and starting a building which you know you will never see even more than the foundation started, if that. You have no exact idea how long it will take but you know it will be centuries. The cost is so staggering that it would equal a country's complete economic worth. These concepts did not matter and may not have even been taken into consideration. Was it hutspa, arrogance, faith? Or do they portray the magnificence of the human spirit? If I can dream it, I can do it. These thoughts rattle thru my brain often.

 

 Strasbourg Cathedral

 Astronomical clock

 French Onion Soup in France

Day 5 - Heidelburg and Speyer

Day 5, Sunday, April 29, Heidelburg and Speyer

You may have noticed a distinct delay in this blog. I was getting sicker by the day. Could not breath well, lots of expectoral coughing fits and nasal nonsense which led to lack of sleep and exhaustion eventually. We had planned another 5 days in Europe at the conclusion of the boat tour but had to change plans and come home for medical treatment. We are writing this on May 5. Blog takes up with Heidelburg:

This day was so crammed with activity that I could not blog it same day. I will probably be a day behind from now on.

We left the boat early for Heidelburg, one of my most memorable cities from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Heidelburg is most famous for its university, its castle and the student life. We started with a walking tour of the old castle high over the city. Begun in the 13^th century, it was in a lot of wars between robber barons and was destroyed and repaired over the centuries. Still impressive. It holds the largest wine barrel which ever held wine. (Bad Durkheim has wine barrel which has a restaurant in it and is the largest in the world.) People in these castles must have had legs of steel from all the steps. The guide pointed out the large calves of the statues of nobles. She said that in those days large calves was thought to indicate high sexual performance. Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LIhHCtqz-M

We then went into the old city. I found the gasthaus I used to frequent, Zum Roten Oxen, but it was closed on Sunday afternoons. I still have their beer mug hanging on my wall. We discovered a wonderful bakery and a place for lunch. Note about German pastry, it never tastes as sweet as it looks or we Americans expect. Lots of crème. Went to the large Catholic church. All the churches are museums of medieval paintings and sculpture. So many churches that they begin to blur for description purposes. We had foot long wursts and brotchen and sweet mustard and beer. Great.

On to Speyer. In spite of living near there in my past, I had never been there. After Hburg so many were too tired to walk there so we stalwart few went on the walking tour. I was too tired also but went anyway. It was a typical German Sunday afternoon with people strolling in the large city square, sitting at the many Eis cafes. Speyer is famous for originating the term Protestant. In 1529 a bunch of free city states and princes who were Lutheran protested the Edict of Worms which had banned Lutheranism. We visited another great cathedral.

During our trip on the Rhine, we encountered 12 locks. Our ship had a hydraulic mechanism to lower the bridge/wheelhouse in order to pass under the entry to the lock. The wheelhouse would lower to within a few feet of the top deck.

View of Heidelburg

 Heidelburg Castle

 largest wine barrel

 The noble man with large calves

Zum Roten Ochsen - The Red Ox

Day 4 - Marksburg Castle / Middle Rhine Castles

Day 4, Saturday, April 28

It's 0630 and I am sitting at an elegant, small table, linen covered, drinking wonderful coffee brought to me by a white shirted steward. I am in the Aquavit Lounge on the forward part of the ship, protected by glass walls while I watch the shore slide by. The Rhine was a sewer when I lived here 50+ years ago with no life in it. Fish are back and the shores are clean. One passenger wondered why his river in Alabama could not look like this. People also remark how clean Germany is. This is so luxurious, sitting here, being treated so well. I wish my kids could be here with us. We got a 2 for 1 deal, half price. I think they had some empty cabins in the cheap seats and I am glad we jumped on it. Our cabin's window is near sea level so most of it is underwater and near the crew quarters. The next deck up cost $3000 more than ours and the cabin is slightly smaller due to having a very narrow balcony which has not enough room to sit out on. We eat the same food and have the same treatment. I heard that the top deck cabins cost $10000. A castle is on the hillside right now.

It's 5pm and it's been quite a day. Stared with a steep climb to Marksburg Castle in Braubach. Makes me very glad I did not live in the Middle Ages. Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-imJ2ukNxnw

Back to the boat which cast off at noon and we headed up the Rhine to Rudesheim. We are passing thru the Romantic Rhine which has more castles than any other river in the world. Lisa and I sat on the top deck and listened to the program director tell passengers about the castles and villages we were passing. Nostalgic for me since I have been on this portion of the Rhine many times when I lived here 50 years ago. It was normal weekend activity to head to Bingen and catch a steam boat to St Goar, climb the Lorelei, and have a picnic or eat at a gasthaus and boat back to Bingen. Lots of very good memories. Try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHlNRJcrk1w

She is holding the key to the castle.

Marksburg Castle

 The Lorelei

Day 3 - Cologne

Day 3, Friday, April 27, 9pm

I didn't. The dinner I chose was a specialty of Holland and was rather bland and uninteresting but well prepared and not worth writing about.

This was a busy day in Cologne. We arrived at about 8am and went into town on a tour at 9am, right to the front of the Dom (cathedral). It's near dusk right now and I am sitting on the top desk of our ship overlooking the skyline of Cologne with the Dom dominating the scene. The Dom construction was begun in 1248 and completed in 1880. Allied bombers avoided destroying it but leveled all around it. Let's just say they don't make'em like that anymore. It is overwhelming. Supposedly it houses the bones of the 3 Wise Men in a gold sarcophagus. I think it best to let you see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQZuQBm074

Our guide led us around the central part of the city. Lot of breweries and cafes. Back to the ship for lunch and a nap. You will later learn why I needed one.

After my nap we hopped the shuttle and went to town for more sights and a pub crawl. With Lisa it turned into more of a limp. There are numerous brauhauses here specializing one of the twenty varieties of Kolsch, the special beer of Cologne. No matter what I ordered she did not like it. That is her right, of course, and on the up side I had to drink what she did not like. I did get a photo of her drinking her first beer. Hope she posts it. The city is experiencing its first warm days of Spring and the sidewalk cafes and brauhauses were full. We sat at one and ordered beers and schnitzel with potatoes. We could have returned to the ship for dinner but I just wanted to experience Germany. My German language returned very well tonight.

My first German speaking attempt was rough last night, trying to explain at 3am that I was looking for the bridge abutments for the Remagen bridge which was the key for the Allied invasion of Germany. During the War all the bridges across the Rhine were destroyed except that one. On May 7, 1945, Americans captured the town but not the bridge. While they were fighting toward the bridge, the Germans loaded it with explosives. They blew it but most explosives did not detonate and the bridge remained. American engineers fought their way across and disabled the explosives. Tanks poured across to establish a base in Germany. Thousands crossed before May 10 when the bridge collapsed with 300 engineers on it. Many were killed. Pontoon bridges had been established and the push was sustained with the demise of the Nazi government resulting. I had been told by one of the ship's officers that we would be in the vicinity at 3am. So I and Lisa dressed and went up on to the bridge. The German pilot of the ship showed me on a chart that we were still 150 kilometers from the bridge. Back to bed and little sleep. My sleep has not been steady so I may not get up tonight but here is what I am missing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LacCFe9avc4

We went to the top deck at dusk to watch the Dom be illuminated in the dark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAPAZwjz1T4

Good night. Tomorrow Rudesheim and Koblenz.