Dave and Lisa's Adventures: May 2018

Monday, May 7, 2018

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

Saturday, May 5, 2018

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.