Our Rhine River cruise included more ports in Germany than in any other country
On Friday, the first full day of the cruise, we docked at
Breisach, noted on the daily newsletter as "a gateway to the fabled Black
Forest region", and also home to some of Europe's largest wine cellars. Hubby
Tony and I decided to participate in the included bus tour of the Black
Forest, and our friends agreed.
It seemed like most people on the cruise were of like mind, so we were divided
into four tour groups. Two of them left at the same time (on different busses),
and the others were ten minutes later. At the appointed time our group was in
the ship lobby with our charged audio listening devices.
Our guide was a young man who knew a lot about the area, and passed on
information as the bus drove to the final destination, the Drubba Black Forest
Village. There, we had the options of a short hike and/or demonstrations of
cuckoo clocks and Black Forest Cake assembling. Hubby Tony and I chose the
latter two, and while interesting, to me both felt more like an opportunity
for the departments to sell merchandise than an actual tutorial.
After lunch back at the boat we and our friends walked into the city, where we
did a little souvenir shopping and walked up the hill to visit St. Stephen's Cathedral, built between the 12th and 13th century. The building was almost
completely destroyed during World War II. It's major art treasures were hidden
and saved, and after the way the cathedral was rebuilt. I was particularly
impressed with this elaborate altar.
The first few nights the ship left port during dinner, then sailed all night
to get to the next one. There were 14 locks on the portion of the
Rhine we sailed on. We passed through a couple of them early in the evening, and I
thought it was fascinating to watch the ship enter the lock, then see the gate
rise so it could exit at a different level.
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Beginning, halfway, end
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As fascinating as it was to watch the boat pass through a lock, in the middle
of the night it was just annoying. Inevitably the ship would bump into the
concrete side, leading to loud noises and jolts.
Sunday found us in
Speyer, one of Germany's oldest cities. The town is noted for its Roman relics
and the Romanesque cathedral. Thanks to a large Jewish presence in the
Medieval and Middle Ages the Jewish courtyard is on the UNESCO World Heritage
list. The term "Protestant" was coined in the city in 1259.
Our walking tour started at the pier. The first stop was the cathedral because
later in the morning it would be closed for Mass. I would have liked to
attended the service, but unfortunately the time didn't coordinate with the
ship's cast off.
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Speyer Cathedral
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I enjoyed walking through the cobble stoned historical old area,
which was filled with houses like this:
During our independent time after the tour we walked through the
shopping section, which ended with the spectacular Old Gate.
It was a given that before leaving the town we had to get a Speyer Pretzel,
because the city claims it was invented there. (That seems to be open to
debate, because other cities we visited made the same claim.)
Five years ago:
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