Saturday, June 13, 2026

A Viking Voyage-France

The third day of our cruise the ship docked in the city of Kehl, Germany. However, our day's adventure was actually across river in Strasbourg, France.

Google

According to the ship's daily newsletter "Strasbourg is the cultural center of France's Alsace region. The well-preserved town is enclosed on all sides by the little Ill River."

Our walking tour of the city started on a bus, which shuttled the group over the river. From there, our guide took us through the La Petite France district, filled with canals and 16th century homes and the Grande Île city center, a UNESCO site.

Buildings on the canal

Our next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874. Today it is the sixth-tallest church in the world and the tallest structure built entirely in the Middle Ages.

Wikimedia
The church does not allow tour groups inside, but our guide gave us ideas of what to look for and let us wander around by ourselves. Unfortunately we were a bit too early to see the automaton parade on the astronomical clock, but the timepiece all by itself was impressive.

We had time on our own before the tour ended, so we shopped for souvenirs and we ended with drinks at the Il Pinocchio sidewalk cafe next to the cathedral. My macchiato was topped with a cute heart of foam.

After dinner there was a trivia game night in the lounge. The onboard musician performed sections of nine songs, and there were two questions about each one. A group could get ten bonus points if they got up and danced during the song. At the end of the night, thanks to some good music knowledge in our group and our dancing we were one of two groups tied for the lead. The program director divided the prize up (our group took the box of dark chocolate, and the other one took the growler of beer) and the bar threw in a bottle of wine for both groups.

Five years ago: One Of A Kind

20 comments:

  1. Very nice, Kathy and sounds like so much fun.
    I'll take the dark chocolates!

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    Replies
    1. Much better than fancy beer in my opinion.

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  2. congratulations on the song trivia chocolate win with dancing.

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  3. Kay of Musings: Wow! This looks like so much fun. We haven’t been on a cruise in such a long time.

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    1. I don't think I've ever read about you and Art taking a cruise.

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  4. I enjoy seeing the amazing buildings and architect from other countries. I love how the building and the homes connect in other areas. Beautiful

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    Replies
    1. It's amazing to me how parts of the world are so different.

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  5. Europe has such History preserved that is a visual delight. I was fortunate that during our Military Career we got to see other parts of the World... and experience the diversity of Culture, History and Cuisine.

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    Replies
    1. That was a nice benefit of living overseas.

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  6. Such a wonderful visit into history. I enjoyed seeing the sights connected to my ancestors. I am back to blogging. Stop by sometime.

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  7. Replies
    1. SO much history, and SO much architecture!

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  8. Replies
    1. Considering the demographic on the ship I figured the questions would involve music from the late 1960s-early 1980s, which is right in my wheelhouse.

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