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.

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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.

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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