A Viking Voyage- Germany (Part 1)

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.

Beginning, halfway, end

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.

Speyer Cathedral

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.) 

That evening we chose to participate in a paid excursion at a local restaurant. There were approximately 36 people seated in the location's back room. The multi-course meal included bottles of local red and wine (and beer upon request), and with dessert the waitress brought around shots of schnapps. A musician in the corner of the room played fun music. At the end of the night he encouraged people to sing along. The cruise director started a conga line, which ended up in a rousing Duck Dance.

Five years ago: What Do You Think?