Strasborg

 Greetings from Strasbourg, France.

Today we left the ship at 8:45 for an excursion to the city of Strasbourg.  The cornerstone of Strasbourg is the Strasbourg Cathedral.  Construction began in 1015.  At one time it was the highest building in the world.  Its highlights are the 465 foot spire and its stained glass windows. It also has in intricate astronomical clock.  

The city is home to a statue of Albert Schweitzer who was the organist in the church as well as another statue of Gutenberg of the Gutenberg bible and Gutenberg printing press fame.  In the same square as the Gutenberg statue is a double decker carousel.  

Our city tour included that portion of the old town called Le Petite France District with its own canal system.  After the tour ended we were left with plenty of time to find a great place for lunch and extra time to tour the city on our own.

Even though I have been told in great detail on multiple occasions how this portion of the world has belonged to France, Germany, France, Germany and currently France, I can’t remember them all.   

Germany, France & back to Germany

 Our little six person group split up today.  Curt and Mary went to the Black Forrest and Mike, Suzanne, Cathy and I chose to stay closer to the ship.   

We were up and off the ship by 8:00 this morning as we took a bus from our German mooring to the city of Colmar, in France. The excursion was called, Colmar, France’s Little Venice.  It was an attractive Old World German town complete with its own canal system.  

We returned to the ship for a quick but delicious lunch before heading to the German City of Freiburg.  This excursion was an exceptional surprise.  We hadn’t planned on going but were so happy we did.  The home town guide was personable, informative and knowledgable.  The cobble stone streets and sidewalks were truly unique.  They seem to be a quarter size of normal cobble stones.  Many of the streets have open water gutters of seemingly clear water running off from the mountain streams.  After a tour of the Cathedral with its wonderful stained glass windows and “airy” steeple, we enjoyed a fleet of beer samples and headed back to the ship.   

Colmar

Freiburg 

Farewell Lucerne

 Before we left Lucerne we took in a Swiss Folk Dinner Show.  The dinner included Swiss Fondu.  The show included yodeling, the singing of Edelweiss, the harmonizing of three alpen horns and a guy who played music using partially filled bottles.  There are four 10 second videos that are attached.  

Early Tuesday had us up and out of our hotel and heading to Mount Stansahorn.  The weather did not cooperative.  At an elevation of 6200 feet we were surrounded by fog during our 35 minute hike up to the summit.  Breaking only briefly.  Even though the weather was not good it was an experience I’ve never had before and will probably never have again. 

We had a 1.5 hour ride from the mountain to Huningue, a French suburb of the Swiss city of Basel and embarked on our Avalon ship, The View.  The bus we were in was the bus used by the Swiss Women’s Soccer team and was painted as such causing a number of cars to drive by, honk and wave.  During the ride our tour guide told us a little more about Switzerland.  58% of all Swiss residents are renters.  She also said that they are a true democracy and have national votes four times per year.   Switzerland is not part of the European Union.  

Tuesday afternoon we still had time to walk across the Tri-Country bridge linking Germany and France and is about 100 yards from Switzerland.

Lucerne days 1 & 2

 We arrived in Lucerne, Switzerland .

We landed in Zurich Sunday morning at about 7:30 am Local time.  All went very well.  We even landed a little early but I gotta say staying up for 30 hours or more can be a killer. 

We had a very full day to look around Lucerne on our own.  We made it to Mass at the Jesuit church by 10:00 am (all in German).  We also spent some time on Chapel Bridge, took a boat cruise around Lake Lucerne before having dinner near our hotel.  We saw the tower constructed in the river which was used as a prison and a place of torture.  

On Monday we took a guided walking tour of the city which included many of the things we saw on Sunday.  We added a trip to the Hoff Church (St. Leodager) and the Lion Memorial.  The lion memorial is carved into a nearby mountain and is a tribute to the 500,000 mercenaries who left to fight for other royal families.  Only 40% of the mercenaries returned home.  We learned that supplying mercenaries was a very lucrative business for Switzerland.   

We also learned that Switzerland is the 3rd most expensive country in the world in which to live behind Singapore and Norway.

There are 120 public fountains in Lucerne and all of them supply drinkable water.  

I’m having a problem connecting my phone to the internet but I’ll try to put some photos here.   

Tower used for prisoners and torture

Lion Memorial 

(Ken, Curt, Cathy, Mary, Mike & Suzanne)

Mass at the Jesuit Church 

Chapel Bridge

Jesuit church

Potable water in 120 fountains

Cruising The Rhine

Hello.  Cathy and I are joining our friends, Curt and Mary Moore and Mike and Suzanne Winkler for a cruise on the “Romantic Rhine”.  We will be traveling from Sept. 6th to the 16th.  We will spend two days in Lucerne, Switzerland before heading North. The Cruise ends in Amsterdam.