Rhine River Cruise–Heidelberg and Rüdesheim, Germany

Wednesday, August 2nd we docked in Mannheim and took a bus for the tour of Heidelberg.

The main focus of the day was on visiting the ruins of the historic castle.

The castle affords some pretty cool views of the city.

Strolling through town, we joked that perhaps we would find a souvenir copy of the Heidelberg Catechism. To our surprise, we actually found one inside the Holy Ghost Church, which was making a big deal of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately, it was in German only so we did not purchase it.

While we were in Heidelberg, the ship moved on to Gernsheim so our bus returned us there. We learned that the reason for moving the ship was that the river is very shallow in that stretch and they needed the passengers off the ship in order to lighten it for travelling through that section.

In the afternoon we sailed to Rüdesheim, a little village on the river whose major claim to fame is that it is the last place to dock before entering the middle Rhine section where all the castles are located. They also make a big deal about Rüdesheimer Kaffee, which is made with a local brandy. It’s a pretty little town to stroll.

Rhine River Cruise–Strasbourg, France

I’m writing this after the cruise has ended, but I wanted to post some photos and notes before I forget things.

Tuesday, August 1st was the day to visit Strasbourg, France. The forecast was for 95F when we started the cruise. Two days later the expected high was 88F. It was definitely hot enough that we were very glad that it wasn’t as hot as it could have been. We saw humidity levels as high as 86% so us high-desert folks were definitely uncomfortable!

This bridge over the Rhine is just for pedestrians and bicyclists.

I’m always impressed with the dedication of Europe to bicycle and pedestrian needs, but when I got under the bridge I was even more impressed. European infrastructure has great style!

Strasbourg is located on the River Ill, which flows through the center of the city and creates some wonderful scenes.

The highlight of the city is the Cathedral de Notre Dame, the highest medieval building in Europe. It is built from local sandstone. I have a real thing for flying buttresses.

In France, there’s a bakery in just about every block.

The warm weather meant that it was cooler to eat lunch outside than in the restaurant. We had a traditional Alsatian dish called Choucroute – wonderful sauerkraut, boiled potatoes and 4 kinds of meat Yum!

This cool carousel was in one the the squares near the Petit France section.

Rhine River Cruise–Breisach, Germany

Overnight, the ship moved to Breisach, Germany. This is the gateway to the Black Forest so the included excursion took a bus to a cuckoo clock maker. We elected to wander Breisach on our own.

Swans were swimming near our window as we ate breakfast.

The afternoon was a guided tour of the medieval section of Colmar, followed by some free time to wander.

Rhine River Cruise–Basel, Switzerland

This year is the 45th Anniversary year for Linda and I. I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful partner! We decided that we should do something special to celebrate, so we booked a cruise on the Rhine River from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We departed Basel 2 days ago, but it has taken this long for me to get over the jet lag and exhaustion of the trip so I haven’t shared any photos of our trip.

Our cabin is on the “Main Deck” – a fancy way of saying that we’re might be partly below the water line. As you can see, our window is barely above water. The cabin is very nice, and of course the view keeps changing!

The ship was docked at Klybeckquai, which is a rather industrial area of Basel, so the view out of the window wasn’t all that scenic.

We’ve arrived just in time for some of the warmest weather of the summer. Temperatures like this are not so different from Flagstaff, but the humidity in this region makes a huge difference in how it feels. We’ve seen reports of 85% relative humidity.

We arrived just in time to make a bus that took us into Basel for a short walking tour. We were dead tired, but just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Here are a few photos from our walk.