Hiding out in Heidelberg, Germany

For some reason Heidelberg always makes me think of Hummel

Forested area near Heidelberg

figurines. But rather than ceramics, this is the seat of Germany’s oldest university and the cradle of the German Romantic movement. Which leads me to another misconception: I never think of romanticism in connection with Germany. However, the city has been a center for the arts throughout the centuries causing UNESCO Creative Cities Network to designate it a ‘City of Literature’. What I do correctly associate with Heidelberg, and particularly its university, is scientific research and especially the Max Planck Institutes of Biology and Medicine, Chemistry, Physics and Technology, and Human Science.

Sleeting in Strasbourg, France

Strasbourg is a lovely city blended from both German and French

Dockside in Strasbourg

cultures, and I was anxious to walk through its old section with Dave since he hadn’t seen any of it. Even better, we were going to have a tour then time to wander, shop, grab a bite to eat, and finally make our way back to the ship. It’s a lovely place with pretty houses, nice gardens, and picturesque canals. The last time I’d been here it had been sunny, warm, and entirely delightful; this time, not so much.

Floating along in Colmar, France

Colmar is a medieval village with so many canals that it’s been

Canals in 'Little Venice'

nicknamed ‘Little Venice’. It’s filled with half-timbered houses, diminutive winding lanes, and cute little shops. We spent several hours wandering the streets after getting a really good tour of the town. We wondered why the Statue of Liberty welcomed us to town until we found that its designer, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, lived here. It’s a pretty town and I’d have been happy spending substantially more time exploring.

Breisach, Germany Is Cuckoo

We jumped on the Viking Longboat, Lofn, in Basel and set sail down the

Saint Stephan's Cathedral, Breisach

Rhine River. As expected, the water was smooth and the scenery was lovely. And also, as has been with our cruises for the last few years, the weather went from wonderful to stinkin’ inside of 20 minutes. Since we couldn’t change the weather, we chose to have a great time, anyway. This year, for a change, I remembered to pack a warm scarf and some gloves; it was one of my better ideas. Our first stop was Breisach, Germany for some Black Forest cake and a look at how they build cuckoo clocks.

Having Basil in Basel, Switzerland

For several weeks I’ve been writing about the history of small towns in

Boy and Fish Fountain

Texas. The next few blogs concern the much older cities we visited on our trip from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Basel is in northwestern Switzerland on the Rhine River. We arrived a couple of days early to allow for jet lag and do some sightseeing on our own. Our first surprise was that the EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg is actually in France, and if you go out the wrong door, you end up with taxis that only go to France. However, the cabbies are used to confused tourists and kindly helped us get to the Swiss transportation. Basel, essentially, is located at the nexus of Switzerland, France and Germany with suburbs in each country. It’s not surprising that although the official language is the Swiss variety of standard German, many people speak French and English as a matter of course.