July 11 - Basel

Our last full day on ship and we made it through all the locks (around 20) to Basel, Switzerland.  We opted for the locals walking tour, including transit across the river by unconventional ferry.  It was a very nice town, complete with the central Europe staples of few cars in the downtown area, one old massive church (a muenster), and top-notch chocolate.  It feels like a combo of all the places we have been so far, and notches our fourth country on this ramble.

A lock

In the heart of the lock beast

A very narrow lock

Nothing like waking up to see concrete six inches outside your bedroom window (NOT joking)

Rope system the crew used to tie us to floating moorings (that thing in the wall slot)

Almost there

Clear sailing

Our ferry boat worked on a system of wires across the river with no motor using only the current and steering.

Ferry boat

The motley passengers

Neat cats painted along the wharf walk. Best use of spray paint we saw in Europe

Riverside

View from on Church Hill

Another high view from old city walls

Semi-portable potty but who or what is the door on the left for?  Gnomes?

How to make a snack shop out of a shipping container...

Thinking of a song ("Well I was standin' on a corner in Basel Switzerland").... never mind

Look, an old church

More old church. A muenster (aka Protest-ent church)

Sundial and a clock

           Short Vid of creepy moving wall sculpture

Huge wall mural across from Rock and Roll Bar

Wider view of mural

Other direction

Art, I guess?

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City Hall

Up close City Hall. Spire on top is gold plate

Interesting fountain. Several in the city of similar type but different art. Water is drinkable.

Extremely yummy chocolate courtesy of our guide.  Pistachio I think.

Beer, of course (public service announcement - Basel is the most expensive place we visited).

After a full day of cruising (Rambler Hance got a workout in) we had our last dinner on the ship and spent time with the other Canucks we met, Cameron and Susanne.

Tomorrow we head overland by train to Stuttgart.

Until then, keep on rambling. (p.s. the Swiss speak French, German, and English)

July 10 - Strasbourg

 Your Ramblers made one brief foray into France during this ramble, making a stop in Strasbourg (certainly sounds French, don't you think?).  We went on a bike tour of the city, and went on a mission to locate the champagne we had three years ago in Epernay (that is only sold in France).  Seal Team Six Leader (aka Rambler Jane) had her intel fully formed, and with the use of advanced technology called Google Maps, we took our biking rest stop as an opportunity to hunt down the store we knew carried it. Success was found only 90 meters from our stop spot and inside of five minutes we had secured two bottles of Milard Blanc de Blanc.  We returned to the ship for lunch, but went back into the city and explored further in the afternoon. In addition to our tourist activity, we sought out a pharmacy (apothecary) for some cortisone cream to treat Rambler Hance's leg rash. We don't know if it was poison ivy acquired on our hike in Bacharach or an allergic reaction to the lotion in our room, but we again found our man (or cream, in this instance), and got some generic Benadryl to boot.  After that came a late afternoon nap and then the staff dinner, which of course involved lots of wine and socializing with our new friends.  Rambler Jane thinks a magic spell was cast on our ship because we consumed quite a lot of wine but never seemed to notice any ill effects...

Josephine (of Napoleon fame) 

Bike Tour Group

Headquarters of the European Partliament (Strasbourg is one of three EU capitals)

War memorial depicting the dead sons, both German and French. The dates are only French

A lot of really nice flower beds, not uncommon in Europe

Another canal-heavy city

America is everywhere

Champagne booty

 Tomorrow we move on to Basel, our last stop. We have many locks to transit over night. After Basel we go overland by train across Germany.  Will post pics and details soon.

Until then,  continuer à marcher (keep on rambling).

July 9 - Speyer and Tra-la-la

Speyer renewed your Ramblers' enthusiasm after Frankfurt.  We started the day with a tour of the Doktorenhof Vinegar Estate.  It was amazing. The proprietor was part Yogi, part Zen Master, part artist, part organic farmer, part wine master. His life motto was: eat good clean food, drink good wine....and tra-la-la (you can guess).  The vinegar was aged up to 15 years and mixed with herbs and sometimes honey. We started the tour by donning monk robes and descending into the catacombs under the building, where we got an explanation of the process used to create vinegar (the Master had a heavy accent and pronounced it "winnegar).  We are bringing some home for those interested.

The Entry Way - you get the idea

Vinegar Zen Master

Feels like we should play Blue Oyster Cult

Mother Vinegar (or the star of the next horror movie)

Medical mask from the Middle Ages--fill the "beak" with vinegar and inhale.

Of course, he designed his own vinegar glasses

  After worshiping at the vinegar alter, we returned to town and moseyed around.  And naturally, there is an old church there.  This one had some unique sculptures.

Courtyard in front of church. Cars could drive through the square.

Inside view

Sculpture outside. I think it is the Romans coming to get Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

After vinegar and church we retired to the ship, for of course, dinner and more wine.

Pic of us with new friends and a world-class photo bomb by Alex, one of our waiters.

Until tomorrow, mach weiter (keep on rambling).

July 8 - Frankfurt

Our next stop was Frankfurt. After Amsterdam, it is the biggest city your Ramblers will visit. This was the day we chose to go with the Jewish heritage tour option. We toured several sections of the city with Jewish heritage, toured the Jewish museum and cemetery as well as a portion of the city. Since it was Sunday, almost nothing was open (blue laws in Germany--who knew) and the Frankfurt Ironman was going on downtown, which made it hard to get around.  All in all, Frankfurt seemed very modern, very sterile, and not worth the trip. The Rothschild museum we wanted to see was not even open.

City View

Up Close

Another View

Ironman stuff

Protestant Church (hey, it's Europe)

Plaque

Remains of old Jewish part of the city discovered after bombing in WWII

Memorial wall around cemetery. Over 11 thousand little blocks with names, dates and location where the person died.  

Cemetery site

Cemetery. Oldest grave 1272

Outside of Museum Judengasse

Commemorating the destruction of the synagogue

Tomorrow is Speyer. Until then mach weiter ("keep on rambling").