Riquewihr and Colmar

Well I butchered the spelling of the name, it should be Riquewihr. We had a wonderful lunch in a tiny little place that was recommended by some of our travel mates. We had the tarte flambé and wow was it good. We accompanied it with a glass of the local Riesling wine. By that point it was time to head back to the bus.

We are now on our way to Colmar and I think Mom is taking a nap! This was a very short trip, but more beautiful view. The tour was a 50 minute walking tour around Colmar and “little Venice”. The homes are half-timbered homes that date from the 1600s. It also has a very lively town square. Mom opted to not go on the walking tour as we had already done a great deal of walking so Wouter, our cruise manager, took her along with a couple of others on to the museum where we would meet up later.

The tour covered a lot of ground including the birthplace of Frederic-Auguste Bertholdi, who was the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. We concluded the afternoon at the Unterlinden Museum. On display was Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece. The carvings were certainly amazing. Unfortunately we ran out of time so we didn’t get to do any shopping. It was then time to take the buses back to the boat which was now docked in Breisach, Germany. As soon as we boarded we were off again and we came to another lock. This was the first time we have been through a lock in the daylight hours. Since then we have passed through 2 more and there is one yet to go. We have really gone up in elevation since leaving. We watched the lock experience from the sundeck which was very cold.

We joined our PA/DE friends for a drink as we went through. We were actually hungry tonight and ready for dinner. We sat with Anita and Bob and another mother/daughter pair. We had a melon and prosciutto combination for an appetizer, followed by tomato soup, and turkey breast with salsify. Since we could see the Black Forest, I opted for the Black Forest Roulade for dessert. We were enjoying the conversation and the company, but we had a lot of packing to do, again. It has taken us about 1 ½ hours to get everything together and we are taking our showers tonight since we have to get up at such an early hour. As it stands now, we should be arriving in Basel, Switzerland around 3:00 am. Our taxi is scheduled for 5:45 since our train is at 6:30. It is then off to Rome via Milan. We’re just hoping the train strike in Italy doesn’t affect us!! We are officially half way through our month long escapade.

PS – We are going through the final lock as I finish typing this.