My Passport’s Travels

Happy birthday, Mom!!

Evidently we hadn’t been sleeping as well as we thought at the hotel – we both slept over 10 hours! We missed breakfast! Once we were ready to face the day, we wove our way through the bucket brigade of crew loading supplies on the ship – from the dock, down the stairs and into the kitchen! They were also handing things off to the Viking longship docked to us. (This happens regularly, guests from the outside ship just walk through the lobby of the inside ship. You can see through into the other ship’s lobby.)

At Guest Services I grabbed a city map and ship location card then changed some large bills into smaller ones. The ship location card is provided each day, so you have an address for the pier.

Our room!

We headed out to explore Breisach. It’s a charming little town and feels a lot like the one that I started my Rotary Youth Exchange year – Öttingen. We learned later that St. Stephen’s, the cathedral you can barely see through the mist, is built on a volcanic hill.

A quick stop for a scarf for Mom and we continued into town, eventually finding the town square and a bakery. Fresh pretzels made a great breakfast/lunch appetizer!

I loved this speed check!

We only spent an hour or so in town, as lunch was being served at noon. But as we headed back to the ship, the mist started burning away and the cathedral appeared.

Sadly, the Champagne stand wasn’t open as we returned to the ship for lunch.

We had a very American meal, I’m afraid. Salads, Mom had a Ruben and I had a cheeseburger, we both had the Black Forest Cake for dessert. I’m pleased to report it was proper Black Forest Cake and not chocolate cake with cherry pie filling.

We grabbed our coats after lunch and boarded the coach for our afternoon (included) excursion – Freiburg Yuletide Market & Organ Concert. A short 40-minute ride away and we were pulling into Freiburg. Our guide walked us a couple of blocks up to the Freiburg Cathedral, which would be our meeting point after the concert and we were off!

We had about 90 minutes to explore before the concert would start. They gave the option of continuing to follow the guide to learn more about Freiburg and its history, but we chose to go explore. This gentleman was creating a sand sculpture of a sleeping dog.

First stop – Glühwein! I tried the white wine variety and really enjoyed it. At the markets, Glühwein is served in glass or ceramic mugs. You pay a small deposit and can then either keep the cup and forfeit the deposit or return the mug and have the deposit refunded.

Here’s a closer look at the mug after it’s successful journey home in my boot!

So many fun things to look at!! We explored and were able to wind around the streets so we didn’t see any booths twice. (I did stop and buy a pair of lighter, fingerless gloves.) The condiment dispenser was cool!

We found a plywood Nativity that was reminiscent of those we had seen in Zurich – and bonus! It’s flat for travel!

I wish had cheese shops like this!

Back at the cathedral, the organist performed for 20 minutes. It was an absolutely lovely concert. Two Bach pieces, one by a Canadian composer (it painted a picture of skiers racing down the hill according to Mom), and a Festive Toccata. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough with my note taking to get any more information than that about the pieces. There are four organs in the cathedral and they can all be played individually or from the main console.

After the concert, our group met back up outside and we headed back to our longboat.

The sun set during our drive back.

There was some down time before dinner – Mom and I started a game of Phase 10. Then it was time for the Thanksgiving Feast! We sat with a family from Connecticut and had a delightful evening. And some darn good pumpkin pie!

We sailed away during dinner, and as we were heading back towards our stateroom, we realized the ship had come to a stop. We were waiting for a lock!! Mom ran to get our coats and we went up to the Sun deck for a very cold, but very exciting 30 minutes!

Closer, closer and were in!

We dropped the height of the cruise ship, I think. And the Captain had to retract the wheelhouse to pass under the bridge at the end of the lock.

When you’re longship is less than three feet from lock wall, what would Kassie do? She’d touch the walls – so I did too!

Open sesame!

As we went under the bridge, everyone realized at the same moment the bottom of the gate would be dripping all over us! Mom and I pulled up our hoods – but others weren’t so lucky.

I decided that’s probably the crew’s favorite part of going through the locks – watching all the guests be surprised by the water! Which they do from the safety of their Viking Cruise Line issued umbrellas.

Once the we were out, the wheelhouse came back up and we were on our way – down the Rhein and down to bed. Tomorrow’s excursion is early!