Yestersay evening we boarded our ship! Here's a pano pic of it. There's approx 180 people on, which is nice and intimate, we get to know each others names. I feel like a celebrity, everyone knows me as the young girl.
This is a terrible picture, but I'm going to try to paint the image in your mind of what went down.
Apparently throughout rivers there are locks that you have to go through, sort of like a dam. Since the water levels are different, the ship either has to be lifted up or down depending on the level so you can continue on. Well I had never heard of such a thing. We are in the 2nd floor of 4 floors, so not far from the top. This picture is of our balcony railing next to a cement wall, that mind you had about 5 inches to spare. The whole ship had gone down about 20 feet into this cement hole so they could close off the water behind us and open the gate in front of us. FREAKY! We went through 4 total last night and we're going through another as I type.
Ok, so the tour today was awesome. First we got to drive in the autobahn which wasnt anything special.
We went up into the Black Forest (which isn't really black), it reminded me a lot of home. On the way we passed lots of winery's and farmland.
The cuckoo clock originated in the Black Forest (not in Switzerland), and this is where they're made and sold. Man alive, they cost an arm and a leg..needless to say In coming home cuckoo clock-less. The front of this building is the largest one and does its thing every hour.
We also went on a hike up in the forest. My attire: maxi dress and flats. Would you expect anything less from me?
So beautiful, just like an Oregon hike.
When in the Black Forest, eat Black Forest cake! This piece was bigger than it looks. My Gma stayed on the ship to rest today so I was forced to eat it alone. Darn! It might or might not have had brandy in it...
When I got back I went on an adventure in town (Breisach, Germany) to explore some of the history. This huge church was right up the hill from the port we were docked at.
So I climbed...
And I climbed some more...
Once I reached it, I had puddles and could barely breathe. It was 80 degrees today which is funny because they said it was snowing last week!
Unfortunatly I wasn't able to go inside, the the views from that high up were amazing. It's so peaceful and quiet here.
This is the "River Rhine" as they say here, which is what we're cruising down.
It's super late here and I have to get up early. I've spent forever trying to get this to load because the wifi here is so spotty.
In closing, I'll leave you with this sign...
I think the locks would give me claustrophobia. Were you wandering by yourself?? I'm such a chicken. It looks like you had an awesome trip!
ReplyDeleteMel, the first few did freak me out a little bit, but we went through so many and most were when we were asleep. I did go out a few times by myself but for the most part they were guided tours so it was a large group. I would never do this alone, that's for sure! It was pretty amazing though, we had a great time!
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