We docked in Kehl, Germany overnight so we could visit the beautiful town of Strasbourg, France which was located on the other side of the Rhine from where we were docked. We were warned in the Port Talk last evening that our included excursion would involve a 15 minute walk to the bus which would then take about 15 minutes for us to get into Strasbourg. Our included tour in Strasbourg would involve a walk through an old part of Strasbourg, followed by a visit to the Cathedral. Viking was running 3 shuttle buses during the afternoon back to the ship if people did not want to return with the Guide to the ship after the walking tour was over at 11:30am.
The pretty City of Strasbourg, France
Given that neither one of us has ever been to Strasbourg and we had heard good things about the City, we decided we were going to be doing some independent exploration after our guided tour was over in the city.
It was a bit chilly this morning as we walked from the bus to the island city of Strasbourg
Our guide walked us immediately to a washroom under a bridge and with only 2 washrooms open for the women, and since most of the bus needed a washroom we had to wait about 20 minutes before everyone was finished with the washrooms! Yeesh!
Half timbered houses along the river Ill in Strasbourg, France
The Guide walked us to ‘La Petite France’ which is a pedestrian zone Island in Strasbourg with narrow streets and half timbered houses. The area got its name back in the day when the Alsatian name for the hospital ‘Blatterhus’ was located here during the 16th century when French soldiers suffering from syphillis were treated. The area was also where the tanners were located and the prostitutes of course were also operating out of this formerly seedy area of Strasbourg.
The coloured half timbered steep roof pitched houses were a photographer’s dream!
The pretty Petite France medieval district is like a fairy tale area with beautifully preserved architecture. Everywhere I looked there was something else to see and photograph! I had googled the area yesterday to see what the iconic shot of Petite France was and I wanted to try to get it, but there were quite a few Viking cruise ship walking tours (3) and other cruises in port with people taking tours in the morning.
Traditional Alsatian cookies in the patisserie window. These sweets were different than what we have experienced in other parts of France. There is a strong Germanic influence on the food in the Alsace given Germany is on one side of the Rhine, and France is on the other side of the Rhine. Our guide said her favorite cookies were the ‘butter bredele’ which are basically butter sugar cookies as they contain eggs.
We moved on from Petite France through the narrow streets where the shopkeepers knew our guide and brought out sweets and cold cuts and cheese for us to try. Obviously these shopkeepers were trying to entice us in to buy something from them, but we had no time for buying, as we had to stay with the tour.
The baroque Cathedral Notre-Dame-Strasbourg
We had to line up to go through newly installed metal detectors outside the Cathedral Notre-Dame-de Strasbourg as well as have our bags checked by a guard. We had been warned not to be worried if we saw Armed Guards walking around Strasbourg as that is ‘normal’ since Strasbourg had a terrorist attack in December 2018 and since the city relies so heavily on tourism and the city is the headquarters of many international organizations, they do not want a repeat of the most recent terrorist uprising.
As we entered the Strasbourg Cathedral this was the first glimpse we to of the interior of this magnificent cathedral
The main sanctuary of the Strasbourg Cathedral. There is restoration work going on still on the choir loft
Strasbourg Cathedral was the world’s tallest building from 1647 to 1874 when it was surpassed by a Church in Hamburg. The cathedral is still the sixth tallest church in the world and the tallest structure built entirely in the Middle Ages. Many parts of the cathedral are in the Romanesque style, but it is considered among the finest samples of Gothic architecture in the world. The groundbreaking for the cathedral occurred in 1015 and completion was in 1439. The North spire is 466 feet tall and the cathedral is made from Vosges mountain sandstone. There was supposed to be a south tower built but it was never completed, so the asymmetrical cathedral can be seen across the Alsace plains as far as the Vosges Mountains (2 hours) or the Black Forest (1 hour) on the other side of the Rhine.
Stunning rose window of the Strasbourg Cathedral
The colours on the stained glass window were beautiful and the glass is so very intricate!
Wow! Beautiful stained glass windows in the Cathedral in Strasbourg
The stained glass windows in the cathedral were gorgeous! Our guide told us that during WWII the stained glass panels were removed and stored in 74 storage cases near a salt mine in Heilbronn, Germany. After the war the stained glass was returned to the Cathedral by the ‘Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives’ section of the U.S. military. I’m sure many of you remember the 2014 movie starring George Clooney and Matt Damon called “The Monument’s Men”; well that story is true and relates to how these ‘monuments men’ were responsible for giving the Cathedral back their beautiful stained glass windows intact!
Astronomical clock Strasbourg Cathedral
The cathedral has an ‘astronomical clock’ located in the south transept. The first astronomical clock was installed in 1352-54 called the ‘Three King Clock”. The present clock was built between 1837 and 1842 and the clock is 59 feet high. Besides showing the time, it also indicates the solar time, the day of the week, the month, the year, the sign of the zodiac, the phase of the moon and the position of several planets. The base of the clock also revolves with a globe pointing to major religious festivals such as Easter (which we know changes each year). At each 15 minute interval throughout the day different characters representing the ages of life from a child to an old man parade in front of Death.
We were able to see the child come out and the clock chime for the quarter hour. Had we wanted to see the entire display of the clock we would have had to come back at 12:30pm and pay admittance to see the clock in full operation. Having seen the astronomical clock in Prague many times, we didn’t see the need to see the clock in its full operation.
After we left the cathedral the guide was taking people back to the Hiln who wanted to have lunch onboard. We elected to leave the guide at this point to wander around the beautiful city of Strasbourg, France.
Huge Christmas Tree being decorated in Place Kleber, Strasbourg, France
We found some amazingly clean, free, public toilets under a Place Kleber near Galeries Lafayette in Strasbourg. Its always good to know where the free and clean public toilets are in any new city we go to visit! In Place Kleber they were setting up and decorating an enormous Christmas tree for the upcoming Christmas Markets which will be operating from this square in Strasbourg. Having done the Viking Christmas Market’s Cruise in 2023 from Budapest to Amsterdam, we really loved visiting the beautiful and vibrant Christmas markets in each town on the three rivers we sailed on last year!
We decided to walk back to Petite France for lunch and wanted to find a special spot that didn’t look too touristy and also served traditional Alsatian food. We decided to eat indoors as well as it was a bit chilly outside today.
Richard enjoying a cold glass of delicious Alsatian Pinot Gris at lunch
Flammkucken with onion, bacon and creme fraiche
Our lunch consisted of an onion and bacon, with creme fraiche flammkucken (French German pizza). Translated to English, Flammkucken means ‘flame cake’. Originally the bakers used the dough to test the temperature of their ovens when a bit of dough was taken and rolled flat, topped with creme fraiche and baked in the wood-fired bread oven for a few minutes. The amount of time it took for the flammkuchen to bake to nearly-blistered crispness told them the oven’s temperature. If the flammkucken came out just right, then the ovens were ready to bake their bread.
Richard in French also ordered some ‘choucroute’ or sauerkraut to go along with our meal. The sauerkraut was taking an inordinate amount of time to come out so Richard asked our server where the sauerkraut was.
OMG! We just wanted sauerkraut!
This is what we were served when we asked for a side of sauerkraut! Something definitely got lost in translation when ordering! I had one small sausage with some sauerkraut while Richard had to finish off the rest of the plate of food! Yikes! I guess a side of sauerkraut was not available at this restaurant and we had to order a full entree instead, which included sauerkraut.
Iconic shot of Petite France, Strasbourg, France
After lunch we wandered down through Petite France trying to get the iconic photographic shot that I had googled for this area of Strasbourg.
There were so many pretty shots to take but I was having difficulty with my Fuji XT-4 which started zooming in and enlarging the image in my photo after I had taken the shot.
Every photo I took seemed larger than what I had framed, which resulted in having to frame my shots differently to make sure I didn’t cut off the sides of buildings for example. I’ve never had my camera do this before so I tried to quickly google what the problem might be, but unfortunately nothing worked to solve the problem.
We saw an artist with a sign and an empty chair who did caricatures for 15 euros or portraits for 20 euros. Richard wanted me to get a portrait done so I sat and had the artist do my portrait while looked over at Petite France as he drew. It was kind of a dreamy day and we thought it would be a nice souvenir to remember Strasbourg by to join the caricature we have of the two of us we had done at Disney World so many years ago, which resides at our home in Florida.
Galeries Lafayette Christmas trees are out already!
As Strasbourg was to be our last stop in France for this trip, we decided to head back over to Galeries Lafayette for me to take a peek in this iconic store one last time on this trip. Richard parked himself in front of the newly decorated Christmas tree while I went for a stroll around the store. Everything was on sale for 20/30 or 40% off at Galeries Lafayette but frankly I live in golf clothing unless I’m travelling like we are now, so I didn’t buy anything, but I did enjoy looking at the French fashions which are so different than what we have back home. I even found that this Alsatian Galeries Lafayette had a definite regional flair with some embroidered women’s vests to go over patterned or plain tops with matching skirts. I really do enjoy looking at fashion despite not having the need to dress up much anymore for work.
We wandered around Strasbourg looking for a wine shop for Richard that sold Alsatian Hugel Estate winery wine. Richard had visited this winery in another life before I met him and he was really hoping that he could find some wine to bring back to the Viking Hiln to enjoy and share with our friends. We do not purchase the Viking Silver Spirits drink package which costs 350 euros per 7 night cruise as I do not drink. For Richard to spend 700 euros on the Silver Spirits package, he would have to be inebriated for most of the cruise to make it worth his while to spend that kind of money on alcohol. Viking does allow people to bring their own alcohol onboard, so Richard has been picking up good local, regional wines in each port to drink and share with our Aussie friends at cocktail and dinner time.
We found a grocery store near the main square of Strasbourg and Richard was able to pick up a nice Pinot Gris for about 15 euros. A lot cheaper and potentially better wine than the Silver Spirits package on Viking!
We were to meet the shuttle service Viking Guide at 4:40pm in Place Gutenberg in Strasbourg where she would walk us the 15 minutes to the bus on the outskirts of Strasbourg. As we were walking with our guide we found some nice stores we hadn’t seen on our walk, but unfortunately we couldn’t stop to shop as we were taking the last shuttle back to the ship.
We found out at this point that there were 3 Viking ships docked in Kehl, Germany today, with the Viking Hiln, our ship, being the furthest away from where the shuttle bus dropped us off! We shared the shuttle bus with some people from another Viking ship and then started the 15 minute walk back to the Hiln.
Bridge we walked from after being dropped off by the shuttle bus from Strasbourg
Viking Hiln docked in Kehl, Germany
The skies were definitely getting dark as we arrived back to the ship after 5:20pm. I was able to get a beautiful shot of our ship the Hiln at ‘blue hour’ as we walked close to the ship. Sometimes that iconic shot just happens naturally rather than forcing it to happen. Now I will have to figure out what is up with my Fuji XT-4 so I can continue to make beautiful memories with my photos for the rest of this Viking River Cruise.
Our dinner was a special themed German evening. I didn’t take any photos of the food, but it was very good; very heavy and very German! We enjoyed our evening with our friends from Australia and Canada and ended up going upstairs to the Lounge after dinner for ‘disco’ night.
AI image of disco on a cruise ship. Definitely not the Viking Hiln last night!
We stayed for one drink during disco night as there were only about 25 people in the Lounge participating in dancing. I was starting to feel pretty lousy. I believe I am getting Richard and Kellie’s cold, so I finished off my evening with a hot honey, lemon and ginger drink to try and stave off the inevitably of getting a cold. It seems these cruise ships are just floating Petri dishes and we don’t seem to have the immunity to fight off whatever comes our way when the germs start spreading through the ship.
Tomorrow is a small town and mostly a sailing day so we’ve decided it will be a day to try to fix my camera, rest up to find some energy, blog and look forward to more exciting ports coming up the rest of the week.
Comments