We exited the boat for the final time , took our bags to the street and called for an Uber. Turns out the card registered with Uber is the one that had a fraudulent charge and then was cancelled so we took a taxi to the train station. As soon as we pulled away from the ship I got a call from the Uber driver! I had to cancel him ... how did he arrive if our card didn't go through?? Ah, travel.. We had originally planned on spending the day in Basel but as they exp...

Before we went to Breisach we stopped at the Maginot line named after Andre Maginot in 1930's, built to keep out the Germans - which didn't work so well.. and of course, in the inimitable way of the French, this is Saturday, and the museum is closed, because it's the French shopping day and the employees don't want to work on Saturday. So we took pictures, exterior, and moved on. This city, Breisach, was also known as breakwater in early Celtic times until the ri...

Yet another beautiful day in Europe - the expected high was 71 with no rain. We took a bus tour around Strasbourg, the official seat of the European Parliament and is now a symbol of European unity. We learned that 60,000 people go to germany and Switzerland to work; shop in Germany - Kehl - due to it being 40 percent cheaper in Germany than France. Strasbourg changed nationality 5 times in 75 years. The national bird is the stork and they leave in august ever ye...

I woke up by accident just before 6am. Since it doesn't happen often, I took a picture. Mannheim is a young city only 400 years old. Also known as the city of squares. Not a medieval city by any stretch, very few medieval buildings Insurance company with one of the tallest buildings. First a castle then a palace - now a university all in one; 25k students and 1400 windows. The Palace was originally in Heidelberg but the prince wanted a new modern palace so he mov...

As you may know, I am not an early bird. I don't rush through morning ablutions and prepping my bulletproof coffee on a ship of any size takes time and coordinator with the bar staff. So when the tour off the ship starts at 8:15, I just can't get ready on time. So instead of joining the tour, we were up top of the ship on the sundeck, wondering what the city looked like away from the river, and two little ladies with canes decided to get off the ship and said why...