We finish off our first evening on the Amadeus Elegant in the Panorama Bar
listening and dancing to the sounds produced by, what we first take as a
country/western duo by the Name of Gery and Louis. They had quite a repertoire,
even though they were just a bit to the left side of center—but very entertaining
and able to handle most requests.
We spent a very pleasant breakfast with Jim and Leslie—the eggs were just as
great!
The morning finds us still sailing to Strasbourg—trouble getting through
a lock overnight, only one of the two at one point was working and that forced
the one working lock to handle both north and south bound traffic to alternate.
The entire schedule has to be reworked.
Randy & Gail checking phone service while sailing the Rhine
At 1030, most of us attend Professor Caroline Karp’s (Brown
University) lecture “Thinking like a River”—largely dealing with the history of the Rhine, the
changes it has undergone, and the environmental changes that have taken place
within the last one hundred years due to the straightening of the river for
efficiency (some fifty miles of length had been removed).
Today, we decided to try the light lunch—it really seems on these
trips that you can find yourself moving from one meal to the next and
forgetting everything that takes place in between. Well, the light lunch is
just as heavy as the regular lunch—spaghetti
and meat sauce—the
prime difference being that you are not sitting and waiting on the staff to
bring your meal to you; you get it yourself and the only service provided is
drinks and clearing. We were joined at this meal by Jerry and Ginger plus Buddy
and Carolyn (Class of ’79) Morgan from Cotulla, Texas. While we were eating,
the Amadeus Elegant arrived in
Strasbourg (currently a city in France, but previously a city in Germany, I
understand that it has been kicked back and forth more than several times
throughout history).
About two in the afternoon, we were bused into Strasbourg
for a fairly lengthy walking tour with a guide that was extremely hard to
understand and allowed zero deviation from her script and path. The city is
very beautiful with a great deal to take in; I just wish we could have
understood what we were hearing. On the two trips I have taken to Europe and
Russia, the greatest difficulty I have experienced is understanding the English
spoken by the guides. In Russia, if I listened very close, I got it all. This
was not the case here in Europe. This lady’s French accent was so strong that I
understood very little—I
was not he only one. Maybe this problem stems from my Texan ears—naah, can’t be!
Leslie along the river passing through Strasbourg
Architecture in town
center, the “Grande Ile,” of Strasbourg
In one of the squares on our tour, we come across a
statue of Johannes Gensfieisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg—the Bible guy, you know—the first to use movable type in printing (he invented the
process to mass produce movable type) and completed his 42-line Bible in 1455.
The statue was created by David d’Angers in 1840.
Johannes
Gensfieisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg
The entire town center, the “Grande Ile,” of Strasbourg
is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Strasbourg Cathedral work was
started in the 11th century and lasted for two and a half centuries.
Strasbourg is the major city in the Alsace region of France.
Strasbourg Cathedral
After touring the cathedral, the women found a potty spot
that didn’t charge and the men found a neat outdoor café that was serving our
favorite beverage of which we drank our share. I know somebody had a picture of
this but I cannot find one at this time.
Most of us selected to take the shuttle back to the boat
at 6 PM to be in time for the port talk for tomorrow’s activity and make the
dinner setting at 7:30 PM—you
can’t miss those meals, even though you are thinking “I just ate a short time
ago.”
Patsy and I attended the cruise director Gabriel’s “Nasty
Quiz” in the Panorama Bar that evening and missed out on the prize by one
question—our brains
not fully engaged after the day spent walking around Strasbourg.
11 PM that evening the Amadeus Elegant set sail for Mannheim and our excursion to the
Heidelberg Castle, the highlight of tomorrow’s journey.
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