Tues 10/4

Today is our last cruise day and we are docked at Breisach, Germany. We took a bus ride into and through the Black Forest of Germany. It was an incredibly picturesque area and we had a beautifully sunshiny day so that we could appreciate the views.

At the top of the forest, we had a stop at a place obviously designed for tourism that had a demonstration of cuckoo clock making, glassblowing and Black Forest cake making in three separate buildings OR you could hike into the Black Forest.

Giant cuckoo clock on face of building. Figures come out and dance on the hour and 1/2 hour

Mural memorializing that Marie Antoinette had stayed here.

Building on which is the Antoinette mural, now a Best Western Inn

We opted for the walk through the dense woods with a rushing stream alongside the path that took us up, up, up to the top of a waterfall.

Dick gave up before the top.  

Me at the top

As I was returning down the path I saw a kerfluffle below that involved Dick falling forward along with another person. I hurried down and found that he was remarkably unscathed except for this:

The lady was completely unhurt. Dick washed his wounds and we splinted it with another finger using a bandaid I had in my purse and continued on our way. Once back to the ship, the program director arranged for us to go to the local Breisach hospital ER. We had about a 1 1/2 hour window to get it taken care of before our next scheduled excursion that we REALLY wanted to make. The ER receptionist must work for the government….she had to be the most incredibly inefficient individual ever to man a desk (other than the DMV!) When she finally managed to register Dick, it was actually pretty efficient. The doctor was an orthopedist and it took all of 20 seconds for him to evaluate the finger and yank it back into place and Dick didn't even cry. He sent him for an Xray to make sure there was no fracture….there wasn't…..gave him a splint and we were on our way.

The program director had held the tour for us (we were about 15 minutes late) and we headed out for Colmar for our tour.

Colmar is a city whose medieval area is exceptionally well preserved and picturesque. Like Strasbourg, it has vacillated back and forth between being in Germany or France. It is France now but very close to the German border and residents may be either French or German speaking.

A man named Bartholdi was from Colmar and he was the sculptor who designed and made the statue of liberty.

 He actually designed the liberty for Egypt but the project fell through. A man named nicknamed Hansi was a painter and sign maker whose signs had hidden barbs directed at the Germans because he was French and resented the German takeover of the Alsace.

We had a nice walking tour through the medieval section, heard some history of the town and then had time on our own to check out a local wine store where Ted and Dick bought some wine for dinner and then I found a patisserie where I bought fabulous, WARM macaroons!! My favorite!

Back to the ship for our last dinner on board which turned out to be a very disappointing ending meal. The food and service have been excellent with rare exceptions. Tonight was such a gigantic exception that we complained to the food manager. All but Sandy ordered beef Welllington and all except mine were so well done as to be inedible and the service was so ragged and slow that we were the last people left in the dining room. Really an unfortunate ending to what has been a terrific experience.