Day six of our Rhine River Cruise was spent mainly in France. Our boat docked in Kehl, Germany, and so we loaded into buses to cross the bridge and head to the French side of the Rhine, for a day in Strasbourg. Strasbourg is in France’s Alsace region, known for both German and French traditions. Strasbourg has been both French and German through its history, depending on who won the most recent war. For this reason, it has a unique language and culture.
Petite France
We began our day in Strasbourg with a bus tour of the European Quarter. This area is home to many European Union and Council of Europe buildings. Next we arrived at the city center for a walking tour of the Petite France area. This area is beautifully quaint, with old half-timber houses that lean and flowers hanging below all window sills. There are several mall shops and lots of outdoor restaurants along the canals – a tourists delight!
Strasbourg Cathedral
After the tour of Petite France, we headed to see the Cathedral Notre-Dame. The top of the cathedral’s 466 foot spire can be seen from quite a distance, helping to guide tourists. The cathedral is the sixth-tallest church in the world today, and is considered one of the finest examples of late Gothic architecture. By this time in our trip there had been a lot of churches to see, so I don’t remember so much about this one. However, inside the church there is an astronomical clock which is quite a marvel. The clock is unusually accurate and indicates leap years and equinoxes as well as day and time. This clocks dates back to 1842, and we happily waited 15 minutes to see it in full action.
Exploring on Our Own
Our tour ended at the cathedral, and then we had the afternoon free to explore. My mother, aunt and I were enamored with Petite France, so we chose to walk back to the area and grab some lunch. We ended up in a nice, outdoor spot along the river’s edge. The food was delicious – my mom and aunt had gorgeous looking salads, but I opted for something a bit more authentic – spatzel. It was yummy; tasted like mac and cheese! After lunch we walked around a bit more, looked in a shop or two, and then decided we were ready for some AC. Did I mention Europe was having a major heat wave while we were there? It was back to the bus for us.
Flammkucken
Back on the Viking Kara, a Flammkuchen cooking demonstration was about to begin. I arrived early and when asked if I would help, said yes. Little did I know that this would end up being my 15-minutes of fame. The executive chef set out pre-made dough that I rolled out to create the German pizza-like snack. I then spread sour cream on the dough, followed by diced red onion, diced ham, and shredded cheese. Lastly, chives were added to the top. The next step is baking it, but for demonstration purposes previously cooked flammkuchen was served to all. Mine was cooked a bit later and shared with the crew.
I posted the above photo to Instagram, tagging Viking as they requested. Viking then started to use the picture in Facebook ads. The ads ran for 3 months, equating to my 15 minutes of fame!
Taking a Rhine River cruise, and are wondering about which excursions to sign up for? Check out summaries and rankings of the Rhine River excursions offered during my Viking Cruise.
