14 Oct

Day 3 – Hiking and Eating in the Black Forest!

 

I’m happy to report that the bed was incredibly comfortable and we slept like babies!  Until 3:30 am. Then we were wide awake.  Whoops!

We arrived in Breisach at 4:30 in the morning and would be there until 2:00.

Unlike traditional ocean cruising, river include at least one excursion a day, and with nicer lines like AmaWaterways, there are a few to choose from.  Here’s our Daily Cruiser so you can see our choices.  Every day there was an active selection, a moderate selection and a guided tour which offered different choices for difficulty levels.  If the bikes weren’t in use, there were also bikes you could take out.

We picked the Black Forest Hike today. We went to breakfast at 8 to fuel up! Breakfast was a lovely selection of premade items, with a menu of additional hot items that could be ordered. Breakfast runs for two hours every morning and you go whenever you would like in those two hours. Here’s a phone picture of the bread table.

Matt, Debbie, Stephen and I said goodbye to all the parents doing tours, and boarded our bus for the Black Forest. We’re here!

At some point we realized we had no Euros to tip the driver or tour guide, so we were on a mission to find an ATM. Our guide also told us that we may want some cash on the hike because there was a 96 year old lady at the top who sold Black Forest Cake out of her house!

Throw me in that briar patch!

Success! There was an ATM right by one of these little buildings.

I am a sucker for these signs.

And then we were off!

The hike was beautiful and next to a river pretty much the entire way.

Matt and Debbie!

Here we are!

We made it! Black Forest Cake IN the Black Forest! Had to be done.

And there’s the house where it was made.

I realized if we left earlier than most of the group, we may be able to grab SD-14 out of the backpack and take a quick picture without anyone seeing us. Still trying not to embarrass anyone! We did it!

Kind of looks like the Forest Moon of Endor don’t you think?

Going down was much quicker than going up! When we got to the bottom, Matt and I were taking pictures of this bridge and I said, “I wouldn’t be sad if a train rolled by right now.” And what do you know? A train rolled by right now!!!

After we went under the bridge, I realized the other side had better lighting and tried to conjure up a train again, but no luck this time. Oh well!

We boarded the bus and drove back to our ship for lunch! There she is! 

We went to the dining room for lunch and the parents all got there shortly thereafter. Lunch every day was either in the main restaurant for a similar set up to breakfast with both a buffet and a menu to order from, or in the lounge with a small buffet set up. Lunch and dinner changed times every day based on our port times! That was interesting!

I had Bolognese! Which I have realized in a lot of places in Europe they add carrots too. That is so wrong. Who on earth through carrots should go in spaghetti?

Luckily they were big enough to pick out! This time our room was on the dock side, so there was light! And I took pictures!

Isn’t it so pretty? We had a welcome gift on our bed.

Our TV was a giant iMac which worked for internet, TV, movies, etc. It was great! After showering, we walked around a little and went to find a good place to watch us go through one of the locks.

Here we go!

At some point I glanced back inside and saw how close we were to the wall on one side.

I couldn’t believe it! I realized our room was on that side, so I ran to our room to take pictures there too!

I could touch the wall! Crazy!

We went through several locks that afternoon. We took a nap at some point and our room would go from dark to light to dark to light.

Every afternoon there was also a Tea Time in the lounge with some snacks to help tide the snackers like myself, over until dinner.

Today was chocolate cake! I took a piece back to our room and it was delicious!

Tonight we were eating dinner at the Chef’s Table tonight which we were excited about! Well we were excited. Until they left us a menu on our bed and I was scared. This was not food that I would normally eat, and I knew it wasn’t what my Dad, or Matt’s dad did either! But everyone wanted to do it anyway, so we agreed to be adventurous.

My dad did say his first thought when he read the menu was – what has my daughter done to me? Ha!

The Chef’s Table is not in the main restaurant, it’s located aft on the Violin Deck with beautiful views.

We could watch the Chef prepare the meal as we eat. That also meant that he could see us, so we had to put our game faces on and eat!

The Chef’s Table is a five course meal, and it’s not an upcharge!

So many courses.

So much moving food around so it looked like I ate it!

There was one little boy onboard the entire ship, and his family was in the room that night too. Well at one point the waitress brought in a covered dish to his table and he had a hamburger!!! A hamburger! Thirty minutes later she was back – and he had ANOTHER hamburger!! I think he was tormenting us intentionally.

We did find plenty to eat, and the more adventurous (normal?) eaters among us loved everything! Here we are!

Steak!

Dessert!

Then it was bedtime! We were due to arrive in Strasbourg at midnight. We watched a movie in our room until we fell asleep! Bike riding tomorrow!

 

7 Night Rhine River Cruise – Cruising Down the River – August 11-19, 2019
Day 1 – LAX to Amsterdam to Basel
Day 2 – Embarkation Day! 
Day 3 – Hiking and Eating in the Black Forest 
Day 4 – Bikes in Strasbourg
Day 5 – Heidelberg and Daytime Sailing! 
Day 6 – Rudesheim and Lahnstein with 30 Castles in Between! 
Day 7 – Cologne 
Day 8 – Amsterdam Tour 
Day 9 – Disembarkation Day with a Disney Magic Cameo!