Basel to Strasbourg

After our stay with Waddell and Reed in Berlin, we flew to Basel Switzerland to start an eight day cruise on the Rhine River, from Basel to Amsterdam.

Our first stop was the city of Breisach Germany. This was our gateway to the Black Forest. We took a tour into the beautiful hills of the Black Forest. During the long winter months the local farmers would fill their time making clocks. At first they were simple devices with one hand and a rock was used to wiegh the mechanism. Over the years they grew more ornate and eventually someone figured out to put a little birdie inside that would cuckoo on the hour. After our tour of the Black Forest we went across the river to visit the mid-evil village of Colmar where we saw many examples of architecture from various time periods going back 500 years.


They say this is the world's largest Cuckoo Clock.





Statue in the Frieburg Cathedral.  John the Baptism Standing in the River Jordan being sprinkled by Jesus.  (Baptism?)

 



An interesting little story about this building from the fiftenth Century. Church leaders told the people that they could not pray in their homes, only in the church. (read make prayer offerings) The reason given was that the floors of the homes and rooms and roof overhead in their homes would block their prayers. So their solution was to build this "Prayer Nave". There was nothing above or below to block their prayers.

So many of the mid-evil towns were heavely damaged in World War II.  Here we can see the parts that were reconstructed by the different color stones.  The yellow stones are the more recent construction.

The French like their stuffed bread loaves.

This is not New York.  This is still Colmar Franch the home of Bartholi the creator of the Statue of Liberty that was a gift from the French to the United States.

This is Bartholi's House in Colmar with one of his many Statues.