Two Countries, One Day...

The nice thing about a river cruise (and more specifically along the Rhine River), you are hugging two countries at once.  After leaving port in Basal, we sailed up the river to our first port location.  Once docked there, we took a couple of excursion - one to France and one to Germany.

Day 2 (port location - Breisach, Germany)

Colmar, France

Colmar, France is a quaint little village.  It is known to attract storks that hang out in the village and on the building tops.  It is said that if you place hearts on your building and/or shutters, it brings good luck and the love and shortly there after the stork brings you the babies.  A lot of the buildings had hearts adorning their homes.  

This house really wanted a baby....

Some pictures of our time in Colmar...

This town was so picturesque.  We could have walked around all day looking at the architecture and strolling into all the little shops.

Colmar is also the birthtown of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - the architect and creator of the Statue of Liberty.  We visited his courtyard - where he once called home. 

Freiburg, Germany

In the afternoon, Nana and Papa chose to stay aboard the ship and relax a bit.  The four of us took to the streets of Freiburg, Germany.  It, too, was a sweet little village, with a medieval church at the heart of the city.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  

The streets had these canals/channels that went through the city center.  It is used as a way to distribute water from the river throughout the city.  In front of some cafes and coffee shops, people sit and put their feet in the canals/channels as a way to cool off.

We also walked the streets and took in the beautiful cobblestone streets.  In front of each store, there is a mosaic representing the store.  For example, in front of the eye doctor, there was a mosaic of glasses.  

Outside the pharmacy...

Outside the bookstore....

There is a stone crocodile near the center of town.  In town's tradition, if you throw a penny over your shoulder and it lands on the crocodile, a wish of your choice will come true.  Sullivan gave it a whirl and came SO close. 

We had a chance to go inside the church at the heart of Freiburg - it was very pretty inside.

Some more stunning pics from the streets of Freiburg...

After a great time in Freiburg, we boarded the ship and headed north again.  

Day 3 - (port location:  Kehl, Germany)

Strasbourg, France 

Day 3 brought us to Strasbourg, France (not to be confused with Strasburg, Germany!).  Strasbourg was another town with a quaint city center.  We had a great guide who took us all around the streets to show us its beauty...

In what appears to be a tradition or similarity between cities, Strasbourg had a beautiful church at the heart of the town.  We were lucky enough to be able to go inside and see its beauty.

We were able to capture some family pics in Strasbourg too..

We headed back to the ship for lunch, but the ladies returned to Strasbourg in the afternoon to do a bit of shopping.  More importantly, we were on the hunt for macarons for the girls.  Because when one is in France, and you love yourself a macaron, you find an authentic patisserie to fill that need.

And in case you needed to see the macarons up close... SO. INCREDIBLY. DELICIOUS!!!

The Maginot Line, France

While us ladies were procuring some macarons in Strasbourg, the men headed to a part of France that housed The Maginot Line.  The Maginot Line was a series of bunkers built underground on the France-Germany border.  It was intended to stop the Germans from invading France during WWII in the1930s.

They filled their minds with lots of WWII knowledge and had a great time spending the afternoon together.  

In the next post, we continue to head north to see some castles and beautiful sights along the Rhine RIver.  Stay tuned!