Sightseeing Strasbourg, Heidelberg With a Side Trip to a Mercedes Benz Factory

We traveled throughout the night, passing through a couple more locks and negotiating some hairpin turns that always got our attention, before docking in Strasbourg around 0430 the next morning.

A stork in Strasbourg

We breakfasted with Dayne and Pam and Leo and Agnes. We all boarded a bus for a city tour of Strasbourg which is the capital and principle city of the Alsace region in eastern France. This region has an interesting history bouncing back and forth between German and French ownership many times over several hundred years which leaves it with a blend of German and French influences in it architecture, food and wine, art, and language.

Court of Human Rights

Strasbourg serves as the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Parliament of the European Union, and the International Institute of Human Rights.

Institute of Human Rights

Over 20 institutions that oversee European governmental functions are based in Strasbourg. We learned that there is a constant struggle between enforcing liberal ideologies by these institutions and being able to produce the needed funds to carry out these objectives.

We were delivered to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg which was constructed from 1176-1439.

The canals of Strasbourg

At 466 feet high, it was the world’s tallest building until 1874. The cathedral began in the Romanesque style but was changed to a gothic style when a team from Chartes Cathedral arrived to advise on the construction methods.

In the lock

This led to the west front, decorated with thousands of gothic figures, representing a masterpiece of the Gothic era. Inside the cathedral we saw the beautiful nave and sanctuary.

Nortre Dame Cathedral

We were quite impressed by the cathedral’s astronomical clock, one of the largest in the world, located in the cathedral’s south transept.

Flying buttresses of the cathedral

The clock is unusually accurate and indicates leap years, equinoxes, and astronomical data and is more of a complex calculating machine than a clock.

After our city tour, we returned to the ship for lunch.

One of the towers

We had signed up for an optional tour of a Mercedes Benz factory in Rastatt, Germany in the afternoon.

The other tower

We boarded our bus and rode for 1.5 hours to the factory in Rastatt where we viewed the exhibits in the visitor’s center and a short 10 minute video about Mercedes Benz and the facility, before going out on the production floor.

The astronomical clock

We watched the final production of some of the smaller models, one of which, the CLA model, was going to be introduced at the U.S. production facility later in the year.

The sanctuary

The organization and logistics involved producing these cars was amazing.

Mercedes Benz in Rastatt

We returned to the ship and had a great dinner with Pam and Dayne and Leo and Agnes.

A Mercedes go-fast car

After dinner we headed up to the lounge for our nighttime entertainment, a cabaret-style performance by three singers/dancers who performed some excellent singing and dancing routines that exceeded our expectations.

Arriving in Worms

We arose the next morning and were getting ready to go to breakfast just as the ship was pulling into the city of Worms, Germany.

At Heidelberg Castle

Worms is one of the oldest cities in Germany and well known as a wine trading center and its famous Liebfraumilch wine is renowned worldwide.

The gate to the castle

We finished breakfast then boarded a bus that took us to Heidelberg which is host to Germany’s oldest university and Germany’s answer to Oxford, a very renowned university, much like Trinity College in Ireland.

Main house at the castle

Heidelberg is one of Germany’s oldest cities. Scientific dating of the “Heidelberg Man” discovered in nearby Mauer in 1907, between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago is the earliest evidence of human inhabitation in Europe.

The big wine vat

The Romans maintained a fort on the banks of the Neckar River as early as 40 A.D.

We rode up to Heidelberg Castle which overlooks the city from high atop a hillside.

The castle ruins

The castle was ultimately destroyed after repeated attacks by the French in the Thirty Years War in the late 17th century, and the ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.

View of cathedral from castle

We began our tour of the castle which was abandoned over 300 years ago and which has been only partially restored to its former glory.

Castle lookout tower

The ruins house a wine vat, one of the largest ever made that was shaped from 130 oak trees and held 50,000 gallons of wine!

Heidelberg gate

From the castle we could view the beautiful bridges that cross the Neckar River to the city. Below the castle the city was rebuilt with cobblestone streets that are lined with baroque buildings that remain in the old town or Altstadt.

After finishing our tour of the castle, we descended down into the city. Accompanied by Dayne and Pam, we went to the main bridge to view the famous “Heidelberg Monkey” statue adjacent to the bridge.

Dayne and the monkey's butt

As visitors would cross the bridge to arrive in Heidelberg, the monkey statue would greet the visitors with a view of his behind.

Statue in Heidelberg square

We finished a photo session on the bridge and then went into the old town where Jane and Pam did some shopping for German linens, while Capt. Larry and Dayne milled about the cathedral.

City square in Heidelberg

After the shopping was finally over, we decided to split up so we could pursue individual interests.

Another city square

Capt. Larry and Jane started to make their way back toward the bus pickup area.

At the brauhaus

We were also looking for a brahaus that featured a locally brewed beer that is touted as being the “World’s Strongest Beer.” Originally brewed at 33% alcohol, the current version has been cut down to 11-12%. We stopped to sample the brew and had a 500 ml. stein in the hotel’s beer hall which was quite commodious.

Artwork in the brauhaus

We enjoyed the painted murals on the ceiling and some of the very old woodwork. When Capt. Larry decided to use the men’s room, it became immediately obvious that this was a very popular beer hall by the unbelievable number of urinals in the facility.

No waiting here...

This men’s room had a total of 9 urinals to handle the demand (no lines here!).

Docking at Rüdesheim

We were picked up by the bus and taken back to the ship. While we were in Heidelberg, the ship was repositioned to Rüdesheim, Germany, an apparent popular stopping point for all of the river cruise lines, given the number of ships that were docked for the night here. Rüdesheim was the terminus of an old merchant road that originated in Lörgen and avoided a number of waterfalls that were difficult to negotiate.

Relaxing on the observation deck

We had an international dinner that night that featured a very delicious wiener schnitzel. We had a few drinks with friends before making our way back to our room.

Sunset at Rüdesheim