We arrived quite early in Strasbourg and I took a short early morning walk but we were on a rather isolated canal with nothing much around but a couple of cargo ships loading containers on the other side of the canal.
My 9:30 tour was a combination of canal boat ride and walk in the city. On the ride into town the guide spoke about how Strasbourg had changed between French and German territory over the years. When we disembarked the bus we had about a half mile walk through the streets of Strasbourg to the boat landing.
The core of Strasbourg is an island and we had about a 45 minute boat ride circling the island.
We had a half hour of free time after the boat trip. Our designated meeting point was the post office but it was on the same plaza as the Cathedral. There were LONG lines of people waiting to enter the cathedral.
All aboard was 12:30 and we were the first bus back at 12:40 with the other 2 buses right behind us. On Crystal Ocean the tradition is that at sailaway “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong is played over the public address system and I often use “Louis sang at ###” as shortcut for our departure time. Louis sings on the river ships as well but it appears to only be played in Palm Court and the tune is “Moon River”. Louis sang promptly at 1PM. While we were touring there were changes on the Bach. The Deck 4 bar and all the awnings on deck 4 had been lowered although the deck was still open and there were chairs available.
We came to the first lock about 2. Instead of the usual swinging gates as on the original Panama Canal there was a Guillotine gate; we entered through a pretty tight passage under the gate which dropped down behind us. On this first lock the upstream gate dropped into the water to give us an exit.
One of the officers was out on what would be the bridge wings on an ocean ship guiding us through the lock. Locks we passed later also seemed to use Guillotine gates with standard swinging gates upstream.
There was a tour of the galley at 4. We were greeted by the Executive Chef who spoke first about the operation and having one of the larger galleys on the river. His staff is much smaller than he would have on the ocean ships; his department has 10, and not all work at the same time. We got a peek at the baking, hot foods, and cold foods areas all small but quite well organized. Nearly all the food is prepared from scratch on the ship.
Near the back of the galley we got a glimpse of the crew dining room. Simple but pleasant.
I did not see an actual sunset but late afternoon as the sun was getting low there was a bit of color in the sky.
The farewell party was held at 6:30 in Palm Court. For my final dinner on the Bach I had a veal dish, simple salad, and of course ice cream.
Much of the evening was spent packing and I was almost done by about 10 although bags do not need to go our until morning. I think everything I won’t need in Zurich is in the big bag and I should be able to leave it in left luggage in Zurich rather than carting it to my hotel and back.
As a parting shot, most everyone in North America gets an extra hour overnight. The saying always used to be “Change your clocks, change your smoke detector batteries”. Most smoke detectors now have permanent batteries so people with the old style should consider changing their detectors or at the very least their batteries.
Roy
Travelling locally and the world 