One Day: Two Countries: The Black Forest in Germany and Colmar in France

 

Rotbach River at 3000 feet elevation in the Black Forest

Getting to Breisach

Around 7:00 PM as we were eating dinner, our ship departed Basel.  The next morning we were in Breisach Germany about forty miles north.  I am not sure what time we arrived but I know two things.  First, we passed through four locks along the way.  Second, while Basel and Breisach are on the Rhine, our ship did not sail on the Rhine.  Let's take the second thing first.  The Rhine River does flow north from Basel to Breisach but that stretch of the river looks more like its natural state with marshlands and meandering channel.  Between 1932 and 1959, the Grand Canal of Alsace was constructed between Basel and Breisach diverting most of the water from the Rhine into a year round and stable navigation channel.  In addition, four hydroelectric dams and one nuclear generating plant were constructed along the canal.  These four hydro stations require four locks to permit the passage of ships.  About 30,000 ships pass through annually.

The photo to the left shows this situation just south Kembs shortly after our ship entered the canal just north of Basel.  This was the first of four locks.  The hydro dam is marked as Centrale and the lock as ecluse.  The natural Rhine is shown on the right, complete with sand bars, rapids, marshes, and narrow bends.  It is completely unnavigable.  The dams back up the water ensuring a consistent supply of water to turn the hydrogenators and thus locks are needed to lower the north bound boats back down to level of the undammed river and vice versa for boats headed south.

And so, at 9:34 PM, I thought I would take in the nighttime scenery as we cruised north.  I opened the drapes, pulled back the sliding door and settled into the chair only to discover myself face to face with a lock wall as we slowly, ever so slowly, descended.  Not very romantic but certainly interesting.

The Black Forest

We woke the next morning to find ourselves in a foggy-shrouded landscape.  I should mention here that the weather was much warmer and drier than we and the Weather Bug forecasters had thought.  The weather turning warm over the cold river had generated the fog which fortunately dissipated by the time we boarded our buses and headed to the Black Forest on our first excursion.  We were consistently transported in extremely comfortable Viking branded tour buses with tray tables and reclining seats.  Our seats were much higher than typical for a bus affording us wonderful visibility.  Each also had a toilet.

We enjoyed a ninety-minute drive into the Black Forest with an informative narrative by our local guide.  We made our way on a two-lane road up a canyon created by a swift running river.  We would call it a creek because of its size but it doesn't take much to be classified as a river here.  Personally, I think it disrespects Father Rhine but then who am I?  Once we made it to the end of the canyon, we followed roads running along ridge lines and then down into valleys and out.  The views were expansive and shimmering.  I wish I could show you some but photography from a moving bus is rarely successful photography.  However, Marilyn was in the window seat and got some nice images.  Here is one.

We arrived at our destination:  Hofgut Sternen, Black Forest Village.  Of course, it was not really a Black Forest village.  We had passed through several of those.  This was what Marilyn would call, tourist trap, an upscale one to be sure, but still.  It was a constructed set of buildings to sell cuckoo clocks, glass crafts, knives, beer steins, jewelry, wood crafts and food.  We saw an informative presentation on the history and construction of clocks and another on the construction of a Black Forest cake which used the biggest bowl of whipped cream I have ever seen.  Frankly, the drive up and back were the best part of the excursion.  On the way back to the ship, we drove through Freiburg and saw glimpses of its famous university.  

Click here to view the Google Photos album of our visit to the Black Forest.

Colmar France

A wine shop next to the Cathedral in Colmar.  No doubt it specializes in Riesling and Gewürztraminer

After lunch on the ship, we left at 2:15 for a walking tour in what was billed as the "medieval Village of Colmar."  The cobblestone streets and the roughhewn timber framing show what life in an Alsace village would have been like in the Twelfth Century.  It was a Saturday afternoon and Colmar was filled with people enjoying the good weather and the charming streets and buildings.   We began at the Unterlinden Mueum which is housed in a former Dominican convent dating to the Thirteenth Century.  It was an important center of of Rhineland mysticism.  During the French Revolution in 1792, the Domicans left the monastery and it became the property of the City of Colmar.  In 1849 it became a municipal library and museum.  Today it houses a major collection of Alsatian art.  However, our mission was to experience the village and we only used the building as a beginning and ending point.

Our guide with his Viking lollipop

The photo to the left shows a typical street scene with buildings built right next to each along cobble stone streets.  Helpfully the municipality has adjusted to the number of tourists visiting by leaving cobblestones in the streets used by cars and providing nice smooth sidewalks for walking.  The curving street is also very typical.  Judging by the dates on the buildings, these date back 700 years.  They are in remarkably good shape due, no doubt, to constant maintenance.  There are shops and restaurants along the street level and residences on the floors above.  And I thought street level retail with apartments above was a contemporary idea.  Many of the contemporary shopping centers in the United States are being constructed in this way.

We also saw examples of the inventiveness of property owners to avoid taxes on their property.  Taxes were assessed on the total area of the ground floor.  So what to do?  Simple, start building the stories above out over the street.  Most examples of this were minor but over hundreds of years, the saving mount up.  Some owners got a little too aggressive as you can see in the photo.  Those timber supports are not temporary or recent.  

The church of St. Martin is an impressive structure, large enough to think it would be a cathedral, but no bishop ever presided here.  "In 1972, remains were archaeologically dug out of the first church, built in Carolingian style around the year 1000. Foundations of a second church built on that spot, in Romanesque style, were found as well. The present building had been constructed between 1234 and 1365....The current, conspicuous helmet crowning the bell tower had been added in 1572 in

Renaissance style after a fire." (Wikipedia)   This single building contains four of the major architectural styles.  You should take a look at the impressive structure in the Google Photos album.  I chose an unusual photo to show you here.  Colmar planned on development of St. Martin's plaza and in the initial stages extensive human skeletal remains were discovered.  There was a cemetery in front of the church which was used until 1533 when the Bishop of Basel desecrated it at the request of the parish. This excavation provides significant information about the life of the ordinary citizens of Colmar from the twelfth through the sixteen centuries. 

Ok, I couldn't just leave you wondering what it looks like without the excavation machine in its front yard.  It is a beautiful building.  Unlike all of the other churches we would see, this one was always a village church.  This says a lot about the importance of the church to the life of this village, not because there was a bishop around but because it was important to ordinary people.

Click here to view the Google Photo album of our time in Colmar.

After an hour and half of group touring, we had forty-five minutes to explore on our own.  We met our group back at the Musee and returned to our bus and then the ship.

After a full day in two countries, we got to our stateroom and enjoyed a view of the activities along the dockage and got a nice view of the St. Stephan's Cathedral in Breisach.