#ravenna gorge
Monday October 28, 2024: Breisach, Germany
We had an early excursion this morning as we left from Breisach, Germany for a 1.5 hour bus ride through the scenic Black Forest in Germany to the Ravenna Gorge, The small town of Breisach where we were docked for the day really didn’t have a lot going on, so instead we decided to do the included excursion which involved the long bus ride. The entire excursion was to last 4 hours with a 1 hour bus ride to return to the ship. Do the math: bus ride 2.5 hours, visit 1.5 hours….not too thrilled about the bus rides!
Richard and I left the Hiln about 15 minutes before our 8:30am departure and when we arrived at the bus there were only 4 seats left on our bus. We ended up having to sit at the very back of the bus with seats that didn’t recline and little to no leg room.
Richard was not feeling well as he still has a lingering cold and little did he know that the bus ride would be through the winding, hilly roads of the Black Forest, which would be terrible for his plugged ears!
Typical Black Forest houses in Germany where the farm animals live on the bottom floor of the home in the very cold winter.
Perched home in the Black Forest, Germany
The homes we could see from the bus were very pretty with many window boxes along the railings full of flowers
Terraced vineyards going up the side of the hills in the Black Forest in Germany
Rolling hills and verdant green landscapes in the Black Forest, Germany
The scenery as we made our way to the Ravenna Gorge touristy area was very pretty but for us who have travelled through the Rocky Mountains in our Newmar Dutchstar Motorhome three times, the Black Forest was not as elevated or as mountainous. Frankly we were getting pretty tired of the ride when the switchbacks started as we took the narrow corners down into the Ravenna Gorge.
It was a bit disorganized when we got off the buses in this quaint little area of the Ravenna Gorge. Our bus guide had told us where the washrooms were located and of course after 1.5 hours on the bus first thing in the morning, everyone headed to the washrooms. There was a chalk board sign that said what people could do in their free time while we were in this small tourist trap which was either: hike up to a waterfalls, watch a cuckoo clock making demonstration or watch a glass blower. We arrived at 10am and the first activities were to start at 10:10am. I couldn’t find Richard only to find that he was still in the washroom, but I knew he was not in any shape to hike up to a waterfalls.
Cuckoo clock demonstration
After finally finding Richard I went to watch the cuckoo clock making demonstration but the crowds around the demonstration were too big to be able to see anything. The cuckoo clocks displayed on the walls of the shop that were for sale started around 450 euros! The guy doing the demonstration said that for only 69 euros the shop would ship the cuckoo clock anywhere in the world so no one had to worry about bringing the cuckoo clock back in their luggage.
Blown glass birds
I thought these blown glass birds were kind of funky but they were very expensive too!
We wandered over to another building which was full of blown glass to watch a blown glass artist demonstrating his skills making small blown glass birds. I did find a unique, small glass vase that I liked for 28 euros which also has a stand to hold the flower bud so it doesn’t fall over.
After visiting these two buildings there really wasn’t much else to do in this tourist trap area which we had been brought to in the Ravenna Gorge. I left Richard on a bench while I wandered back to the Ravenna Bridge to see what was back there.
I discovered that the Christmas market for the area must be set up under the Ravenna Bridge as the wooden huts were all boarded up and sitting vacant. These huts will soon be operational as the Christmas markets will get going next month and will last until January.
Black Forest cake demonstration The entire bowl of unsweetened whipped cream was used to make the 3 layer Black Forest cake. Apparently there is 570 calories in one slice of cake when the cake that was being made was divided into 12 slices.
Small slice of cake compared to what was being demonstrated. I ate the bottom layer minus the whipped cream.
We headed inside the building with the cuckoo clocks for a brief Black Forest cake demonstration in the basement, cafeteria area of the building. Richard purchased a slice of Black Forest cake to try which was ok. Not great. The Black Forest cake we are used to has more cherries and the whipped cream is sweeter. This Black Forest cake only had a layer of sour cherries on top of the bottom layer of the chocolate sponge cake, and the whipped cream was unsweetened. Maybe we don’t know authentic Black Forest cake, but we know what we like instead!
It was soon time to get on the bus and head back to the ship for lunch which was docked in Breisach, Germany. Luckily we would be going a more direct route on the highway back to the ship so that our drive would only be 1 hour and we would avoid the winding roads of the Black Forest.
As we rode back to Breisach we both felt like we had been ‘hoodwinked’ into a Viking tourist trap town for our included excursion this morning. It felt fake. It wasn’t authentic, but instead we were held captive in a touristy place to spend our money. There was no where to go other than to the 2 buildings demonstrating cuckoo clock assembly or glass blowing. Because there were only 2 buildings, there was also no way to ‘lose’ any of us to other attractions. In Richard’s capacity as a Trip Director he says he has seen many of these types of venues where the venue would even give Viking a kickback for the buses etc for bringing tourists to their venues.
Oh well, lesson learned. Steve and Stacy didn’t go on the excursion and instead chose to walk around Breisach. We didn’t think there was enough to do in Breisach so the included excursion was our only option unless we had chosen to pay to do an optional afternoon visit to Colmar, which we didn’t want to do.
Breisach, Germany main square
After lunch we headed into the town of Breisach for a walk around the small town with Vange and Rob, our Aussie friends. Breisach was 85% destroyed during WW2 as Allied troops crossed the Rhine River at Breisach so we knew most of the architecture in the town would be more modern that historical.
I needed to get some antacids from the pharmacy in town and we were faced with the language issue between English and German, but luckily Vange thought to google acid reflux on her phone to translate it to German for the person working behind the counter in the pharmacy. I got a gel packet of some antacid to suck back which seemed to do the trick pretty quickly so google translate definitely helped us in this case!
Built in the 12-15th centuries, St. Stephen’s cathedral in Breisach, Germany
Walking up the cobblestone streets of Breisach, Germany
A German beer was the reward for the hike up to the cafe with the surly German waiter. Either this town doesn’t like tourists, they are fed up with tourists, or? Anyway, we really didn’t feel welcome in this cafe which had clean washrooms!
Rob and Vange from Perth Australia
We had seen a cathedral on a hill in Breisach so we decided to hike up the hill to see what was up the hill. Half way up the hill we decided instead we needed a washroom and quickly found a cafe to have a beer, coffee and bitter lemon in, and use their washroom.
Train Station Breisach, Germany
Commuter bikes stacked up at Breisach, Germany train station
We split up after we got back to town and Richard and I walked around Breisach some more looking for a grocery store where we could buy some coconut milk yogurt. We stumbled upon the grocery store directly across from the train station in Breisach. The commuters in Breisach seem to have an interesting commute to work. There were tons of bicycles in the train parking lot of Breisach so I presume that everyone bikes to the train, parks their bikes for free and then hops on the commuter train to get to work. We even saw a small outdoor pub opposite the train station so in the summer months train colleagues could stop for a drink once they got back to Breisach after work.
Once the guests who had gone to Colmar arrived back at the ship, we started sailing for our next destination where we would arrive overnight.
An AI image of a bus in the Black Forest of Germany
We both do not like to be trapped on a bus, or trapped in a made for tourists only town such as we were today. We will make sure we ask more questions or determine whether we get off in small towns going forward on this Viking River Cruise for included excursions or do our own thing, which we would much rather do if it is possible.
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