Down the Rhine day 2

 Today was to be rainy but we managed to avoid the rain when it mattered. The area is desperate for rain so in the end it is better for us to get wet than for the area not to have rain.

Today we stopped in Breisach Germany. We took a bus ride to Riquewihr France. We are in the Alsace region of France. The Alsace region has been annexed back and forth by France or Germany five times. So many of the towns have more German sounding names. The last time the area was annexed by Germany was during WW2. Our guided noted her grandfather had to change his name during the war from Charles(too French sounding) to Karl(very Germanic) The other interesting bit of information about the area is it is a major wine area. Most of the wines are whites Rieslings, Pinot Gris and some others…

Our stop today was Riquewihr which is special as it had no damage during WW1 or WW2. The town is largely unchanged since the 18th century. It was so quaint it was the model for the cartoon movie Beauty and the Beast.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/8/8b/Beauty_and_the_Beast_Village.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20180326165413

Check out the link for picture from Beauty and the Beast.

The town was actually founded almost 1000 years ago. The main city wall still stands with the gate tower that was built in 1291!

The town is quite quaint and very touristy. Lots of bakeries and winery tasting rooms. Still it is hard to imagine that most all of the buildings were 500 years old or older. It is interesting as the town (as the area) was either German or French and as such there are both old Catholic and Protestant churches. 

An interesting note is that the reformers were very much against decoration in church. While the Catholic Church in town was not terribly ornate it still had much more decorations then to Protestant church.

Another interesting hang over in town was the habit of hanging your business name above the door. So this was the corkscrew  restaurant. This was a custom in times when most were not literate and so to identify your business you hung a sign that was easy to interpret.

On the way to and from Riquewihr we passed through Colmar. This is the birth place of Augusta Bartholdi… recognize the name…I didn’t.. He is the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. There is a 1/4 scale replica of the statue mounted in a roundabout in the town.

Back on the boat we continued down the Rhine which is actually moving north… This seems strange as in the states most large rivers flow south. We have passed through eight locks along the way since leaving Basel. The boat has 11 inches of clearance in the locks on both sides of the boat. Not much.

Tonight we are docked in Strasbourg France. Today was relaxing and not rushed. We have met several people on board from England, Canada and the states. So another day has come and gone and while floating down the river it is pretty easy to avoid being Not Quite Lost.