Paris to Swiss Alps: Kehl (4/2/2017)

Sunday, April 2, 2017 (continued)
After the Strasbourg tour, we returned to the Viking Hild for lunch for the Spinach Velouté/cream soup with crème fraîche, and Tuna Melt on Toasted Brioche with tempura pickles (interesting pickles!), followed by dessert.

Viking saves a lot of beer with these heads!

Caesar salad, Tuna Melt, grape tomato salad, and tempura pickles (KSS)

Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Baked apple with caramel sauce (KSS)

The afternoon was time for optional excursions or going back to Strasbourg (where if you took the shuttle buses you had less than an hour in the city, unless you had stayed on after the walking tour).
We had already explored Kehl in 2014, but decided to go farther afield in this small town.

The Heuwenderin/Haymaker (tosser)
looks out of place with the daffodils

Kids at play in the Marktplatz/Market Square
in front of Friedenskirche/Peace Church
(1847-1851, designed by Friedrich Theodor Fischer)

Hmm, wearing rollerblades on a spinning thingy...

Mutter Kinzig/Mother Kinzig River (1861,
by Franz Xaver Reich) was originally located on a
railway bridge which was destroyed in the Franco-
Prussian War and Mother Kinzig sank in the Rhine,
later to be recovered to be part of this 1905
memorial to the fallen in the Franco-Prussian War

For some reason, Mother Kinzig's foot
is flesh-colored (KSS)

A landmark in town is the "High School", which is actually the
Universität der öffentlichen Verwaltung/University of Public Administration
(founded 1971, buildings 2016)

We have caught up with Spring in Europe

Kriegsgräberstätten/War Cemetery with
graves of the fallen of World War II (KSS)

The cemetery is surrounded by a moat

"Here rest German soldiers"

What looks like tomb markers list the names
of all those buried here

The actual graves share this type of marker

Open rotunda of the War Memorial

World War II Memorial (KSS)

The rotunda behind granite crosses with trimmed cypresses 

The trees were crowded with noisy crows

Local garden

Friedhof Kehl/Kehl Cemetery

Goldenen Hahn/Golden Rooster

The Hanauer Museum was closed today;
it is housed in the former town school

Christuskirche/Christ Church (1822-1824)
was behind scaffolding; it is a Protestant church

T-Mobile Hotspot, apparently T-Mobile was originally
a German radiotelephone communications system
of the German Postal Service (1989); it later
bought the VoiceStream Wireless Corporation
in the USA in 2001, renaming it T-Mobile USA

We stopped for some refreshment.

Ulmer Pilsener Bier from Ulm, Germany

Cola-Mix, a version of Spezi that
is a mix of Cola and Orange Fanta;
I didn't taste any orange flavor

We saw a crowd gathered overlooking the railing of a bridge, and feared someone may have jumped (only about 15' down)!

It was just a wildlife sighting: they look like Red-eared Sliders

View of Altrhein, the ox-bow lake and the
Weisstannenturm/White Fir Tower (2003)

Bundled daffodils

Trying to get the whole Passerelle des Deux Rives/
Footbridge of the Two Banks (2004) in one picture

The Passerelle connects Kehl, Germany and Strasbourg, France, and is a symbol of peace and cross-border cooperation. We were told that the French come to Germany to shop, as it is much cheaper in Germany.
We were also told several versions of the joke about the ideal Europe or Heaven, where the police are British, the chefs are Italian (or French), the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian (or French), and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is when the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and they are organized by the Italians.

View of the Viking Hild on the Rhine River at Kehl

The cables of the cable-stayed footbridge

The invasive mistletoe crowds in the tree branches

Old and new kilometer markers

A gateway in the dike

A dad stops his youngster from stowing away on our ship

Back on the Viking Hild.

Another specialty cookie: Stroopwafel from The Netherlands

Cast off at 17:00, following the Rhine River and passing through seven locks before reaching Basel.
We chose to have dinner in the Aquavit Terrace, and the menu was the same as yesterday's. So not only is the menu limited, it is the same every day? But I was looking forward to the mushroom ravioli, only to find out that it was yesterday's menu. Today's menu had poached shrimp with sautéed vegetables. We debated going to the dining room, but were afraid there were no more seats, and we felt bad leaving the chef in the Aquavit (he cooks the meal at the counter there). The meal was better than anticipated!

Next: Basel I.