Wednesday 17 April
No internet last night, so this is being done early in the morning in Breisach. We started the day with our usual cuppa. Peter has decided it’s shorts weather again!
We went for breakfast and our usual order of fruit juice and hot drinks arrived at the table while we were choosing our fruit; the staff have such a good memory!
Alison asked the chef for mushrooms cooked without oil as she fancied them with tomatoes on toast, whilst Peter had eggs Benedict, Chris and Ruth opted for omelettes.
Back to our room which had already been serviced and the laundry collected.
We set off on the coach at 08:30 for our nostalgic trip to Strasbourg, which we had visited once before, but many years ago. The guide was, as usual, very knowledgeable, but as she had forgotten to collect her paddle we had to be observant to keep up with her; everyone managed!
The trip into the city was a circular coach trip passing the major European institutions and through the embassy district where all the trees and rooftops were adorned by Storks nests – great for the tourists, but rather annoying for the residents!
We were dropped off in the Petit France area and then did a guided walk towards the cathedral area, where we would be met back for the walk to the coach, which had to park outside the city centre.
We even managed a guided tour around the cathedral and a detailed description of the workings of the astrological clock, which duly performed its Quarter- hour routine for us.
After our guided tour we visited a cafe for coffee and tea and a little souvenir shopping before heading back to the cathedral square and another guided walk back to the coach.
Back at the ship, we headed straight for the lounge so that we could have a quick buffet lunch before Chris and Peter had to catch the coach to the Mercedes factory tour. Ruth and Alison decided to “chill out” in the sunshine on the top deck for the afternoon; no shorts or bikinis, but at least sleeveless tops! Later on there was a demonstration of Flamenkuch or tarte flambé, german/french pizza.
The trip to Randstat took about 50 minutes with views of the Black Forest and Vosges mountains, and the tour started in the customer reception centre, where those fortunate to have arranged it can pick up their new Mercedes cars and drive them away from the factory.
We looked around the showroom and shop and then had a bit more time so we went upstairs to see the F1 car and some vintage Mercedes vehicles, including a replica of the first ever Daimler vehicle made.
The trip around the assembly line was a fantastic experience. We had to leave all cameras and phones in the coach as we were conducted around by a former apprentice worker, who seemed to know everything we were allowed to know about the workings of the assembly line. There were a surprising number of human workers and only a few robots, which performed all the heavy or technically precise operations. Each operation on the line had to be completed within 90 seconds or it was stopped to rectify an issue. There was a lot of manual inspection to ensure standards were maintained.
Peter and Chris returned from their trip full of enthusiasm and we reserved our table in the lounge as we thought we needed a relatively short time in the buffet in order to meet our scheduled visit to the bridge after dinner. While our programme director went through all tomorrows programme and the disembarkation details, we enjoyed our complimentary bottle of sparkling wine as a thank you for buying some vouchers for our next trip!
As it turned out, we had to wait for 30 minutes to enter the lock, so our bridge visit was a little delayed. It seemed as if half the ship was on the sun deck (or rather the full moon deck by this time) to watch the captain skilfully manoeuvre the ship into the lock from the wing bridge controls. During the process, he had to lower the bridge to enter the lock.
The bridge visit itself was a really interesting experience. The First Officer went through all the operational procedures and controls and explained all of the instruments to us. During our visit, he had to lower the “wheelhouse” so we could pass under a road bridge. This meant we were trapped inside until we had cleared the bridge and were raised up again.
Like all Viking staff, he was keen to ensure that we had a great experience.