FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014 - BRIESACH, GERMANY - EXCURSIONS TO COLMAR, FRANCE & BLACK FOREST

We arrived at Briesach, Germany in the early morning.  We chose the shore excursion to Colmar, France for this morning adventure and departed from the ship at 8:30 a.m.  Colmar is probably best-known in the USA because it is the hometown of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the man who designed the Statue of Liberty.  The statue dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France.   The statue is of a robed female figure representing  Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tablet evoking the law upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad.  Our guide pointed out that the locals believe the face of the statue is a copy of the face of Bartholdi's mother.

We first saw the beautiful canals of Colmar.

And the well kept yards with lovely flowers.

A maze of cobble stoned streets is lined with centuries old half-timbered houses, many of them decorated with flowers.

And some rather narrow passageways.

The narrow passageways opened into squares with restaurants and shops.

Today, "Good Friday" is a national holiday in much of Europe and the traffic on the streets was very "light"; mostly only our tour group.

Here the restaurants provide seating near the canal.

 

 

Note the colorful houses

And another door (for Carol)

 

The colorful booths set up for holiday seasons.

A statue in a marketplace.

This shop has beautiful food!

Another door (for Carol).

And the interesting corner "add-on" of this porch.

The street cafes had light business for a morning.

Signs advertising the museum exhibit featuring Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and the story about the creation of the  United States Statue of Liberty.

The entrance door for the home of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. (also for Carol)

A statue in the courtyard of home.

This dog looks like if he wanted he could eat anything on the table that he wished!

 

St Martin's Church, Colmar

 

 

A lovely blooming tree.

Some businesses were open--here is the tobacco(Tabac) shop.  In information I remember about riding the Metro (subway) in Paris it was stated when needing subway tickets, if you didn't have the correct coins for the vending machines and the subway window was closed, tickets could always be purchased at the nearby Tabac store.

The church with the temporary market buildings and decorations for Easter in the trees.

Panels from the windows in the church.

As we were making our last stops before departing Colmar the crowd has now grown to quite a few people.

Driving back I snapped this picture of some locks on the canal.

 

We returned to the ship at approximately 11:30 a.m. in time for lunch before our afternoon excursion to the Black Forest With Cuckoo & Cake.

 

At 1:30 p.m. our excursion to the Black Forest With Cuckoo & Cake departed on motor coaches.

 

First we traveled through countryside like this.

 

 

We knew we had  arrived at the clock shop because of this life-size cuckoo clock.

 

Tom & Virginia Wheat pose in front of this clock.

 

We have now arrived at the showroom of the House of Black Forest Clocks located in Triberg, Germany.

Below, the choice of women's hats for sale in the shop.  Sylvia didn't want one.  I did not take any pictures of the clocks in the shop.  Not sure why--just didn't.  Enjoyed looking at all of them.

 

 

After looking at the clocks and making a few purchases in addition to finishing off a large delicious slice of Black Forest cake we departed for our return to the ship.  As the bus was loaded the owner & carver, Adolf Herr, boarded the bus and thanked us for making the visit.

Outside the mountain stream with road beside it.

 

 

On the return I snapped the following pictures.  A restaurant in the mountains.

A business in a village.

a hotel

And, the beautiful countryside.

 

We arrived back at the ship at about 5:45 p.m. with the farewell Champagne Reception scheduled for 6:45, followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m.  The ship sailed shortly after 5:45 p.m. for the overnight trip to Basel, Switzerland.