Breisach, Germany & the Black Forest: Day 2 of the Viking Rhine Getaway Cruise

A Lock, a Long Breakfast, and the Upper Deck

In the morning through the Viking Daily, we learned that we had not escaped the lock delay – we first encountered on Basel, Switzerland: Day 1 of the Viking Rhine Getaway Cruise. Our Breisach Black Forest river cruise excursion, the highlight of Day 2, was postponed to early afternoon. The bad news: we had all morning. The good news: we had all morning for one long breakfast(!), multiple breakfasts(!), and time for pre and post breakfast walk on the upper deck. We took the long breakfast option along with a post-breakfast walk on the upper deck.

Breisach: Three Countries from One Hill

A small hilltop town on the Rhine plain, directly on the French border. A short walk up the hill to the Münster of St. Stephan offers views across three countries – France, Germany, and Switzerland. Where else could one get such a geographic curiosity! A visit would have been worthwhile. Next time, perhaps! The Rhine has a way of leaving things open, as an invitation to return.

The Black Forest: Into the Schwarzwald

The Black Forest, Schwarzwald in German, covers approximately 6,000 square kilometres of southwest Germany. It rises from the Rhine plain to a high point of 1,493 metres at the Feldberg. It is the largest forested mountain range in Germany and one of the most visited natural landscapes in Europe. For Rhine cruise passengers docking in Breisach, it is the natural and logical shore excursion. It is close enough for a half-day visit, and distinctive enough to justify the trip.

With the firs growing so densely, and so tall, that the canopy blocks the light at midday and the forest floor exists in a permanent, green twilight. Fairy tales were written in places like this. The Brothers Grimm collected their stories from villages in and around the Schwarzwald. I had read some of the stories many, many moons ago, and could only remember the dense canopy. Standing under the canopy you understand immediately why the wolf was always just around the next bend. Sent shivers down my spine!

Shortly after, our coaches wound upward into the hills above Breisach. The farmhouses appeared one by one along the road. Steeply pitched roofs. Deeply rooted in the landscape. Placed there, it seemed, by someone with strong aesthetic convictions, and left entirely alone ever since.

Hofgut Sternen

The destination was Hofgut Sternen, a purpose-built Black Forest village in the hills above Breitnau. The buildings are traditional in construction and material. Its craftsmen still working in the old ways, their techniques unchanged across three centuries. Craftsmen assemble each clock entirely by hand. It can take several hundred hours to complete. It is entirely mechanical, no batteries and no electronics, driven by the tension of hanging weights and regulated by the swing of a pendulum. Three centuries of patient tradition have done the rest. The result approaches art.

Inside, there was a cuckoo clock the size of a small shed. There was a demonstration of how these clocks are made, which was genuinely fascinating. And the shop contained more cuckoo clocks, some of which played folk tunes when you walked past.

On the floor below the cuckoo clocks sat a restaurant where a Black Forest cake demonstration was underway: layers of chocolate sponge, whipped cream, and Kirsch cherries assembled with the same unhurried precision as the clocks above.It

Drive back from the Black Forest

However, the drive back was the gift nobody had quite anticipated. Going through St. Märgen opened the forest briefly into one of those Alpine meadow landscapes – wide, green, beautifully pastoral. And then down through the meadows as the Rhine plain opened below. France was visible across the river, and Basel somewhere to the south.

Back on Board – Sailing toward Strasbourg

By early evening we were back aboard the Viking Einar, the Black Forest dark on the horizon behind us. That evening, dinner came with a Riesling from the Alsace region just across the river – a fitting preview of what Day 3 had in store.