The Black Forest
It was a lovely bus ride, through tiny ancient villages in the Alsatian countryside. But a lovely bus ride doesn’t lend itself to lovely photographs, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
But other than that, it was really just a roadside tourist trap. We were both a little surprised that there was such a thing in Europe. But the big deal here was a big shop/restaurant/souvenir stand which specialized in cuckoo clocks.
Still snow on the ground in late April! While we walked around the non-touristy parts, there was at least one nice view. You can see part of the viaduct in the top-left of photo above, so you know it wasn’t an out-of-the-way location.
So that was it. We were supposed to have time in Basel for the last day. I’d never been to Switzerland before. But our time in Basel was much like our time in Amsterdam — from the airport to a bus, or vice versa. Our flight left so early we had to be packed and ready to go at 4:15 in the morning. All we saw of Basel was the empty city blocks in the pre-dawn hours.
The trip had some real highlights. Rotterdam was an exciting surprise. We want to live in Strasbourg. And the tiny villages were charming. But Viking disappointed us this time by leaving out the two big cities on either end of the trip.