October 20 - Marg's Birthday

Today was Marg’s birthday.  It tells you lots about Marg, when 3 different times during the day, she was serenaded with “Happy Birthday “ from the other passengers.  I suspect that at least 33% of the passengers and crew are on a first name basis with her after the past two weeks.

The day started off for Marg with a leisurely breakfast in bed, served by her own personal butler, Kristopher. She even admits she is getting spoiled.

When then took a trip into the Alsace region of France.  Our first stop was in Gertswiller to visit a gingerbread bakery.  I know it sounds hookey but the owner has set up a museum that shows traditions of the Alsace region.  Germany and France have fought many wars over this area.  It got so bad that during the Second World War, the Germans would send you to jail for speaking French and it was against the law to give you child a non-Germanic name.

After this we went to the town of Barr where we tasted the local wines.  The vineyard has been owned by the same family for over two hundred years and had 80 year old bottles of wine in their cellar. The speaker knew his wines and was very informative.

After this we spent the afternoon in Strassbourg. This is the home of the European parliament.  It also has one of the most important Roman Catholic cathedrals in all of Europe. We went into the cathedral, where we were treated to an organ recital. Up until the 20^th century this was the second tallest structure in the world.  The acoustics were as Rocky would say “spectacular”.  The whole church was awe inspiring.

For Marg’s birthday lunch we went to a special French restaurant, near the Cathedral.  We had Coco-Vin.  It was excellent but the only problem was we ordered Coquilles St. Jacques.  So much for my speaking French.   

For supper the boat provided Marg with a birthday cake.

Tonight was the crew’s amateur talent show.  It was hilarious.  They had several skits and I’m sure that it was funnier than a lot of TV shows.

The internet service on Scenic, which is an oxymoron if there ever was one, is still sporadic.  I’ve not been able to get to our email, local papers or any of usual sites going on 3 days now.  They still are giving us the same old BS about being on the French boarder.  It is getting very frustrating but I was able to negotiate a refund for the lost service.    It took over 90 minutes to post last night’s blog.  Although everything about Scenic has been first class, this is making me think about going to another company in the future.

Pictures of Alsace Region

Pictures of Strassbourg

Pictures of Kehl

Movie of Marg's birthday party