Rhine Cruise Day 6: Strasbourg, France - July 8th, 2025

We took the Viking Rhine Getaway cruise from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland. This post covers Day 6, as we stopped to tour Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France.

Tuesday we were in Strasbourg, France. The Rhine River forms the boundary between France and Germany in some places. Our ship was docked in Kehl in Germany on the east side of the river. In the morning, we took a bus from Kehl over to the center of Strasbourg, about a 20 minute ride. From the bus, our tour guide took us on an hour long walking tour. The tour included walking along one of the canals that encircles the old town area, lined with old half-timbered buildings. We made our way through Gutenberg Square (Place Gutenberg) and over to the Strasbourg Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg).

Our guide led us through the Cathedral, which gave it more meaning than just wandering through on our own. Inside is an astronomical clock from the early 19th century which is still functioning today. We arrived just in time to watch the small soldier figurine move past in front of the skeleton figure at 10:15 am.

After our tour, we had the rest of the day to explore on our own. There were several shuttle buses to take us back to the ship when we were ready (11:55 am, 2:10 pm, 3:10 pm, and 4:40 pm). We wandered around the streets within the old town that was encircled by the canals. Then we stopped for lunch.

We found Restaurant Au Dauphin tucked in a courtyard not too far from the Cathedral. We both tried a tart flambée, also known as Flammkeuche or Flammkuchen, a dish our tour guide had recommended. Ann had the Flammkeuche Gratinée which came with bacon and Emmental cheese. Keith picked the Flammkeuche aux Champignons, which had mushrooms in addition to the bacon and cheese. Flammkuchen is similar to pizza, except the crust does not contain yeast, so it is more like a thin cracker crust. And instead of a tomato sauce, there is a layer of crème fraîche. Crème fraîche is similar to sour cream, only with a much higher fat content and not as sour.

The square shaped Flammkuchen was served with small pizza cutters. We used it to cut our tarts, then ate it with our hands. We’re not sure if locals eat it with their hands or use a fork.

For dessert, we wanted to try the Koegelhopf that our tour guide recommended. She described it as a wedding cake, that was given as a gift for a wedding couple. On the menu was Koegelhopf Glacé. We weren’t quite sure what that meant. Was it ice cream made to look like a Koegelhopf cake? The English translation said Iced Koegelhopf, so was it the cake with an icing? We decided to take a chance and ordered one to split. It turned out to be the former, ice cream shaped to look like the cake. We were a little disappointed, but it was tasty.

We tried to make it through lunch speaking only French with the restaurant staff. Our French was very limited, but it didn’t take too many words to order and pay the bill. Bonjour (hello). Merci (thank you). L’addition, s’il vous plait (the bill, please), and au revoir (good bye). The hard part came when we wanted to round up the bill for a tip. Luckily, the waiter brought out the bill, then went back to get the credit card machine. That gave us enough time to look up the numbers in a chart Keith had on his phone. Of course, we could have typed it into Google Translate on our phones as well. Quarante-cinq euros (45 euros).

The next shuttle bus wasn’t until 2:10 pm, over an hour and a half away. So we went in search of a bakery to try some real Koegelhopf. We ended up at Au Pain de mon Grand-père (To the bread of my grandfather). We bought a small one, as we were not hungry, but still wanted to try it. We wouldn’t classify Koegelhopf as a cake. It is closer to a raisin bread. It is a sweet yeast dough with raisins, topped with slivered almonds. It is baked in a small bundt pan, giving a distinctive shape.

We met the Viking shuttle guide at our meeting place in Gutenberg Square, then walked about 15 minutes over to where the bus was parked. In another 20 minutes, we were back at our ship. We relaxed on board in the afternoon. In the late afternoon, the sky let loose and poured down rain. We were glad we didn’t wait for a later shuttle and get caught in the rain.

At 5 pm, Executive Chef Mario Zima gave a cooking demonstration of Flammkuchen. He passed out a recipe for it. However, Chef Mario likes to add yeast to his dough, which is not traditional. Of course, we had to try a piece of the Flammkuchen, even though we already had some that day.

For dinner, there was a German buffet. Many of the staff members were dressed in traditional German clothing, lederhosen and dirndl. There was a nice variety of different dishes, such as pork knuckle, sauerbraten and red cabbage, to name a few. They even passed out German schnapps. Real German schnapps is not sweet like the schnapps you get in the States. The waiter said it was peach flavor, but the alcohol is so strong, it is hard to make out any flavor. Needless to say, we were pretty full by the end of the day.

After dinner, we went up to the Sun Deck to watch our ship go through a lock around 9:15 pm. Most of the other locks that we had gone through were during the night. There was one lock that we went through during dinner, so we didn’t really see that one.

When going through the lock, the canopy over the tables up on the deck is lowered. They also lower the wheelhouse (bridge). We had to wait a few minutes while two ships heading the opposite direction came out of the lock. There were two locks, side-by-side. The smaller of the two was too small for our ship. The larger one can hold two ships next to each other. It was hard to tell if it could have accommodated two Viking ships at the same time, as we went through by ourselves.

It was a lovely evening to be out on the Sun Deck and watch how the locks worked. The rain had stopped and the sun had set, but there was still a lovely orange glow in the clouds on the horizon.

Strasbourg is a large city, but the old town area makes it feel much smaller. It probably helps that the old town sits on an island surrounded by canals, so you can wander aimlessly as long as you don’t cross over a canal to remain in the picturesque historic district. We generally stay away from big cities during our travels, but Strasbourg has a nice intimate feel to it.

Check out our related video: Rhine Cruise Day 6: Strasbourg, France

(Ann)