🐐THE GAMBOL
October 21, 2026 • 📍Strasbourg France• 🚢 Rhine & Main Explorer +
🎶 TODAY’S TUNE
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
📇 THE STORY
We ventured down to breakfast early to order off the menu. Jim and I are not real creatures of habit. Most the people on the ship are sitting with the same person/waitstaff. We are more like Sir Mix A Lot. After we ordered off the menu we find out there is an egg of the day. Today the egg of the day is Huevos Rancheros. Maybe tomorrow we can get the egg of the day. Jim and I both ordered the Smoked Salmon Egg Benedict. It comes with one egg. I am not sure the hollandaise was an actual dill hollandaise, looked and tasted like a normal hollandaise, but my egg, OOH La La! perfectly cooked and oh so runny!
Today is Strasbourg day. We are on the canal cruise. It is a good thing we are in a covered panoramic boat! Yep, it’s raining again/still/forever… I am not too unhappy about it; they do need the water after all… Just really enjoyed the sunshine yesterday. I guess I should be including the dailies in my post. We get these every night. The front side tells about the day, when to leave, etc. Our steward John, leaves them in our room. He is like a ninja sneaking in, cleaning, leaving fresh water, tidying up.. Viva la France! Laissez le bons temps roulez!
So let’s talk about the boat cruise shall we? We DID not get a covered boat. Did we decide not to go on the miserable wet journey with no pony? NO!!! What were we thinking??!? We were definitely not thinking… Oh but they gave us ponchos. We used my poncho to set on the seat, we used Jim’s poncho to cover our legs. We were cold and wet and miserable by the time the hour journey ended. So what do I remember about the canal cruise? There are 230 bridges over the River Quai… nope wrong movie… There are 230 bridges over the River Ill. Ill pronounced “eel” even though it is spelled like we are going to one mess of sick.
As soon as our guide showed us the meet up place, we hightailed it to the WC. Funny fact, we have not had to pay for a bathroom yet. France and Switzerland have been very civilized with that convenience. While we are on the topic of bathrooms, I would like to let you know, that my favorite toilet paper was in Basel. Viking Modi’s tt paper is not too bad. Strasbourg takes the cake for bad toilet paper.
Straight after the bathroom, we marched quickly to a small stand that was selling Glühwein. It was needed and appreciated it. We met another viking couple who were on the Basel to Amsterdam route. She took one look at my glasses and pulled hers out. We had the exact same frames. Then we ordered a flamkuchen or tarte flambée as it is called in the Alsace region of France.
It is time to head back to the meeting point to walk 15 minutes to our bus. Or we could stay in Strasbourg and catch a later bus. Being the drowned rats that we were, we headed back. Once on the boat, we stripped off and wrung out our wet clothes. I decided maybe no one would mind if I wore my yoga pants to lunch, so I did. Instead of dining in the dining room, we ate on the Acquavit Terrace. The glass doors can be opened up when the weather is nice, but today they were closed and there were blankets placed on the backs of some of the chairs. I grabbed one and put it over my legs. For some reason my pictures are not uploading but Jim ordered the roasted red pepper soup and the pasta dish. I ordered the tuna tartare and the Asian noodle salad. The free wine (we opted not to pay $270 a piece for the unlimited bar drinks and upgradeable wine and beer menu) was a riesling instead of the Weißgebunder. Much better choice and all we had to do was ask for the riesling if the other was being served. Who knew?
Back to the room to curl up for a nap and then shower and change for dinner with friends. Tonight is the Taste of France buffet. Monica let us order off the menu, but I took videos of the buffet. Please feel free to check out our Youtube channel (shameless plug) for the videos.
✨GAMBoL glimmer
Lee Ann Womack’s song is running through my head right now.. I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance (dance)
I hope you dance (dance)
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin’
Lovin’ might be a mistake, but it’s worth makin’
We could have opted to not take the boat in the rain; we could have chosen the path less traveled by; we chose the path of least resistance. As mommy says, “And all shall be well, and all matters of things shall be well.”
#HowFortunateWeAre #RetiredAndLovingIt #MakingOurOwnSunshine