Crystal Bach Rhine River Cruise – Day 2 – April 1, 2019 – Strasbourg, France (9am-10pm)

Docking Location: Strasbourg Pier 11, Rue de la Minotarie

We passed through many many locks on the first day, some through the night, but it didn’t bother our sleep, though we could feel the difference in movement and faintly hear the engine.

As soon as I woke up and opened the curtain, a very disappointing sight appeared…we docked with our side against the dock and our view was completely blocked by the concrete. Next time we have to book a deck 3 room to minimize such views!!

Just one deck higher would offer a much more pleasant view

Crystal Bach docked at Strasbourg, France, with industrial cargo docks surrounding us

Other than the not very desirable docking location, Strasbourg was probably my favourite day of the entire cruise, with so much to see in one day.

At 9:30 am, we departed for the 4.5 hour complimentary tour: Panoramic Tour of Strasbourg & Canal Boat Cruise. Make sure you sit on the left Of the bus as there was so much more to see on that side going from the dock to the city centre. We passed through the bridge linking the trams between France & Germany, Russian Orthodox Church, Council of Europe, Jewish Synagogue and many more sights. Along the way, we saw many storks in their nests on pruned sycamore trees.

Storks in their nests on almost every tree we passed by

The coach dropped us off at Republic Square(Place de la Republic) and we had to walk for about 15 minutes to the Cathedral.

Crystal provided shuttles from dock to city centre at 10 am, 12 noon, 2:30 pm & 4:30 pm.

This was where we went on the 1-hour canal boat cruise at 10:30 am.

Vauban Bridge – Where the canal boat turned around

There were so many beautiful sights (e.g., locks, canals, swing bridge, Petite France, etc.) we passed by that we decided to go back to town so we could explore more.

During the 1-hour free time, we got on the Petite Train from the Cathedral Square, then went back to ship for lunch using the Crystal Shuttle that departs at 1 pm from Republic Square. The Petite Train was 7 Euros each and the whole journey was 40 minutes. The narration was great and it gave us some directions of where we should go in the afternoon.