“Rhine. The river that, somewhere out there, has broken free” – Lauren DeStefano.

She gets angry if the bluetooth pairing between her headphones and iPad do not work. And I get equally angry and snap back.

But one day, she let slip a concern that hit me like a ton of bricks. “I am entering into a world, I do not understand; it is a world without sound”.

For me, it was a moment of epiphany; it was not her frustration that I was facing; it was her fear. So, I quickly reordered my priorities, hit the reset button in my head and made her number one.

And, that single change, made a shocking shift in our relationship; we are once again, best friends.

This lady is my mom; everyone calls her “Akka”, which means “older sister” in Tamil. She loves to travel, but as a nonagenarian, she no longer can.

So, we are doing the next best thing and that is to travel virtually around the world. She is the captain of the ship; she picks the ports; I chart the course.

Akka grew up in a small town called Ipoh, in the northern state of Perak in Malaysia and she spent part of her childhood in Singapore.

Her favourite childhood memory is one of her singing at King George’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in Singapore and earning a commemorative coin for it.

Her first experience of a border town, was Johor Bahru, Malaysia, which is a stone’s throw away from Singapore. Since then, she has travelled to other border cities, such as Tijuana in Mexico, Buffalo in America and La Linea in Spain.

Then, there is Harpers Ferry in America - a tri-state city in West Virginia that is located where Virginia and Maryland meet.

Akka’s favourite thing to do, was to stand at the vertex of Harpers Ferry and soak up the sights at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers.

She has a similar fascination for Geneva; it is a tri-country city in Switzerland, that is the gateway to France and Italy. The closest French town is Annemasse (7 kilometers away) and the nearest Italian town is Carouge (3 kilometers away).

Like Tijuana, Annemasse and Carouge are also border towns and they are, by and large, not happening places.

So, as they say in America, we blew that popcorn stand (leaving one place in search of something better) and headed northeast.

Three hours, 250 kilometers and five playlists later, we arrived in Swiss Basel, the entry point to German Breisach and French Colmar. Both these cities, are 60 kilometers away from Basel and they are both vibrant.

The Rhine, which starts in the Swiss Alps, flows through Basel and Breisach, before it empties into the North sea.

Basel is considered the cultural capital of Switzerland and it is the tenth most livable city in the world. The language widely spoken, is Swiss German.

But rather than camp in Basel, we crossed the border into Breisach, Germany. Breisach is a small town between Colmar (France) and Freiburg, the next big town in Germany.

The reason we left Switzerland in the dust was I wanted to take Akka to the homeland of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Born in Bonn, Beethoven, was nurtured by his father, to become the next Mozart. And his nurturing paid off because Beethoven became one of the greatest composers of all time. On Spotify, one of his works has over 45 million plays.

Most people recognize Beethoven’s best composition, the Fifth Symphony, but not many know that he was stone deaf when he composed it. It is said that, Beethoven did his best work after he lost his hearing - Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.

Akka could not believe that Beethoven actually composed the Fifth when he was deaf. And, as we drove around Breisach, in our azure blue BMW, we listened to Beethoven on the Blaupunkt.

By the end of the drive, she had picked her favourites: the Fifth Symphony, Ode to Joy and Für Elise. For the rest of the day, while she rested, she listened to his concertos on her bluetooth headphones.

Germany, the country of music, is also known for its non-classical work. Most people know her as a German actress, but Marlene Dietrich was also a singer.

Lili Marleen, a love song she sang, was the most celebrated tune during World War 2; the song was seen as the light in the hour of darkness. Lili Marleen has a similar vibe to La mer from France.

It was a beautiful autumn day and Akka wanted to have a picnic by the Rhine. When I heard the word picnic, I was chomping on the bit; I wanted to forage for party elements and pull together a German-inspired picnic.

The centerpiece of our picnic was white wine. Riesling is the most celebrated grape in Germany; it is used for dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling wine.

The colour varies from green yellow to light yellow, it has aromas of apple and apricot and it is light to medium bodied (viscosity).

Riesling is “terrior-expressive“ (soil sensitive), nuanced, noble and adaptable; it pairs well with any world cuisine. (Wikipedia).  

And so, we went to the Badischer Winzerkeller wine cellar, to pick up a bottle of Riesling. Schmidty who works at the cellar, recommended the Graf Von Kageneck Riesling Extra Brut; it is a 2014 vintage sparkling white wine that cost €10.

The Riesling is from Baden, which is the third largest wine region in the country. Baden is located between the Black Forest and the Rhine, in southwest Germany. Pinot Noir, Riesling and Gewurztraminer, are their top grapes.

The other centerpiece of our picnic was cheese. While France is famous for Camembert, Germany is famed for Allgauer Bergkase. This is a hard cow’s cheese; it is mild with a bold aroma and nutty flavour.

The other cheese for our centerpiece was, Gouda. It is a semi-hard cow cheese with a mild taste and a “stinky” aroma (cheese professor).

Altenburger Ziegenkase is our next cheese; it a soft cow and goat cheese that is mild, with a strong aroma. Butterkase is the final cheese. It is a semi-soft cow cheese; it is smooth and creamy and it has a buttery flavour (tasteatlas).

And so, we went to Rewe, a local grocery store in Breisach, to pick up the cheeses. While at the cheese aisle, we also picked up a French Brie, to give a cross-border appeal to the centerpiece.

For accompaniments, we chose a Mango and Passion fruit spread from France, green table grapes from Italy, dried apricots from Turkey and Kalamata olives from Greece.

Germany has more than 1,000 types of bread rolls. Brotchen, which in German means “Little Bread”, are bread rolls. It is firm and crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.

There are two types of Brotchen: basic and classic, and different regions have different names for it. For example, it is Brotchen in Breisach, Semmel in Bavaria and Schrippe in Berlin (germanfood).

Although, Rewe is the biggest grocery chain in Germany, it did not carry freshly baked Brotchen. So, we drove to the Dreher Artisanal Bakery in Merdigen, which is ten kilometers, southeast of Breisach.

The Dreher’s bread of the month, was a pear and fig, mixed wheat loaf, priced at €3,50 for 500g. Here, we bought five Brotchen and a pear and fig loaf.

Now, that the wine, cheese and accompaniments where in place, all we needed was a picnic basket and a red chequered tablecloth. And Karlotta Kruger, our innkeeper in Breisach, was happy to oblige.

We pulled into the parking lot of the Fritz-Schanno Gardens, near the Museum of Breisach City History, and I wheeled Akka towards the picnic tables by the river.

Then, while we unpacked our picnic basket, we listened to the rubato (nuanced) movements of Für Elise. Akka laid out the cheese board while I uncorked the Riesling.

We basked in the sunlight that danced off the Rhine and gazed at the brilliant foliage across the river.

As we reminisced about our autumn trips to Harpers Ferry and Niagara Falls, the sun descended into the hills. A chill crept into the air, but it could not dim the glow in our hearts.

We were bewitched by Breisach; but we had to move on, because “life is short and the world is wide”.

Next, We Wander: Colmar or Basel.