We cruised into Speyer at around 8.30am & docked close to the town. Speyer has a population of 50,000 & is one of Germany's oldest towns. This hotel is about 20 metres from our balcony, also the flags.
We had a choice of 2 tours this morning, a walking tour of Speyer & a tour of The Technical Museum of Speyer which houses Europe's largest aerospace exhibition, a walk-in Boeing 707 Jumbo, a fully accessible submarine U9 & the world's largest prop plane, a giant Russian Antonov AN-22 cargo plane. Not to mention a huge collection of classic cars, motorbikes, locomotives & fire engines!
I have no photos from the museum as I Mike chose that tour I did the walking tour (more about that soon). As Mike is sound asleep at present, I will have to wait until he downloads his photos so I can post some here. Apparently they loved the museum & spent 3 hours there, but wanted longer.
I set out with a group on our walking tour. Our guide, Michael, was a local & it was very obvious just how much he loves this town, especially the famous Speyer Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1061 & is the largest Romanesque church in Europe. We walked up through some lovely gardens.
Arriving at the Speyer Cathedral. I will let the photos tell the story. This church is so large it is impossible to capture it all in one photo. It looks different from every angle.
Next stop was the ruins of the first Jewish Synagogue, the oldest in Europe, first mentioned in 1126, has remained almost unchanged to this day & is still supplied with fresh ground water.
Then to the main town square. Some beautiful architecture can be found wherever you look:
Just time for a quick coffee & browse in some shops before walking back to the ship.
This is our hardworking, ever present Tour Director, Emma, who was checking that we were not misbehaving :)
We were enticed back for lunch as they put on a German lunch with beautiful suckling pig, wiith all the trimmings. It was delicious & everyone else seemed to think likewise.
Now it's almost 4pm here. We decided to have a quiet afternoon & declined the excursion offered (coffee & cake in a traditional German home). We certainly do not need cake!!
I just saw that our beloved Sydney Swans have won yet again. They always seem to play better when we are not in the country. Maybe we should stay away until after the Grand Final!!
Just one more photo I forgot to post from last night's dinner. Our beautiful table centrepiece of orchids. Think it should be called "The rose amongst the orchids". Was totally unplanned but very sweet.
Time for a little rest before dinner, drinks etc.
More tomorrow from Rudesheim.
Betty & Mike
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