Willkommen in Speyer, Germany!

The quiet German town of Speyer is truly a city of spires! Once through the old city gates, one only has to look up to see towers of every kind adorning buildings and providing a fascinating skyline. The Romanesque imperial cathedral towers mark the final resting place for 4 of the most famous holy Roman emperors, 4 kings and 3 empresses. Some of their bones are on display. The term “Protestant” originated here at the Diet of Speyer in 1529.

Speyer was an important center of Ashkenazi Jewish spiritual and intellectual life where Jewish life thrived for many years. Today there are several reminders of Judaic life including the remains of a synagogue dating back to 1104, ruins of Germany’s oldest mikvah (1126), and of course the many “stumbling stones’ to mark the location of homes from which Jewish people were taken during the Holocaust.

Speyer is a very walkable, welcoming town. Window shopping is a special treat as merchants begin their holiday decorating. We’re at the transition from fall to winter, and preparations for the busy Christmas Markets are well underway.

Our visit to Speyer’s Technik Museum did not disappoint. The Technik explores technology from underwater to outer space. In addition to housing Europe’s largest space and naval exhibits, the Technik has a wide variety of aircraft, classic cars, motorcycles, historic fire engines, huge steam locomotives, and antique mechanical music instruments. We noticed an antique Packard with Ohio plates, and and walked on the wing of an actual Lufthansa Boeing 747.

The museum also has an IMAX theater, and we were excited to learn that they were showing Apollo 11 in English. We realized our failure to completely understand German when the movie that came on was actually about dolphins, narrated by Pierce Brosnan with music by Sting…dubbed in German 😂 It was fun to watch them playing on the big screen, and a relaxing way to end our day exploring Speyer.