WEEKEND IN SPEYER
We decided to take the local train to a town south of here named Speyer to see the Tech Museum and town.  It was Easter weekend so Steve also had Friday and Monday as holidays.  We rested on Friday since it was a cold and rainy day and left Saturday morning.  Speyer isn't far from here, we actually could have rode our bikes with some planning.  Speyer is a cute German town, lots of outdoor cafe's, shops, very bike friendly (except the many cobblestones), very picturesque and the Tech museum is a wonderful place that takes a day to go through and it also has almost every sign in English so we got a lot out of it.  We also went to the history museum which was also very good but nothing was in English.  Lots of walking and stairs to climb in the museum and the old tower if you want.  The weather was also really good for us, mostly sunny and warm enough to be able to have ice cream on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday was Easter so we didn't go into the several nice churches when we walked around but we did see the inside of the big Cathedral on Saturday.  We came back to Mannheim Sunday evening.  On Monday we rode our bikes to Schwetzingen, I'll put that in the next post on the blog.

We went up in the old tower to see the town from above.  It is well worth the little charge of 1.50 euros and all the stairs.  The tower was once part of the city wall and main gate into the city and was started in 1230.  The city was destroyed in 1689 but the tower was not.  It is one of the highest gates in Germany.  There are exhibits inside of the history of the tower.  We got lucky and went up when only two other people went up.  Just as we came down a bus load of kids came and was noisily going up the stairs.

The old town tower which we climbed up to look down on the town.  The tower isn't leaning, that is just me and the camera.

Looking down the main street, Maximillian strasse, towards the Speyer Cathedral.

In the distance is St. Josephs on the right and Gedächtniskirche on the left.

Looking down on on the outdoor cafe's.

St. Joseph's has the very nice bell towers.

Looking at the big Cathedral and towards the Rhein River.

The Speyer Cathedral ranks as the largest Romanesque church in Europe.  They think it was started in 1020 and took 30 years to build.  It had to be rebuilt after destruction in 1689.  The crypt was intact tho and is preserved unaltered with 8 German emperors and kings and 4 queens and a lot of bishops in it.  The towers are open for tours but we didn't go up these as it is 6 euros and we did the old city tower instead.

The Speyer Cathedral

The Cathedral from part of the old city wall.

Ice Cream cafe's, shops and church bell towers.

Part of the old city wall.  It used to go all the way around the city and had these lookout towers all along it.

Cute restaurant on Fiskmarket strasse with wisteria on the front. 

Gedächtniskirche.  

I thought the tile on the roof of the Gedächtniskirche church was very unusual and pretty.  But maybe other churches had nice tiles on the roof but they are so tall you can't see it.

Having ice cream on the main street with one of the fountains and the cathedral in the background.

St. Joseph's Parish was built in 1912.

St. Joseph's church Easter service, The 4 bell towers where ringing as we walked by, VERY NICE to hear.

St. Joseph's Parish is the second largest church in Speyer.

Walking along the Rhein.  Many River cruises stop along here so people can get off and see the town for the day.

Along with the ticket for the Tech museum you can visit a small museum on the grounds called the Wilhelsmbau.  It is well worth a visit.  I really enjoyed the automatic musical instruments, period dress, old sewing machines, the ship models and doll collections.
More info on the small museum can be found in this link.
http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/en/museum-wilhelmsbau

One of the very pretty corsets.  The waists for that period where so small.

This doll and dress where very pretty.  I'd like to make a dress like that someday.  The sewing machine was really neat to see too.

The collection of sewing items including the dress makers dummy.

One of the many automatic musical instruments that have a number of violins and other instruments included.  Most of these are in working condition and they will play them during a demonstration or you can put in money and play the ones you want to hear.

The Technik Museum has something for everyone with a large collection of aircraft, vintage classic cars, locomotives and fire engines, organs, boats, space craft and more and is neat for kids too.  

Looking up at the Boeing 747.

Old motorcycles and fire engines.

A view of the Cathedral from the wing of the Boeing 747. 

One of the organs that plays at different times of the day

Wonder if there is a relation in the family history to Jarrod Herz

A very large organ with other instruments that play automatically

Old motorcycles and bikes

Fire engines.

VW bus fire engine.

Mini cooper double decker tour bus.

It was really creepy looking down through the grates to the cars below from up where they had the Boeing 747 plane located.

Inside the Boeing 747

Up on the wing of the Boeing 747.

Looking towards St. Joseph's and the Gedächtniskirche from up on the wing

looking down from the wing

We are not sure why they mounted the plane so high in the air, but if you are willing to wait for a piece of carpet, you can slide down the longest tube slide I have ever seen.

This cute little BMW,  Isetta, 1 cylinder car was made for customer who wanted a car but could only afford a motorcycle.  160,000 of these where sold.  I think this is what the car is in the movie "Cars" that sold the tires in the small town.