Day 9 - In Speyer(ed)

 Day 9 – Monday, Mar 30 – Speyer Day

We docked in the small town of Speyer (pronounced Shpeyer), Germany. Once again, we were facing cloudy, cold weather, but now you can add a dose of rain with a prediction of rain all morning while we were there (at least according to the weather App on my and others’ iPhones). But off we went with raincoats and umbrellas in hand (sans Don and Laureen for health reasons).

There is a lot of history in this town related to the origins and growth of the Holy Roman Empire [which some have said was neither Roman nor Holy]. I won’t go into details, but Clovis I (600’s) started to settle the area and bring civil control and a system of government and economy. His descendants continued in that vein, including Charles the Great, also known as Charlemagne (800’s). Conrad II followed (1000’s). He established an even better level of organization and civility in the area (keep in mind we are talking about centuries passing here as the inexorable march of human civilization progressed very slowly before Al Gore invented the internet).  As is apparently required in the unwritten charter for being a King/Emperor, a church had to be constructed. So, in 1060, the largest Romanesque cathedral in the world (to this day) was built in Speyer, dedicated to St. Stephen. By the time we arrived on the cathedral grounds, the rain had stopped. 

         

 We were allowed to spend 10-15 minutes in the cathedral as part of our tour, with the promise that we could return later and do more sightseeing on our own. Of course, the church is enormous, but owing to its pre-Renaissance and German austerity construction, it did not contain much ornamentation. We were told that Conrad II and his wife and progeny were buried in the crypt if we wanted to see that’s for 5€. Steve wandered off as is his penchant in cathedrals and stumbled on a large room that served as the reliquary (a place where relics of saints are kept for those unfamiliar with the term). It included a relic of Pope Stephen I (Papist Stephanus I) with a bronze bust – as might be appropriate in a cathedral named St. Stephen – as well as many other saints of local origin, including one canonized in 1998 by Pope John Paul II.

Time was running out and Steve was extracting himself from the reliquary room, the steps, the hallway, the steps … you get the idea … and was heading to the exit. Mark was approaching me quickly, and I thought I was going to get a chastisement for running behind schedule. But no … he told me “You have to see this crypt!” which was very close by. He hurriedly paid my 5€  and ushered me down the stone staircase under the church. We took a quick spin through the cavernous crypt and recognized that we were now indeed running late. As we emerged from underground, Carol was giving us both a chastisement for holding the group up. Guilty as charged. An apology to the group outside the cathedral and all was good as we started the trek down the one and only main street in the town of Speyer (remember, it is Shpeyer with a lot of emphasis on the SHP!).

Amazingly, at this point, the skies had cleared, the wind had died down, and we had a beautiful day. I pulled up my iPhone weather App, and it said it was still raining in Speyer and that rain was forecast for the whole morning!! What?! We had a lovely, sunny stroll down the main street, which was typical European small-town stuff, except it was punctuated by little glass booths where they sell bretzels (the original name of the Anglicized pretzel). Apparently, the bretzel twist that is so familiar to us was designed for children to hold onto a loop and eat it easily. OK. Sounds plausible. I get it. Mary is holding the remnants of our community bretzel in the picture below. 

After some additional sites by our guide, he cut us loose and we were free to wander around. We strolled about a half mile to the old city gate (all of these medieval cities were walled and had fortified gates), and Steve headed back to the cathedral to see more. Of note was my descent into the crypt, which had a chapel nestled within many rounded, Romanesque arches. I wandered back to the burial site of Conrad II and company, and there was the nearly 1000-year-old tomb.

Imperator Conrad I. And buried next to him was Imperatrix Gisela (note the feminine noun for Emperor in Latin). Conrads IV, VI and VII were also buried there. I do not know what happened to Conrads the first, third and fifth; perhaps they were the odd man out!

One last note and a little education … Perhaps you have heard of the Camino de Santiago, which is a network of ancient pilgrimage trails across Europe, primarily in Spain, leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, where tradition holds the remains of St. James are buried. The “trail” is marked by small golden seashells at various points throughout Europe. Well, here is Speyer, in front of the magnificent cathedral, embedded in the granite stone plaza … 

        

Anyway, we joined a bus for a ride to Worms where we would pick up the Viking ship (boat) again. We passed the world headquarters in Ludwigshafen for the chemical company BASF [for those old enough to remember the commercials … “We don’t make X <insert your favorite item>. We make X better.”] It occupies 12km = 7.5 miles on the banks of the Rhine River!!! Imagine the size! We also passed Nierstein (near Oppenheim), which is where General Patton’s Army Division was the first to cross the Rhine River into Germany in WWII. We had some beautiful views from the bow of the ship and the seating area there – though the temperatures remained a bit chilly. 

      

We docked at Worms, which is famous for many medieval councils and Diets (pronounced Dee – ahts). This is where Bishops from a wide area would congregate to make official pronouncement on behalf of the Church (there was only the Catholic church at the time and the Holy Roman Empire based on it). When the pronouncement was made that everyone had to be Catholic, reversing a pronouncement several years earlier that “allowed” people to choose another belief (e.g., follow Luther), there was a major protest! Hence was born the term “Protestant” and the “Church” represented the “Catholics” (which literally means “universal”). The rest is history as they say.

I cannot resist sharing a very small bit of the stunning scenery along this part of the cruise. The hills are filled with vineyards mostly with the famous German Riesling grapes. 

 

That evening we had a wine tasting and dinner tour at the Eberbach Monastery, founded in 1036. The weather was quite brisk – still overcast and a cold wind blowing. We walked through the grounds and started in the wine cellars. It was hyper-cool as the cavernous arched stone was illuminated by candlelight (and some dim light bulbs). There were dozens (over a hundred?) large wine barrels that were the typical bulbous cylinders, but some were oval and one was large enough to hold 33,000 gallons of wine. Wunderbar!!!! We tasted three local wines which were all Rieslings (what else would you expect!), which represents 85% of the wine grown in the Rhine River Valley. Now German/European Riesling is different than the US version of the sweeter Riesling. The German version is more dry and certainly not sweet. 

 

Then we toured the open-air courtyards and other parts of the monastery, but all of us were beginning to lose consciousness as our bodies and brains began to freeze. We couldn’t wait to get to dinner and were hoping it was indoors! Alas, we made it through the tour (enormous wine presses and all), but not before Steve was asked to test the acoustics in the stone church at the Abbey. He obliged the group and sang with a resounding reverberation in the spacious stone arched sanctuary (no audio please!). 

    

 

    

Now it was off to a candlelit restaurant where we were greeted by an engaging Italian guy (we cannot remember his name). Suffice to say he wanted to please us to the max, and we had an excellent meal with great bread and wine. He was very attentive as was the younger women who helped wait on tables. We didn’t get any pictures of this wonderful event; excuses include … brain freeze (literally), food depravation (we hadn’t had an exquisite four course meal in hours), enthrallment (the venue was charming and the service was like we were royalty).

Near the end of the meal, Kurt asked for “more red” since his wine glass was empty, as it often is. A few minutes later, the young waitress came to the table and set a LARGE basket of bread in front of Kurt … with a bit of a dismayed look on her face. Kurt puzzled over the bread with an equally dismayed look … then looked at the waitress … then politely enunciated, “I said ‘red’ not ‘bread’.” Well, we all had a laugh with the waitress, and she apologized and promptly provided a generous pour (as they say) with RED wine.

Eventually we returned to the tour bus that took us to the tour boat (ship). We spent a little time in the lounge, as usual, to end our day with engaging conversation and libations with a little music mixed in. Enchanting!