Tuesday, 23 April

Speyer, Worms & Rudesheim:  Amazing bright sunshine for the whole day! It was still very chilly, but very little wind, so much more comfortable.

It was a long walk from the ship into Speyer, but our guide was an amazing storyteller who kept us rapt as he unfolded the history of the area, and Europe more broadly at the time of the Reformation and the events leading up to it.

The cathedral in Speyer is the result of a disagreement with Pope Leo X (?) and was built in the 11th century to be larger than St. Peter’s Basilica. It contains relics of St. Stephen, the 1st Christian Martyr, and became a place of pilgrimage. It’s also on the Compostela de Santiago. Speyer was the site of meetings and events that led eventually to the establishment of Protestantism. 

Outside the cathedral is a huge carved depiction of Jesus praying at Gethsemane, complete with sleeping disciples and gathering soldiers. In front of the cathedral is a huge bowl,

where wine is served during celebrations. We visited the Jewish museum and ancient mikvah dating from 1126, that has miraculously survived many wars and bombardments, including WW2.  Sadly, the Jewish population was annihilated in that war.

Then we went into the cathedral. It seems plain compared to most others we’ve visited, but has amazing carvings of

the stations of the cross and some beautiful paintings. Unfortunately, the lovely organ pipes hide the interior of the rose window. We had a slightly shorter walk to the buses, then rode to Worms to re-board the Tialfi. [ To digress a bit: In history, I remember hearing about “the Diet of Worms” which was NOT a way to lose weight. We were told today that it was a meeting at which Martin Luther was condemned as a heretic. It didn’t hold, because many powerful people agreed with him. ] Along the way, we passed many fields of asparagus, mostly the white variety. It is in season right now, though so far we’ve not had any. There were also vineyards on the hillsides. In Worms (pronounce more like Varms) we walked through a lovely park area,

where we were warned to keep off the grass because undercover agents would photograph us and report our transgression to the ship. We were greeted with hot towels this time. Lunch followed as we continued downriver. Larry went to a talk about the ship and its operations, then I watched a demo of making Rudesheim coffee -- which is mostly brandy and whipped cream, followed by high tea. We docked at Rudesheim around 5 and walked into town. We browsed a few shops, hit an ATM for some euros and enjoyed the view of the river. There were many people sitting out in parks enjoying a glass of wine in the relatively warm weather. The walkways are lined

 with plane trees. They’re really ugly right now, but apparently when they leaf out they look like huge umbrellas. We debated having a wine in a park,  but ran into one of our acquaintances and all decided that a bench by the water was a good place to be. We had dinner on board and retired for the night.

We enjoyed watching the geese and ducks along the banks with their little ones and one majestic swan sailed by.

 

More Photos of the Day