Speyer, Germany 🇩🇪 2022

Date: 3-4th September 2022

Travelled: 130 kms from Stuttgart to Speyer   

Visited:  Speyer    

Stayed: Speyer Camping, €24, N49.31090, E08.45050  

Budget: 101 days @ €108 per day

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Stuttgart not the easiest place to escape. We seem to go from one diversion to the next until we finally set the Hymer on the motorway for Speyer. Not a good start but it gets worse. Twenty kms out of Speyer the three lanes of traffic comes to a complete standstill. An hour later we have moved perhaps 2 kms and steam suddenly comes up from under the Hymer’s bonnet. Not good obviously.

A spigot that connects the top of the radiator with the expansion tank has split. There’s no roadside fix, we let it cool add some more water and manage to make the stellplatz in Speyer. It’s Saturday afternoon and nothing going to happen until Monday in relation to fixing the problem. So Speyer it is.

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Speyer, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

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Our guide book highly recommends Speyer, situated as it is on the left bank of the Rhine in Germany’s Rhineland. Speyer translates to spire in French and spires in English and may well relate to the 4 spired Kaiserdom cathedral that dates back a thousand years.

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The Kaiserdom is an impressive Romanesque cathedral. It dominates the skyline of Speyer, the copper topped spires visible from just about anywhere in town. The entry vestibule is elaborate most likely reflecting its history as a burial place of Kings.

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The Dom is 134m long, the central nave in pink and white stone has a series of frescoes above the arches. It’s very impressive. The crypt has some interesting relics just to add to the mystique.

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From the Dom we walk the 800m long Maximilianstrasse, Speyer’s pedestrian mall. Lined as it is with some classic buildings intermingled with the usual shops and cafes.

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At the end of the Maximilianstrasse stands the Altpörtel, once the cities western gate and the only remaining part of the old city walls. Its clock has two faces, one displaying hours and the other minutes. It did take us a few minutes to work it out.

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Obviously it must be 5pm, ice cream sundae time.

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We make our way back to the stellplatz which is next to the Tecknik Park a huge museum of anything mechanical. It does have an amazing collection from what we can see but I’m just not in the mood.

Spending Sunday morning attempting to contact our breakdown insurer leaves us even more frustrated. So we decide to walk off our sorrows and have lunch on the Rhine. Our walk has no plan we just walk towards whatever church spires capture our interest and Speyer has plenty.

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An hour or so later we make our way to the Rhine and find ourselves a shady table in a beer garden and order lunch. It will prove to be a long lunch. The Rhine is so busy it’s a delight to let the afternoon drift by watching the barges and up market river cruisers make there way to wherever.

The schnity is pretty good but I do hanker for a wicked pepper sauce (Aussie style).

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Michael + Pam