Oct 4 - Speyer

We sailed all night and arrived in Mannheim around breakfast time. This will be a technical stop - just long enough for the day trippers to board the buses. The ship will then sail to Germersheim - the buses will drop us off there and we will sail onto Kehl.

Today’s options were to go to Heidelberg which we have visited before and will be seeing next weekend or to go to Speyer to the Technical Museum there. We chose Speyer. Originally, we would have been going to Hockenheim to the Formula 1 racing track. Doug is a huge F1 fan and was looking forward to that, however, the track was closed today for a special event. Speyer was a good substitute.

Our guide was Nathalie. She told us some interesting things about Mannheim which is located at the junction of the Rhine and Neckar Rivers. The city is home to major corporations including Daimler, John Deere, Caterpillar, ABB, Fuchs Petrolub, IBM, Roche, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Phoenix Group, Siemens, and several other well-known companies.

Mannheim is know for several important inventions. Karl Drais built the first bicycle here in 1817. It was here in 1886 that Karl Benz invented the automobile. His wife, Bertha Benz, took the first road trip in a car. She drove 104 kms with her two young sons to visit relatives in Pforzeim, so ladies, we’ve been driving longer than men have! Julius Hatry built the world’ first rocket plane here in 1929.

The Technical Museum in Speyer is Doug’s idea of a great museum. It is chocked full of motorcycles, cars, trucks, fire engines, planes, helicopters, locomotives, boats and even a submarine that we were able to walk through. There were mechanical organs to add some culture to the place. We gawked and enjoyed the exhibits for a couple hours, and even braved the light rain outside to climb up into planes.

Then we took a quick walk to Speyer Cathedral, more properly known as the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St. Stephen. Begun in 1030, the cathedral is built of red sandstone. It has gone through rebuilding several times and is now a mix of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque styles. In 1981, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as "a major monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire”. Oddly, it has very little stained glass - my personal favourite in churches.

We got back to the ship about 1:30 p.m. It sailed shortly afterwards. Today’s lunch had a Bavarian theme - traditional Bavarian food, pretzels, lots of beer, oom-pah music playing and the waiters were all wearing German hats. Tonight is the Farewell Gala dinner. On the menu are lobster, Chateaubriand beef tenderloin and Baked Alaska!! This ship is a floating food trap!!

Before we get to that dinner feast, Andreea will give us the instructions for disembarkation on Monday morning. (We will all be at a classical music concert tomorrow night.) We are staying with the cruise, albeit by bus, to explore Switzerland for a couple of days. Most others that we have spoken to are heading home on Monday. It’s a real feat of logistics to get everyone where they need to be after one of these cruises.

Tomorrow's destination - Strasbourg, France - fifth country of this tour.Read more