Spires in Speyer

I had the opportunity to venture into Speyer for a little lunch at the Weihnachtsmarkt in December. Speyer is a town just west of us, right on the banks of the Rhine. A friend of mine, who grew up here, said that the Weihnachtsmarkt in Speyer was not to be missed. What's a Weihnachtsmarkt and why would someone not want to miss it? A Weihnachtsmarkt is the traditional German Christmas market that is set up in towns all around Germany. They bring in these little cottages, or booths, and set them up along the main street or center of town. In these booths they sell German crafts, toys, hats and gloves, pottery, and most important, food! 

There were bratwursts on freshly baked rolls and potato soups. One of my favorite things here has been to eat a steaming bratwurst right off the grill out in the cold. Warms you right up! And there were plenty of beverages. Germans love their beverages. Especially the alcoholic ones. At the Weihnachtsmarkt they sell a special, mulled hot wine called glühwein (pronounced glue-vine) and roughly translated to glow-wine. I'll tell you, after a couple mugs of this, you will be pretty glowy. You can keep the commemorative mug that has the name of the town and the year on it, or you can return it for one Euro. If you aren't in the glowy glühwein mood you have to order the kinderpunsch which is the kid punch. It's usually hot cider. I had two mugs of this and got my own glow (burned my tongue).

After a tasty bratwurst and hot cider and plenty of strolling up and down through the Christmas market, I ventured out into Speyer on my own. The name of Speyer is said to come from the fact that the town had so many spires in it.

Pretty fitting I would think.  

Speyer is one of the oldest settlements in Germany. A contributing factor to it's establishment is it's position on the Rhine. There were few locations between Basel, Switzerland and Mainz, Germany where the banks were high enough to protect from floods, yet still be close to the river. The Rhine was the western border of the Roman Empire at times and Speyer was used as a Roman camp. It has the largest Romanesque church, the Speyer Cathedral, to this day. However, it was being refurbished during my visit so I will have to go back again to see it.

I did manage to catch some of these gems.

The shopping mall in the old Post Office of Speyer.

St. Josef Church.

This beautiful building with the mosaic roof is the Gedächtniskirche or The Memorial Church. It was constructed in 1893 in memory of the protest that happened at the Diet of Speyer in 1529. What was a Diet? It was a general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, the precursor to modern Germany. It would seem some Lutheran members of the Diet protested against all things in the Diet they thought were against the Word of God. And that my friends is how we get the word "Protestant" today. Don't you feel a little smarter?

I wandered around Speyer, wondering what other important things had happened here. Did a Roman stand right where I was? Did a Protestant protest and shake their fist? So much history...

After 15 minutes of walking, I realized I had better get back to my car. Not because I was out of things to look at in Speyer. But because I could no longer feel my face. It was freezing. My "glow" of bratwurst and kid punch had definitely worn off. Until next time Speyer!