Grüße aus...Rastatt & Speyer!

Two weekends ago, on Oct 28 & 29, Karl and I visited a palace and some churches.



On Saturday, Oct 28, we visited the nearby town of Rastatt. We explored the city center and the grounds of the impressive Rastatt palace. Although we didn't tour through the impressive apartments of the palace that was once home to the margraves of Baden, we did visit the interesting museum in one corner of the palace about various freedom movements over the course of German history. Click here for more photos.

On Sunday, Oct 29, we journyed to the ancient city of Speyer. The city was founded by the Celts in about 500 BC and in 10 BC the Romans took over. Christianity was firmly established in the region by 350 AD and both the Catholic and Protestant churches have a rich history in Speyer.

After visiting the town's gorgeous Catholic cathedral (built 1680-1762) and Protestant cathedral(built 1883-1904), we went through the old city gate and walked through the pedestrian-only streets lined with shops that were suprisingly open! Germany has laws on when stores are allowed to be opened, and apparently, in Speyer, the shops are opened on an occasional Sunday! The streets were flooded with people and street entertainers. We made our way down to the building we had come to see...



In 1030 AD the construction of the Speyer Imperial Cathdral was begun. It was this church that drew us to Speyer...and it was amazing! The building is in a simple Romanesque syle...in fact it is probably the best example of Romanesque architecture in existance. Emperors and Empresses that contributed to the building of the church are buried in its crypt. It is a very simple, but very grand and beautiful church...even after a thousand years! Click here for more photos.

As we walked slowly back over the cobblestones along the pedestrian street, we ate one of our favorite German foods--the Turkish Doenner Kebab--with the streets still full of people enjoying an extra day of shopping. We stopped to watch a one-man-band street musician sing a folk song (joined by an old Frau taking over his song) with little children prancing around him like horses. We were surrounded by this festive atmosphere, having just filled our eyes with ancient and spectacular beauty, filling our tummies with our favorite local food...life just doesn't get better!