Speyer

The kiddos, Grandma and I traveled to Speyer, a one-time free village in the Roman Empire, to serve as a distraction on the weekend that J left for a month.  To see all of the pictures from our trip, click here.  

The first stop was the Technology Museum where trains, planes, boats and submarines were on display.  The museum had something of mini-amusement park on its grounds including a ride that simulated parachuting, a playground and a half-pipe roller coaster.  

Inside the museum, we walked through exhibit after exhibit of highly polished cars and preserved trains; Uncle Scott, you may have a few new prodigies!  Log enjoyed looking at the war era vehicles and was delighted when he found a motorbike with a sidecar claiming that it looked like something Indiana Jones would have parked in his garage.  Bop was drawn toward the John Deere tractors, Matty to the trains and Littlest to a U-Boat!  Many of the exhibits were set up so that if one dropped a coin in a slot then headlights would turn on or the sound of a steam engine could be heard.  

Outside of the enclosed exhibit house were several interactive exhibits where the kiddos could climb into cockpits and walk inside of a U-Boat; however, the biggest draw was a Lufthansa aircraft suspended 100 feet in the air on which a person could walk out onto the wing.  All save for Littlest enjoyed sliding down the enclosed spiraling slide in a carpet bag from the landing of the Lufthansa exhibit. Littlest restricted her thrills to jumping over puddles on the much safer and less claustrophobic ground.  

Several slides down later, we ventured back inside of the museum for our IMAX show about the moon missions during which I spent most of time translating for Log.  When I bought tickets to the show, it completely slipped my mind that it would be in German!  Bop spent a great deal of time trying to read the lips of the actors while ignoring the dubbed over German in bits of the show.  

Having exhausted the museum possibilities, we walked to the town center and through the Speyer Cathedral, the Jewish Courtyard and by City Hall.  A man played pieces by Chopin outside of the church's main entrance while teenagers rode along the cobbled street on skateboards.  I had a proud moment when Bop asked about the architectural style of the church!  

Though we missed Daddy's company, we enjoyed our day in Speyer!