We arrived in Speyer Germany around 8:30 AM cutting it pretty close as our bus for the tour of the Docktorenhof Vinegar estate was scheduled to leave at 9:15. However, we were able to board our busses with time to spare as they were able to pull up close to the River Queen docking spot.
Speyer is one of Germany’s oldest cities and started out as a Roman military outpost in the days of the Republic ca. 10 BC, it was then called Spira. Today it is a mid sized city of around 50,000 and boasts not only the largest Romanesque cathedral in the world but a museum that houses a large collection of airplanes and even a Russian space craft. We drove past the Technics Museum as we headed to the Vinegar Estate.
We thought it looked interesting and there was time to visit it in the afternoon, but we chose not to go. There were many steps to climb,if you wanted to enter the Lufthansa 747. The large plane was attached to a platform as if it were taking off. To reach it you had to climb a spiral staircase Alas, the Ramblers’ climbing days are mostly over, so we took a pass, although seeing a Russian spacecraft was intriguing.
The morning was overcast and drizzly as we drove through vineyards and fields to the small town of Venningen, population under 1,000, where the Doctorenhof Vinegar Estate is located. On the way, I saw a stork in a field, too far away for a photo from a moving bus, unfortunately. This part of Europe is famous for storks but this was the first I had seen and I was amazed at how large it was.
When we arrived at the Vinegar Estate we were given long brown hooded robes which we were expected to wear. Our group was a little surprised by this but we complied and were told this was to protect the vinegar “mother” which we would see before we went to the tasting room.
This was the part of the experience the Ramblers did not enjoy as we had to go down a series of stone steps with no handrail in semi-darkness. Fear of falling flashed through our heads but we made it safely down. If you have any difficulty with steps, I would suggest you skip this part of the tour. Although our group managed it without incident, I would hope they have another way into the tasting room. The mother bacteria wasn’t all that interesting to us, but from there we were finally ushered into the tasting room. here we were handed very unusual tasting glasses with extra-long stems. We learned that the special vinegars were distilled from premium wines such as Gewurztraminer, Sylvaner, Riesling and Pinot Noir and flavored with a variety of herbs and fruits. The result is a liquor rather than a vinegar, which presented as a most interesting and complex aperitif. The vinegars we tasted had fanciful names such as Angels kissing in the night, You are my heart’s delight and Balsam of St. Damien. The first two of these were classed as aperitifs while the third was considered a tonic. The Ramblers tasted them all. While we agreed that they had a great variety of flavors, the senior Rambler only like the first one, while I enjoyed them all.
Unfortunately, Doctorenhof is not allowed to ship their vinegars to the United States, although they were willing to pack them in bubble wrap so you could put them in your checked baggage. The Rambler bought a few tiny bottles; as you might expect they are very expensive. This was a very unusual tour and one of the more intriguing places we visited on this trip. Recommend it highly except for the steps.
Our tour of the Vinegar Estate ended at noon but we were not scheduled to leave Speyer until 7 PM. As we had the afternoon free and the drizzly morning had cleared, the Ramblers decided to walk to the historic center of Speyer. Krista and Cliff, friends we had made on the cruise, asked us if we would like to share their taxi as Cliff felt it was too long of a walk for him. We happily agreed, and the senior Rambler climbed into the front as he was the tallest while Krista and Cliff and I would share the middle seat.
What I didn’t realize at first was that the taxi driver was a very large woman who had the driver’s seat fully extended. We asked if she could move it forwards but she declined. She was undoubtedly the least friendly person we encountered on the trip. Well, my artificial hips don’t allow me a lot of flexibility, and my legs are not thin, nor as strong as they used to be. When I stepped into the taxi, my right leg got stuck between the front and middle seat. It was really wedged in there, and for a while I struggled in vain to pull it loose. I looked pretty silly with one leg stuck inside and one outside the taxi. Of course, all four of us, myself included, were convulsed with laughter and this didn’t help.
The taxi lady just sat there glowering as we were wasting her valuable time. After a minute or two, I managed to move my leg and eventually climbed into the taxi, a small Mercedes station wagon, the vehicle of choice for taxis in Germany.
Sweaty and flustered, I sat next to Krista and Cliff, retired dentist and his niece, who had already become good friends. We had no trouble laughing about my predicament. The taxi lady drove like a fiend to the historic center of Trier, probably wanting to get rid of the crazy Americans who had hired her cab. Needless to say, no photos were taken of this mishap.
It was a relief to disembark from that taxi and we soon went our separate ways to places we had seen briefly on our way back from this morning’s tour. At this point the Ramblers wished we had just taken our time and walked to the historic center as it was not that far away. Speyer is one stop along the Rhine where the docking space is within easy walking distance of its historic heart. However, the River Queen was sailing at 7 PM and we didn’t want to miss our ship. We needn’t have worried, as we would get back in plenty of time.
Of course I had to visit the cathedral of Maria and St Stephen which has been the heart of Speyer for over 1,000 years. On one hand, it is a bastion of religion and the other a symbol of imperial power. It has undergone many interior changes through the centuries as the original austere Romanesque interior was adorned during the baroque era. Fortunately in recent years, these later additions were removed and now looks much like it did 1,000 years ago.
The Cathedral Bowl in front of the west facade in front of the plaza
is part of a unique tradition you’ll only find at Speyer . The huge bowl used to mark the boundary line between the church’s property and the city. When a new bishop was installed, the bowl was filled with wine and everyone in the city could drink freely. This was done to improve the local attitude towards the new bishop.
It has been a long time since the cathedral bowl fulfilled these historical functions. But this beloved Middle Age custom continues to be observed in modern times. On special religious occasions, the cathedral bowl is again filled with wine. With a capacity of over 1500 liters, many citizens and guests are thereby able to enjoy a taste of the juice of the grape. The bowl was last filled at the 950-year anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of Speyer on October 2, 2011.
The cathedral has many massive sculptures of emperors and saints both on its facade and inside, yet it is striking in its simplicity. Its recent restoration has left it looking like new construction as it has none of the colorful paintings or statues one expects. Both interior and exterior have white statues and two tone masonry colored walls. In the courtyard, there are a series of statues of ancient emperors and not far away is an elaborate sculpture of the Mount of Olives protected by a high wrought iron fence. The Ramblers had never seen anything quite like this. We learned that for centuries the sculpture had been the centerpiece of the cloister walk but both sculpture and cloister were destroyed in a 17th century fire. The cloister was never rebuilt but the Mount of Olives was reconstructed in the late 19th century.
After admiring the statuary and the historic center, we slowly found our way back to the ship. Tomorrow we would spend the day in France as our next stop was the city of Strasbourg along the Mosel/Moselle river. After a day and a half in France, we would head back to the Rhine and our last stop in Basel.