Retired Nomads Part 4: Speyer Walking Tour & Schwetzingen Palace & Gardens

Saturday, July 12

In the morning, we had a walking tour of Speyer. We actually docked in Germersheim and were bussed to Speyer. We were dropped at the Technik Museum where our walking tour started. Some passengers were spending the day touring the museum of transportation.

where we were docked

arrival at the museum

start of the walking tour

Speyer is home to the largest of the three Romanesque imperial cathedrals. It is believed that the Protestants earned their name here in 1529 after citizens and royalty drafted the “Protestation at Speyer,” proclaiming their right to practice Christianity as they please. In 1689, Louis XIV’s troops plundered Speyer and left it in ruins; over many decades, it was artfully rebuilt.

The red sandstone Speyer cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Eight Holy Roman Emperors are entombed here.

The Franconian-Salian Statues in the garden of Speyer Cathedral. They depict the Franconian-Salian emperors, who were rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

We had free time to explore the town and the Cathedral before walking back to the transportation museum.

After a quick lunch on the ship, we boarded the bus to visit the Gardens of Schloss Schwetzingen. It was a long drive and even longer when for some reason traffic just wasn't moving. It was a pretty drive and we did eventually arrive at the Summer Palace Grounds and Beautiful Gardens. An inside visit of the Palace wasn't part of the tour just a small part of the gardens. To tour everything in entirety would have taken all day. It's the summer residence of Electors Palatine Charles III Philip and Charles IV Theodore of the House of Wittelsbach.

We lost a lot of time on the road and then there was a mix-up with the tickets. One couple didn't show up for the tour and the guide didn't count properly on the bus. There also seemed to be a person that was on the tour that wasn't supposed to be. The tickets were printed and handed out and there wasn't enough. The guide counted people and collected our tickets to have them reprinted. Viking will owe the gardens more money due to the people that were added to the tour that didn't have tickets. (not totally sure what the mix-up was) So, we lost a ton of time straightening out that mess.

Finally, the guide did her best to show us some highlights. The gardens were beautiful with many fountains and statues and of course flowers & trees.

from the bus

In Castle Square, Peter Lenk's sculpture "Lucky Pig of Schwetzingen" was created on the occasion of the 1250th birthday of the town of Schwetzingen, and is a monument to Elector Carl Theodor. The reference is to an anecdote in which Friedrich the Great called him “a lazy chap and lucky pig who has inherited more states than he ever has conquered”. The coquette serves as a symbol of the art-loving sovereign’s mistresses and muses.