We sailed into Speyer this morning. This time, there was a third tour on offer: “Speyer and the ShUM”, part of Uniworld’s Jewish Heritage series of tours. I was afraid it might not operate because today is Yom Kippur, but it did, so we met our guide and set out for…

…the Cathedral! I was a bit surprised, but not only was it beautiful, but it was also relevant to the history of the Jews in Speyer. When the First Crusade came through Speyer in 1096, the Bishop invited Jews to take refuge in his palace on the northern side of the Cathedral. The Emperor at the time was Heinrich IV; he is depicted fighting a wolf (I think it signifies the Church) in a statue outside the Cathedral.

Speyer claims to have invented the pretzel (it’s disputed), but they take that claim seriously; there’s even a pretzel-maker on the façade of the Cathedral alongside an angel.

We left the Cathedral and walked to the Judenhof, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has the ruins of a synagogue and an extremely well-preserved mikvah which we could walk down and see.

We spent about an hour in the Judenhof, then our guide took us to the market street and turned us loose. The market street is part of the North Route of the Palatine Ways of St. James which eventually connects to the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. I saw a pilgrim on the street (he looked like a backpacker but he was also carrying a pilgrim’s staff) but I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture. Fortunately, there’s always a pilgrim on the market street.

We walked to the new synagogue (our guide said that the Jewish community is now mostly from Eastern Europe).

Our guide told us that the synagogue had been placed so that it faced the Cathedral; it certainly didn’t align with the surrounding streets. It adjoins St. Guido’s Park, where we found a menorah with this inscription:

A gift from Speyer’s Catholic and Protestant Christians for the inauguration of the synagogue, 9 November 2011

We walked back to the ship, had lunch, and set out again to meet one of my oldest blogging friends, Andrea Frick. She and I had both started blogging on EditThisPage.com (thanks, Dave Winer!) and we’ve read each other’s blogs over the years. She lives near Speyer and offered to come and take us around the area, and we were delighted! Unfortunately, her husband André (also an early EditThisPage blogger) had to work.

Andrea took us out of Speyer and along the Palatinate Wine Road to the Kalmithaus for a short hike and a great view of the Rhine River Valley.

We then drove to Rhodt, a small town along the road, and walked up its Main Street to enjoy the atmosphere.

We stopped at Hofverkauf Familie Wolff to look at their cordials, jams, and honeys; the woman running the shop asked where we were from and when I said “California”, she gave me a free jar of fig jam, which I look forward to enjoying at home.

Andrea brought us back to the ship and we parted – I hope it’s not another 23 years before we see her again!

We sailed overnight to Strasbourg, docking about 100 yards from where we’d started the cruise on Friday. We took the City Tour, which began with a quick drive past the European District where we got glimpses of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament through the bus windows.

We also drove by Synagogue de la Paix, built in the 1950s to replace the synagogue that the Nazis had destroyed. It has a six-branched menorah to represent the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

We got off the bus and walked to La Place de la République, where we saw the war memorial sculpture depicting a mother with her two dead sons, one French and one German.

We crossed the River Ill, which separates the German and French quarters of the city and saw the Janus Fountain also known as The Birth of Civilization, which was designed in 1988 by Alsatian illustrator Tomi Ungerer, on the occasion of Strasbourg’s 2000-year anniversary. The two faces of the fountain represent the duality of French and Germanic culture in Strasbourg and Alsace. One of the faces is turned towards the historical city center, while the other points towards the old German imperial quarter of the Neustadt. The aqueduct structure, composed of 5000 bricks, symbolizes the Roman origins of Strasbourg, where the military outpost of Argentoratum was once located.

We continued walking through Place Broglie, passing the Opéra National du Rhin, the Monument au Général Leclerc, and City Hall.

Our guide took us through the streets between City Hall and the Cathedral; they were quiet because it was early on Sunday morning, though a few bakeries were open. We weren’t able to go inside the Cathedral because services were in progress, but we could hear the organ and enjoy seeing the outside of the building.

The guide left us outside the Cathedral and we explored the area with our friends.

We spent most of the day at the Historical Museum which covered Strasbourg’s history from ancient times until nearly today. It was comprehensive without being overwhelming, and all the exhibits were explained in French, German, and English (though the English explanation was usually much shorter than the others).

We took a break partway through our exploration to have lunch; we found Restaurant Le Rimini a few blocks away from the tourist area. The food was great and inexpensive. Diane and I ate for less than $40, including two Picon Biéres, an interesting mixture of beer and Amer Picon, a local apéritif. They gave us soup and our choice of digestif for free, too!

We walked back to the ship by way of the University of Strasbourg.

Lots of discoveries!