Speyer Dom

I am so sorry it has been so long since I posted. Although I'm not taking nearly as many units as I have been the past few semesters, school finally caught up with me. But now I finally have time to blog, so all is well!

Two weeks ago now, on February 15 we went as a group to Speyer to see the Kaiserdom and the Jewish Baths. It took about an hour to get there using public transportation. It was pretty easy. I must say, the public transportation system in Germany is much easier (and much more accessible) than the public transportation in the US.

Our first train ride! Kristen, Phillip, me :)

So we got to Speyer at lunchtime, and decided it would be best to stop and eat, and figure out where we were supposed to be going. Tim and Andrea didn't go with us on this trip, so it was up to us to navigate the city. Once we finally got going in the right direction, it wasn't very hard.

Old Town Speyer, where the Dom is located, looks much like Old Heidelberg. The buildings are similar and the road is cobblestone. It felt like we had travelled an hour and ended up in Heidelberg again, which was funny to me. It was snowing that morning when we left Heidelberg, although in Speyer it was gone from the streets by the time we set out from lunch.

Old town Speyer, with the Kaiserdom in the background.

So, the Kaiserdom. The Kaiserdom is the oldest Roman-Catholic church in Germany. It was the biggest church I have been in so far. And it was beautiful. Of course. Why wouldn't it be? The church is open to the public to go in and see, or to pray. To visit the crypt beneath the church there is a charge, but the rest of the church is open to the public.

Like I said, it is a beautiful church.

We went inside and wandered around a bit. Phillip and I got right to taking photos. The lighting was pretty poor, so many of my photos didn't turn out very well, but I did get some good ones.

This is a view of the wing to the right of the altar, from the level of the altar. Pretty big.

We did go down into the crypt, which was quite interesting. I'm still not sure what the crypt is/was used for, but there was an altar there too, as well as tombs. One tomb was from 1038. That's almost 1000 years old! I was quite astonished.

The altar in the crypt.

And of course, I got a chance to take an artsy photo. (Well, several chances really). These candles were to the side of the altar. I love taking photos of candles. Something about it is so beautiful to me.

After we left the Dom, we found the Jewish baths, which was synagogue ruins and an actual bath below the ground. Unfortunately that was pretty difficult to get photos of because of the way it was made.

Last weekend we had our first free travel weekend and I went to Kandern, a small town in the Black Forest, to visit my roommate's family. I will post about that trip separately, because I had a wonderful time, and we took to trip to another country... It was beautiful. However, right now I have to sign off because I have a migraine setting in and I need to go to sleep. Tomorrow we are taking a trip to Mannheim, so I will have a lot to write about the next time I am able!

Grace and Peace,
Suzannah