So......Speyer. Where to begin. First, it was AMAZING!!!

Let's try this again....ok, so I woke up on Friday, and just spontaneously decided that I wanted to go to Speyer. There really was no other factor in the equation, i was just tired of all of the rain and nasty weather in Mainz, and it was sunny on Friday. I had to cancel lunch with Julia, for which I am very sorry, but i was bound and determined to see Speyer when it was sunny.

To begin with, I really didn't know that much about the city, but i knew that Henry III and Henry IV had frequented the cathedral, so I needed to go. Therefore, I looked on the good ole faithful db.de and found out when a train left for Speyer and how long it would take to get there. Needless to say, it only took 59 minutes and with the RE it would only cost me a little over 14 Euro. So, I went down to the Reise Zentrum and bought me a ticket. Did it all in German too, without a glitch. God I love it when that happens, makes me feel like I've learned something.... Anyways, so I got on the train, took out my book (Das letzte Gebet) and settled in for the ride to Speyer.

When I first arrived, I was, to be completely honest, a little disappointed. The Hauptbahnhof is really nowhere close to where I wanted to go, and frankly that perturbed me a little. Needless to say, i bought myself a quick city guid, then headed off towards the Kaiserdom. Upon my arrival, I was amazed at the Dom. It was magnificent! I couldn't wait to go inside, fo I could only imagine how beautiful the inside must look. Well, the inside wasn't like a knock out or anything (though it was quite beautiful, don't get me wrong), but most of the nice things had been stolen by the French many years before, and so the Cathedral was, if I may say it, a little bare. I looked around, took photos, and that was pretty much it. However, as I was going to leave, I noticed that the crypts were open, and being the sicko that I am, I really couldn't resist a good look into the crypts. The crypts were.....kinda scary. I didn't imagine them to be so small and tomb like, but I guess that just shows my stupidity. In any event, I looked around at the small chapels and so on, becoming more bored as I went. Then, something caught my eye. This was a little sign which read, "Zur Grablege". With this, I proceeded though the iron gates and then up the stone stairs. What did I find you may ask? THE CATACOMBS, to something very much like it. There were stone sarcophagi lying all around and put into the walls and then I came to the piece de resistance, the graves of the Salian Emperors. OMG!!! It was AMAZING!! it was like waking up on Christmas to come down and find out what you got. I know that to those of you who could give a s*** less about the four Salian Emperors, and more than likely don't know who they are, don't judge. But for those of you who do know, and know about my thesis, this was like seeing one's thesis topic in real life!! It was surreal. I took so many photos that i could prolly do just a scrap book on the graves. They were all laid out in nice little rows, with the oldest being the furthes back. Oh, Amazing. Then, because i was the only on in the crypts, i totally just went through the fence and touched one of them. Yeah, yeah, I know. Dumb thing to do, but I couldn't help myself......it was like Henry IV was calling to me being like, 'Ricky, you're doing your thesis on me, touch my grave" so I listened. It was cool though.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful when compared to this magnificent find. I looked through some more churches and then went to the Roman museum and saw a presentation on Ghengis Khan and then another one on Henry IV. The city of Speyer in and of itself was beautiful, and I hope that I can go back again..... The only down part to the entire day was the fact that when I got back to the Speyer Hauptbahnhof I found out that trains only run from Speyer to Mainz once every two hours, and, lucky me, I had just missed the last one. Therefore, I was forced to stand in the Hauptbahnhof for about two hours. And yes, you read that right, stand because there were NO benches or chairs in the Hauptbahnhof. I don't know why, but there weren't. There were tables, but not chairs....so I bought something to eat, and stood at a table.......for two hours. Then, when I finally did get back to Mainz, there was this elderly woman on the train and she asked me for help taking her luggage off since she had like 5 suitcases (for what purpose I never did discern, but whatev). Anyways, we got off of the train and she said something to me, but she mumbled, like really bad so finally I said in German, "I'm sorry, I don't understand you" so she was like,

"Well, can you speak English?" and of course I answered yes, but lo and behold, she mumbled her English too, which showed me that the problem was not my comprehension, no, no, it was her mumbling. So I just kinda went along for the ride carrying her bags, praying to God that she knew where she was going because I was ready to go home. It's all good though, I dropped her at the Reise Zentrum, because she needed to catch another train, and I went back to my dorm. Finally, a good ending to a good day. Bingen coming soon.....