Speyer
Well Speyer wasn’t the most interesting place in the world. A lovely town square and a historic church. The one big thing of interest was the Jewish Museum, part museum, part memorial, part archaeological dig. The Jewish community in Speyer was declining for centuries; the Holocaust just about finished it off.
The museum though was great. You could trace the foundations, see some of the old walls, and then go downstairs to explore the ritual baths. A remarkable complex.
Breisach
Much more interesting was the town of Breisach. Much of the town is up on what in another part of the world would be called a “mesa.” You can see it from the river, a steep hill with a flat top (like a mesa, really). It really wasn’t that much of a challenge to get up, there are a few roads and, because it’s a very old town, stairs.
Along the way up is a Franciscan monastery, with a lovely garden. And the views! At the far end is the St. Stephan church. Like so many other things in Germany it was bombed to rubble in the war, but magnificently rebuilt. It features beautiful frescoes, and intriguing (almost disturbing) artifacts of the saints.
Also along the way, this quirky machine, cobblestone streets. Yet somehow there’s a modern supermarket up here.
After a long day of walking up-and-down hill, we did this.
Even with the up-and-down hill travel it wasn’t too hard on my injured knee. The worst of it actually was that the boat dropped us off way up north in a semi-industrial district. We had to navigate our way around it, cross a highway, and then find the streets leading up the hill. But worth it to see the kind of off-the-beaten track location that we can’t get enough of.