Day 79: Speyer to Worms

May 7, 2025

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One of the things we hate in a hotel is when they declare the time for breakfast, and we come down the stairs at that time only to discover a morgue, with all lights off and nothing doing. The most usual version of this is that a person will shortly arrive, and only then - at or past the breakfast time - will they only start the breakfast preparations.

Today it was a version of that, except that no one appeared at all. It was a potential problem, because our bikes were locked in their garage, and they had the key. We fixed this by going behind the desk and rummaging in their drawer. Dodie came up with the key, and our bikes were free!

We, of course, were without breakfast, for which we had already paid 18 euros in cash. In later messaging with the property, they apologized. But it's still a mystery about how we would get the 18 euros back.

What we did to actually get breakfast was to go around the corner, to one of two bakers, who were easy to find.

The long cylindrical thing is some kind of spinach and feta concoction, chosen for its veggie and protein potential. The mohn schnecke, on the other hand, is one of my favourite sweet treats. Dodie mistakenly got a second coffee. She never drinks coffee, but so as to not waste it, she loaded it with sugar and drank it anyway. Caffeine and sugar! Dodie was flying for half the morning!

These are our favourite German buns: "broitchen".

The main things of interest to us in Speyer were conveniently strung out along the pedestrian street, between the city gate at one end and the Dom at the other. Very quickly we felt at home going up and down this limited territory, with its two bakeries, two churches, interesting side streets, and hotels.

Here by the Trinity Protestant church what must be George and the Dragon. The dragons always have a hard time in these portrayals. We have a friend who is an Anglican priest and I have asked him if Christians believe in dragons, actually. I am not sure that his answer made much sense.

I, however, am more than willing to believe in a golden stag.

The Trinity church, near the jacobspilger statue from yesterday.

We went back to the cathedral for a look inside. This end, where the entrance is, is misleading in looking so small, The actual building behind is really huge - you could surely park several jumbo jets inside.

We sent Dodie in first, leaving me parked outside. I noticed several strange creatures clinging to the walls:

These ones are holding up important bits of the facade.

Around and inside the church are statues of knights and kings with swords. The separation of church and state is a relatively recent thing. Earlier Christians were highly militaristic.

Inside the Dom. Lots of coloured columns.

On the exit door, is this figure encouraging us to be quiet?

Outside, a gaggle of tourists have arrived. Fortunately, we're leaving!

Garbage trucks are a little recognized essential for public health. There are lots of them here, and all the workers have great outfits!

The bike way had a glitch and disappeared on us, so we veered off and went through the little town of Otterstadt.

This guy was watching us from a fence post.

We stopped to look at a re-roofing project on one of the houses. The workers were removing some sort of messy insulation, one lump at a time by hand.

It's a neogothic style, completed in 1891.

I found this sign by the Catholic church interesting. It says "We are colourful! Show your colours for diversity and democracy!". This text, and the rainbow like background are surely references to LGBTQ people. It's quite something for a Catholic church to have put this up.

These ladies noticed us circling round their town and asked some of the Usual Questions. As is always the case, on learning that we are from North America, they lamented current goings on. Interestingly, they were well aware of Mark Carney, and his current trip to Washington. They also discussed Friedrich Merz, his difficulty getting elected the other day, and his immediate visits to France and Poland.

Next up for us was Ludwigshafen, which we skirted, as much as possible. Ludwigshafen is home to a massive BASF chemical installation.

These coal fired plants are still operational. but mainly supplanted by wind and solar.

During this day, as with so many past days, the weather has us both wearing a lot of warm clothes and also taking them on and off as conditions would change hour by hour. We had stopped to make one of these changes, when a man came up and asked us about our trip. This man, the ladies at Otterstadt, and Hans and Petra from yesterday, all went against the assessment that the German people did not want to talk or interact out on the trail.

Our visitor this time was Martin, who we learned was a recently retired Chemist from BASF. Martin was also a very experienced marathon runner, and a cyclist as well. Martin had been to Vancouver, and had a daughter from Mannheim who had studied at UBC. The discussion was quite wide ranging. We learned, for example, that BASF was having to cut its operations here by 20% due to natural gas shortage, and that eastern Europe has continued to use a lot of Russian gas. We shifted from topics like that to what speed Eliud Kipchobe would be running in a marathon, to what Martin's best speeds have been. Ultimately, we left the spot where we had been stopped, and Martin ran alongside us. I kept my speed to below 13 kph. It was a little cruel, because I kept asking questions, and Martin had to both breathe and talk while running.

It was really nice to meet this lovely man. He had retired at 62 after over 30 years, to attend more to family, running, and nutrition. We support that idea, and in fact did it ourselves at an even younger age!

Martin has run 45 marathons, we think he said.

My imaginary concept of the Rhine cycleway was of a nicely paved and protected path all along the river. This is not how it really is, as there are all kinds of conditions, from noodling through suburbs to crossing rather busy roads, and yes, to well marked, paved, and protected bikeways.

With interesting natural thigs to look at.

Here is a weird one. We spotted a lot of people working in a field. At a distance, we could not tell if they were planting or harvesting. But we took some photos, knowing it would be clear once we looked at the pictures on the big screen.

Even here, we are pretty much in the dark.

Ok, now we see, they are harvesting shallots!

Meanwhile, our scenery varies from BASF operations, with colourful meadows in the foreground...

to straight paved path though farm fields

Finally we rolled into Worms, and quickly arrived at its famous cathedral. The building gives the impression of great age, inside and out, and is not fancy - not at all like Strasbourg or even Speyer.

A wall like this is the result of revisions over centuries.

Inside there were some dramatic touches, like some rather colourful nd modern stained glass:

But here is one of several dioramas on very traditional themes.

And they had a Pope Francis memorial. As the Conclave has now begun, the Francis years are controversial. Some thought he was great, some felt he created conflict.

We moved from the cathedral to the centre of town, where the Trinity Church is found. In this town where Martin Luther was so important, such churches are major landmarks.

Across from the church is our hotel.

But across from the hotel is an Eis Cafe (iced cream shop)!

Martin Luther attended the Diet of Worms. This seems to be our diet in Worms!

We took our eis bechers and walked down the pedestrian street.

At the end, we arrived at an area which maybe was where Luther entered the city.

We kept going, because some signs had told us that the former synagogue was also down this way. We found it, though as usual the synagogue is a humble building compared to the big cathedrals and churches. One of the info panels did mention that the same masons as had built the cathedral worked on this.

Info panels by the synagogue told a long and complicated story about its construction phases, destructions, and rebuildings. There is one quaint tale that is part of this, that of Rashi's niche:

This depression in the synagogue wall is "Rashi's niche"

We had some birding success today. Dodie had picked up that we had not yet logged a Rook this year. A Rook can be considered one of a group of "Corvids", that include the Raven, the Crow, the Jackdaw, and the Rook, plus the Magpie and the Hooded Crow. It's one we should have seen, and Dodie was starting to obsess about it. She says she was ready to request a photo of every black bird we saw, just to check for it.

But look, the Nikon found it:

Look at that grey "nose"! This is bird #205 for 2025.

We also spotted some other interesting birds:

This Black Swan was out in the middle of a lake. I shot this photo, and put it into eBird. But wait, it's a hoax! Only on the big screen is this obviously plastic!

The eyes are the giveaway! (Plus the seam on top of the head).

Great Crested Grebe, known by its Mohawk hairdo and wearing a tutu.

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,725 km (1,692 miles)

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Martin RuebenackerDear Dorothea, dear Steve, what a nice report about your todays ride. You are a great listener and I wonder how well you recall our conversation. Your reports and the pictures are extraordinary and a great motivation to start our own bike tours (on a very small scale) this year. God bless you for the rest of your tour. One can learn a lot about history from you. Best regards to Dorothea an big hugs
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1 month ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Martin RuebenackerThanks for the kind words, Martin. We saw somewhere on the internet many nice comments from your colleagues at BASF, when you retired. We were lucky to meet such a person as you, just by cycling along. In cycle touring this does happen from time to time, and most cyclists have stories of "road angels" or other wonderful people that are encountered out on the trail.
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1 month ago