h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There - that's 10 days of November journals over!

After a couple of days, I noticed that I was writing about people, so I continued in that vein:

1. Joy Fleming - singer from Mannheim
2. The Wine Route - there'll be more about this in the next section
3. Hans Trapp
4. Richard the Lionheart - imprisoned at Annweiler - or not?
5. Thomas Nast from Landau - early American caricature and cartoon artist
6. Liselotte von der Pfalz - cheeky reporter from Versailles
7. Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the fallen wall
8. Edith Stein, on her way to sainthood
9. Indisposed
10. Friedrich Engelhorn and his bevy of innovative chemists.



So now to the next section. I think I'll write about places.

To start with, my favourite town: Speyer.

The boring bits:

Population nearly 50 000.

Where is it? Speyer is directly on the Rhine, between Karlsruhe and Mannheim, but on the other side to these two (larger) towns.
On the left hand side of the Rhine, it takes an hour to get there by car from Mainz or Kaiserslautern, 2 hours from Cologne, 2hrs 40 mins from Luxembourg and one and a quarter hours from Strassbourg. If you cross the Rhine, you have Heidelberg (less than half an hour's drive), Hockenheim - of Formula One fame - less than 15 mins - Stuttgart, one hour and 20 mins.

How old is it? Mind-bogglingly old. Was a Roman settlement and first mentioned under the name Spira in the 6th century. One of the oldest towns in the country, it celebrated 2000 years of uninterrupted settlement and township status in 1990.

What's it famous for? It has a hugely significant part in the history of the Holy Roman Empire and the Middle Ages as a whole. The Cathedral is called the Imperial Cathedral because it was the seat of many Emperors and many of them are buried there. The Pfalz being a region of such hybrid groups of people, and being on the border with France, Speyer was at the same time a major Catholic bishopric and also one of the cradles of the Reformation.

The interesting bits:

The weather is nearly always nice in Speyer. The main street has been practically closed off to traffic and the tables of the cafés, restaurants and ice cream parlours sprawl across the cobbles like a Mediterranean holiday resort. Because of its historical significance for Catholics, Protestants, Jews and historians, the streets are regularly filled with busloads of tourists.

The Cathedral is roomy and light. It was built in the 11th Century and although the Gothic phase had started as the building work was being finished, it was consistently kept in the original style and has a majestic symmetry to it. It was renovated for the 2000-year celebrations (or was it for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1987?).

At the other end of the main street is the Altpörtel - a small tower that used to be part of one of the town gates.

The oldest remaining part of the town, apart from the Cathedral, is the Jewish quarter. Speyer had a large and wealthy Jewish community in the Middle Ages and parts of the Mikveh and some houses are still to be seen.

I can't emphasise enough the importance of Speyer in the 10th - 12th Centuries. The rulers of the Holy roman Empire, the Salian Emperors, Conrad II, and Heinrich II, IV and V were based there. Church and monarchy went hand-in-hand in those days. The Emperors are buried in the Crypt in the cathedral, which can still be visited today.

More about the Salians on wiki here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salian_dynasty - there is a picture of Speyer Cathedral in the middle of the article.

"What's it famous for?" [TC]

To me, it's famous for a song called "The Bells of Speyer," which was a six-voice song that I sang in college.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/kling-klang-the-bells-of-speyer-for-six-part-mixed-chorus-a-capella/oclc/26602041

We sang it in English. The words went something like this:

We come here to day
To sing and to pray,
Ding, dong, ding, dong, etc.

Deb

[Amy P]

It's a real pleasure coming to Hootoo in November, especially for your interesting contributions.
I'm sure I'd like Speyer: I live in a Roman settlement, which is why the restaurant next door is called THE SETTLEMENT but it was never that important except as a market and it did once have a mint. It's still less than a tenth the size.

I'd never heard that song, Paul - nor even heard of it.

Most versions of it on youtube were blocked off.

Bells on churches in Germany are boring. There is no tradition of campanology and they usually just beat out one note, or a jangle of three or four notes of a triad. Fortunately the bells of both the Catholic and Protestant churches in our village are in A major.

But, listening to one version on Youtube that was accessible, that does just about show what it sounds like. Not tuneful.

Could be any German town with loads of churches (Münster, Cologne, Trier .....)

Sounds like a great place to visit!

One thing above stuck a jangling note: "Church and monarchy went hand-in-hand in those days."

I thought they were constantly at one another's throats, the popes and emperors.

Well, if you're holding hands, you're in easy reach of the throat...

Reddit

I'm not really sure about the hand-in-hand stuff, now you put it like that. It seems likely that the Holy Roman Empire was a rival to the Pope, but on the other hand, all monarchs considered themselves chosen by God, which is what I meant, I think.