A long day in the middle of a Viking river cruise. It started with a longer-than-planned bus ride to the day’s city, and ended with a longish ride back. And then, just before we got to the dock, we caught a brief glimpse of what looked like a 747 grazing the roof of a building!
And then it was out of sight, and none of us were sure what we had seen.
But a bit of internet research turned up the Auto and Technik Museum in Speyer, which hosts the huge walk-in exhibit of a retired Lufthansa 747. Sadly, it was too late for us to be among the half-million who visit it every year and get to walk through not only the 747 but also a German submarine, a Russian Antonov AN22, locomotives and a houseboat.
In 1991-92, I was stationed in nearby Heidelberg at U.S. Army Europe Headquarters 20 years after my first stationing there during the Cold War. The Speyer Cathedral was always a place to take visiting family and friends. My favorite place in Speyer was the French military store where we had reciprocity. We would go there to stock up on champagne, wine, cheese, chocolate and other French goodies.
I lived in Heidelberg 1959-61 with my parents before returning stateside for college (and in retrospect, I wish I had chosen UM Munich), and we, too, had a weekend ritual of heading for the French commissary, bringing our own bottles to refill with excellent, but cheap, vin de table. I’ve never lost my taste for French butter, either…