TUESDAY 11th OCTOBER 2011 (Speyer Museum)

As if the last three days weren't grueling enough we'd planned another BIG day today.

Here's the Hotel we stayed at the last two nights with the 'Guldener Becher' restaurant next door.

It was a good move staying an extra night as it made it very easy to go visit Siegfried & Libby at their work.

Siegfried runs and services LARGE printing machines. He was flat out preparing a machine, which took up the length of the factory, and getting it ready to be shipped to Russia.

Paul loved visiting and poked his head in among all the nuts'n'bolts.

We stayed much longer than planned (easy to do in Siegfried & Libby's company) but we eventually left and made our way to SPEYER.
SPEYER MUSEUM is an extension of the SINSHEIM MUSEUM we visited yesterday. Again, another HUGE museum with sooooo much to see.

We knew what to expect today, or thought we did, but were still blown away by the contents on display.

Upon entry we had to walk under this 'Noratlas', part of the standard equipment of the French Airforce since 1951. The fuselage tail opens for loading and unloading.

We got our tickets and Paul bounded ahead and went through the rotating gate. He spotted this 1924 Mars 956cc and away he went, then he saw another and another. I was left standing at the gate, my entry ticket in Paul's pocket!
One of the employees came to my aid and offered to let me through the gate. I explained that my husband has the ticket but let's wait and see how long it takes before he realises he's left his wife behind...!!! She roared laughing and we were both left standing for quite a while before Paul came back wondering what on earth I'm doing at the gate!

This was a pretty interesting cycle. It's a 1928 Mauser Monotrace car. Mauser made military weapons and after WW1 they were not allowed to produce weapons any more. So they tried building cars and this is an example. In reality this car is a motorcycle with two lateral supporting wheels. When the car was started it stood on four wheels. Once sufficient speed was gained the supporting wheels could be moved up with the help of a lever.

Here's one of the classic Mercedes Benz's on display. They were many classic German cars as you'd expect.

What, not another Junkers...!!!

There is a huge collection of large Orchestrions, all pumping out their signature tunes, as well as this classic merry-go-round. Would have loved to sit on one of the horses and go round...!!! That's the kid still in me!

Here's one of the many Opel's on display.

Planes, orchestrions, bikes, fire engines, cars, trains...it didn't matter what direction you looked there was always something of interest.

Here's a 1988 Mil-Mi-24P. It's a combined transport and combat helicopter which could accommodate eight soldiers in full equipment and four stretchers.











Standing high over all the exhibits is the Boeing 747 Lufthansa jumbo jet (on the left) with the Antonov cargo plane on the right.

The Antonov was the most interesting aircraft on sight...I thought so anyway. To be able to go inside and look down the 33 meter hold and out the 'hole in the back' where cargo is dropped was fascinating.







The sign said "U-BOOT" and so we figured we better see that. And here it is. This U9 went in to active service in 1967 and worked till 1993. She covered 174,850 nautical miles which equals eight circumnavigations of the globe.









One of the 'must sees' we heard about was a collection of 26 Munch Mammoths. We weren't disappointed - all 26 looked fantastic. We knew a fellow 25 years ago who had one so have followed these bikes with a bit interest ever since.

The entire Friedel-Munch-Museum-Walldorf inventory was permanently taken over by the Speyer Museum.

There were only a few hundred examples ever produced, custom built to the customers requirements.

Not only were the Munch's beautifully displayed, there were also heaps of Munch paraphernalia, more than you would expect considering it's not a mass produced motorcycle.

We both thought this great. Wonder how she rides?









The BIG draw-card was the Russian space shuttle BURAN. WOW, to see it in the flesh and knowing where it's been was quite extraordinary.

They also had space exhibits covering 2,500 square metres documenting the history of manned space flights from the early 1960's right up to today.

I thought I'd give it a fleeting look but ended up spending a few hours covering all there was to see. It was really interesting.

I was particularly taken with a speed limit sign on board one of the shuttles saying "Speed Limit 28,000 kp/h".

Hall-2 was dominated by the Space Shuttle but there were also many other things to see.

And many vantage points from which to see it.

The old Antonov deserved one more look. She's a big graceful old bird.

After many hours of looking, looking and more looking it was time to leave.

We had a look around the town of SPEYER, on the banks of the Rhein, as we thought we might stay the night. We are only 2 hours from Frankfurt where we have to be tomorrow.

BUT...we decided to head north and found a place to stay near the airport.

So this is our last view of rural Germany.

It really is a beautiful country ... if you can stay off the autobahns!