Wing Flex: Germany, There and Back Again: Speyer Museum and Heidelberg

For other parts of this journey please click below!
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - LAX to FRA
Part 3 - FRA to MUC
Part 4 - BMW Welt and Delivery
Part 5 - First drive and Linderhof Palace
Part 6 - Füssen, Ulm, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Part 7- Speyer Museum and Heidelberg
Part 8 - FRA and the Flight Home

Part 7

After Rothenburg we were back on the road for our last full day in Germany. We made a stop at the Speyer Museum before getting to Heidelberg.

I saw a picture of the crown jewel of Speyer Museum online many years ago. My younger self vowed to go there one day because heck, how often do you get to climb into a 747-200 perched atop some stilts in the sky?

Ye ol' D-ABYM

My much older and present day self actually forgot about the Speyer Museum until B mentioned it to me. I checked out the website online and saw the old Lufthansa 747-200 on the front page. We had to go.

The museum itself was really quiet when we got there probably because it was a weekday. Admission was a reasonable 14 euros per person just for the museum. If you want to visit the IMAX theater as well it will be another 5 euro per person.

The 747 along with a bunch of other planes are exhibited outside. To get there you have to go through a very large warehouse with displays of trains, carnival rides (yes), and classic cars. A lot of the exhibits were interactive too. For example, you could drop a few Euro into a box for the steam train engine exhibit and watch the wheels start spinning complete with choo-choo sounds.

BMW 502

Rolls Royce Phantom

Once outside we were met with a lot of airplanes, ground equipment, and kids' play areas. Our main objective was of course the 747.

Soaring!

Hello!

It's quite a trek to get up there via stairs and some spiral stairs. In fact they even built in a slide so that you can slide back down should you choose to. But once up there it is fantastic and you can climb into the cargo hold of the 747 and all the way into first class and the cockpit. It can however be a little difficult to walk around inside because the whole plane is banked slightly to make it look as it the plane is taking off at an angle.

747-200 cockpit

The best part was walking out onto the wing. It was a little bit scary because there's only a fence to keep you from falling.

Walking onto the giant wing. This isn't a view you get to see that often!

Back on the ground we also visited the Antonov AN-22 because big planes with massive propellers is an awesome thing to behold.

Antonov AN-22

You can also go inside the Antonov.

AN-22 Cockpit

And with that we figured it was time to hit the road again to get to Heidelberg for a late lunch.

Heidelberg is located on the River Nektar in the State of Baden-Württenberg. Due to its location and long history it is a very romantic looking town complete with the Heidelberg Castle perched on the side of a hill.

We got to stay in old town Heidelberg at Hotel Holländerhof which was right by the river and therefore quite an adventure to drive to. Just like in Rothenburg we ended up driving down streets not sure if we were really supposed to be there. Regardless, we somehow made it! We were allowed to park the car in front while we checked in and dropped off our luggage in the room. Unfortunately, the overnight parking would have to be a few blocks away.

An example of how a larger car doesn't help in Europe

Our room was a corner room on the 3rd floor. The view was simply phenomenal and we had a hard time believing we could just open our curtains and see it.

Heidelberg Old Bridge

Old Bridge Tower

The other side of the room even had a small glimpse of Heidelberg Castle. The hotel clerk later told me that the room we had was the only room in the entire hotel that has the view of both.

After we parked the M5 we went out for some lunch in the old town. Since we haven't done the European al fresco lunch yet we found the perfect place right beneath the Church of the Holy Spirit.

This is how you do lunch in Europe

Italian lunch

Hot Chocolate

After lunch we rode the funicular (isn't that a fun word to say?) to the top of the mountain behind Heidelberg. It was an adventure for us because we didn't know what exactly we were going to find up at the top. Plus it was along the way to Heidelberg Castle. The funicular is an interesting cable car of sorts with cars that are sloped so that you aren't sloped as you ride up/down the mountain.

Funicular!

Driven by young German teens?

A lot of people disembarked at Castle Heidelberg but we continued on up to Königstuhl.

Arrived

The view back down to town was amazing but then the weather started to get bad.

Weather incoming

Another tourist wondered if the rain would come this way. I didn't think it would since this particular weather cell was moving away, but then another weather cell came up from behind us! It got really dark and windy and suddenly it was pouring rain. The funicular stopped service until the weather was better so everyone just huddled inside the station. B and I managed to buy some ice cream to eat while we waited things out.

Funicular tracks

On our way back down we stopped at Heidelberg Castle where we wandered around the grounds a bit and tried some not very good wine in the cellar.

View of Heidelberg from the Castle

A very large wine barrel!

Back at the riverside we wandered the neighborhood a bit and then rested in the hotel room until dinner time. I just hung out by the window and watched the day turn in to night. The cool thing about living in town is that there is a lot happening in the streets below. I managed to see a tourist get in a heated argument with a taxi driver in front of the hotel. So much so that the hotel manager came out to smooth things over. I also saw a group of Chinese tourists come pouring out of the Chinese restaurant. They looked really happy and were taking photos of everything. :)

Since this was our last dinner in Germany we splurged a bit and went to Vinothek Restaurant Oskar. The service was phenomenal. We even got to have a bit of a wine tasting of much better wine than what we tried in the afternoon. We had a very lovely seafood three course meal.