Imperial Cathedral of Speyer
Leaving Strasbourg, I returned to Kehl, and then back on the boat, with the next stop Speyer in Germany. The highlight here was a visit to see the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, which is one of the world’s finest and largest Romanesque cathedrals and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built between 1030 and 1061, one of the most important from the time of the Holy Roman Empire and was the burial site for Emperors of Germany for almost three hundred years. Its interior is not as ornate or indeed colourful as some churches. It is one thing I’ve noticed that some are incredibly decorative while others are more understated in their design. The interior of the Imperial Cathedral of Speyer is sparse in comparison, to the Cathedrale Notre-Dame in Strasbourg for example, but no less impressive to my mind. From an architectural point of view there is a lot going on with the different parts of the Cathedral, and its use of red sandstone is a surprise. The front of the Cathedral faces a square, and again has a distinctive look to it, which contrasted sharply with the Cathedral I had visited in Strasbourg. They are so different in look and construction. I particularly liked the alternate use of stone colouring to create a striped effect, with a light pink stone and a light-yellow shade.
From there a bus ride to the town of Worms to pick up the boat again which was now on its way to Rudesheim, Germany which is known for its narrow, cobbled streets and decorated shop fronts. This town is like a filmset, one that would not be out of place in a gothic type fantasy. It made for some fantastic photographs. I’m sure the experience of walking around there in the evening will feed into my fantasy series that is currently in draft. It struck me how often I walked across cobbles on this Rhine trip. We have them in Edinburgh to an extent, and in other towns and villages in Scotland, but in the places I visited on this trip their use is widespread.
I managed a quick visit to the Catholic church of St James which has a sparse interior, and a flat undecorated ceiling with wooden grey beams. Again, the contrast to the big cathedrals I had visited was apparent, though it was nice to see what I view as an ordinary, unassuming church in the middle of a small town. It crossed my mind that I featured a church in my novel The Copernicus Coercion which was set well into the future. It was the base for a group that provided assistance to the main character in the operation he had been assigned. That was actually inspired by a trip to Rome in Italy, and a number of visits I made to churches while there. Although I’m not a church goer, I enjoy visiting as a tourist and imagined a clandestine organisation being hidden in plain sight in such a place. I suspect a similar theme will make its way into a new novel I’m working on, so I view these visits as a way to gather material which will inform my writing. I believe I’ve said before, that writing is not just about putting words on the page, but getting out and about and experiencing things and while doing so, ideas will evolve for future stories. That’s the theory, this trip down the Rhine is the practice, and I’m confident some of this will weave its way into my writing, probably in unexpected and surprising ways.
The Fiction Factory 