A walk around Speyer

I'm spending this week in a familiar house - that of my friend Claudia in Speyer, Germany.  It's a lovely old town and I always enjoy staying here.  I had a very early morning flight from Birmingham, leaving at 6.15am which gave me the entire day with Claudia and her daughter Tamara.  It's not been so long since I've seen them this time as I was here at the beginning of December. 

We spent the day catching up and then took Angelina the dog for a walk in the forest.  It's was snowing as we walked... the dry, fluffy snow.  Lovely.

Claudia's household aren't early birds like me so I'm usually up and about an hour or two before them.  It's so peaceful to go walking around the town on my own... especially a Sunday morning when there's few people out.  I was out just after 8am this morning, doing my tour of the town.  It snowed lightly most of the way but as I headed back it got heavier..... enormous floaty flakes.

I've been here many times before and have taken the same photos over and over.   But, so that I'd have record of my visit this time I took some again.  I love the amazing old buildings here, the cobbled streets, the cathedral (built between 1030 and the 1100's... can you believe that... it's not a typo!), the old city wall and town gate (built between 1230-1250), the main street, and the glimpses down side streets of quaint old houses.