Playmobil and ancient wine in Speyer

I’d been wanting to go and see the “40 Jahre Playmobil” exhibition in Speyer ever since I saw a poster advertising it back in December (yes, I am 30 going on about 7…), so when Jan asked whether I wanted to do anything on 1st May (a holiday in Germany) and the weather forecast said that anything outdoors was definitely not a good idea, I decided it was the perfect opportunity. Jan didn’t seem tooo enthusiastic, but he had asked what I wanted to do, so he agreed to go along with it.

The exhibition was taking place at the Historisches Museum der Pfalz (History Museum of the Pfalz), Pfalz or the Palatinate being the region that Speyer is located in. We arrived in Speyer at around noon and joined the queue of small people with their parents… apparantly I’m the only childless person in Germany who wants to see toys 😉 Once inside, we purchased our tickets, which included both the special exhibition (Playmobil!) and the permanent exhibits. We decided to check out the Playmobil first, just in case the queue got even longer later! I never really played with Playmobil as a child (I remember briefly having one set, with swings and a roundabout) and I still prefer Lego, partly because it encourages children to be creative in a way that Playmobil doesn’t (there’s no building your own things with Playmobil!), but also because you can do so much with a basic set of Lego. With Playmobil, you have to buy a separate kit for everything you might want to do – a castle, a pirate ship, a circus… with Lego, you could theoretically build anything you wanted to yourself (if you’re more creative than me!). Nevertheless, I was fascinated by just how many different Playmobil kits there are! And the look back at Playmobile through the ages was pretty interesting, too – as you may have gathered from the title, the point of the exhibition was to celebrate 40 years of Playmobil. Here are some of the photos I managed to get (actually quite a difficult task with all the children buzzing around!).

Playmobil “Indians”

Playmobil soldiors

A giant Playmobil figurine

A Playmobil circus

Rapunzel!

I loved the cute little squirrels and hedgehogs

Playmobil ship

A Playmobil doll’s house… I love the ghost in the attic!

A Playmobil fir engine from the 70s

One of the larger exhibits… this sea world model was fascinating!

They also had some Playmobil inspired art, including this painting that I really liked!

Playmobil done, it was time for something more grown up… wine! The Wine Museum area included some interesting wine barrels, including this one that can hold five different types of wine at once. Clever!

The museum also has what’s thought to the oldest still (semi-)liquid wine in the world, from Roman times… around 300 AD to be precise. I can’t say it looked particularly appertising any more!

Once we’d had a look at the wine museum, we had a quick snack stop at the cafe. We both went for Currywurst, opting for the “Scharf” (spicy) variety. I dread to think what their normal Currywurst was like… sausages in plain old ketchup? The Scharf certainly wasn’t very spicy! Never mind. Having finished our snacks, we had a quick look at the rest of the museum. There was a fascinating Roman street map that we spent quite a while looking at, before heading upstairs to check out some random finds from the local area. There were some hideous china ornaments! (No photos, I’m afraid).

When we left the museum, we found that the rain had briefly stopped so I was able to grab a few photos before the heavens opened again. Here’s the Speyer Cathedral:

It soon started pouring down again, at which point we actually had to leave anyway because we only had the car until six. But before getting on our way, we stopped to buy some fresh strawberries from a little stand in the carpark, which is what we ate for desert once we got home. All in all, it was the perfect way to spend a horrid, rainy day!