Day 6...Technik Museum Speyer

It is Day 6 in our adventure, and we decided to try to do something fun just for the kids...there's only so much "history" their little minds can take (plus we were hoping to get a reprieve from the incessant requests to go back to their friends' house, even if their friends weren't home)! Greg found online this great, fun, kid-friendly museum in Speyer, Germany. Here's where Speyer is located:

This museum is filled with airplanes, trains, numerous cars, tractors, fire engines, helicopters, boats...basically a collection of anything mechanical & shows how technology has changed over time! It even has a huge carousel, model trains, old fashioned jukeboxes & mechanical pipe organs! Sheridan heard the organs playing & started dancing around...then, of course, Colin had to join her!

And of course, since there were model trains, Colin had to see them in action!

This museum had SEVERAL different airplanes in it, from different eras! I've edited the slide show at the bottom of this posting so that you don't have to look at multiple pics of planes! However, we have SEVERAL pictures of airplanes & I have no idea what I'm looking at!

This seemed to be a really great museum for this history-buff, however, about 95% of all the signs that explained what we were looking at or what it was used for or any type of history were all in GERMAN!!! We saw a few things in English, but that was few & far between. In fact, I remember seeing some contraption & still have no idea what it is & what was it's purpose!

Any clues as to what this is? or what it was used for?

We also saw what we think was a "primitive" tractor & hay bailer...but it's just a guess since we couldn't read the signs! I managed to get a video of it in motion, but it was loud & looked interesting & dangerous with pitch forks attached to the back of it!

I think the highlight of the day was the 747 that we got to climb in & see different things up close. Well, climbing in the 747, the Antonov 22, & other aircraft were the highlights of Greg's day. For the kids, they enjoyed the most the "alternative" exit from the 747...a spiral, tube slide!

At first the kids didn't want to go down the slide, so Greg went down first by himself. The kids & I took the "old-fashioned" exit & went down about 91 stairs!
Like I said, there were 91 steps to get up to the entrance of the 747, so therefore, 91 steps to get to the slide too! Wouldn't you know it?!?! Colin had absolutely NO PROBLEM climbing these stairs & proceeded to continue to do so about 6-7 more times, with the last 4-5 times carrying the mat that he had to sit on to slide down! Remember the video from yesterday & the screaming "My legs are tired!" Lesson learned...

Sheridan took a little longer to warm up to the idea of going down the slide...she's my timid & cautious one! However, either Greg talked her into it or she saw Colin do it, she went down at first with Greg, then me, then probably could've kept going & going & going! She too loved the ride!

Here's a video of our sliding fun!

After lunch, we let the kids slide a couple more times, but then moved on to the Space Shuttle Buran. It's the Russia's version of our shuttle, but I think someone said that it only had test flights & never actually went up! What a waste of time & money!

Here's a slideshow of all our pics:

Pretty much after this we're beat & still have to drive back to our friends' house! However, if the kids had their way, we'd STILL be at the slide! And I just remembered, I don't think that we heard all day "when are we going back to Aaron & Isabelle's?!?!" It was a nice relief from that type of questioning!

Tomorrow's adventure takes us on an overnight stay in Luxembourg! Our adventure will be continued!