Fireworks and Fish

So.
The fireworks are still going.
Apparently, this is STILL the 12 days of Christmas, until the 6th of January.
The 6th of January will be Three Kings Day, and from the first of the year until then, little kids (mostly boys) are putting on homemade capes and crowns and going door to door singing, and you're supposed to give them candy or money. Some of the towns, like Speyer, which we visited yesterday, are having markets and festivals to celebrate this, the week of the Three Kings. Everywhere we look, there are children with gold crowns and crooks - it's a little surreal.

Anyway, we went to Speyer to visit Sea Life, a big aquarium 'chain' here in Europe. I say 'chain' because there are several Sea Lifes located in a few different countries. Anyway, it was terribly expensive and frustratingly crowded, but I think it actually would have been pretty neat if there had been about half as many people there that day. There were lots of tanks of diffrent fish, and we got to pet some sea anemones and starfish, and the stingrays were particularly interested in me, although that's not the first time we've noticed that they have a strange affinity for the taste of my ankles.
And I'm not sure if it's more to do with my lack of technical German language skills or their lack of signage, but apparently there was something wrong with their parking lot, so we parked in another part of the city and walked about a mile (part of it in a ridiculous unnecessary detour) in the 25'F weather to get to the aquarium.


I know the picture says 'legoland' but the shark was made out of legos, so I guess it's a cross-promotion. Anyway, the kids liked it :)


On the upside, the mile walk took us by one of the oldest cathedrals in this part of Germany, and it was amazing. It looked more like a castle than a church, and we could hear the choir singing from the outside. I have no idea why it didn't occur to either of us to take pictures (duh) because it was absolutely beautiful :)

So to summarize:
Fireworks
Kings
Cold
Bad Aquarium
Awesome Cathedral