22nd
Heeeeeyy, Heidelberg
Somehow we’ve lucked into hotels/hostels on the cheap in great locations in all our cities. When we got to Heidelberg we had no plans and no hotel reservations. A stroke of luck took us to the best value in town: right in the middle of everything plus a view of the river and < 100 euros for the night.
Robin had to do homework Saturday night so I left him be and took the camera out for some touristing.
Remember I said the flowers are blooming? Well, they’re everywhere, and they’re lovely
And really, overall Heidelberg is such a beautiful town. Covered in tourists, of course, but also a diverse group of university students and locals. This was the first place that made me want to learn the language and pick up and move there. German can’t be that hard, right?
Ok guys, I’m going to be honest. I don’t have that much to say about Heidelberg. It’s a really pretty town overrun with tourists and I love it to death regardless and it has an amazing castle. I am going to skip Saturday night (amazing dinner though) and move on to Sunday (amazing breakfast) castle tour.
This castle’s my favorite of the three we have seen (writing this in Munich post-Neuschwanstein), I think because it is very medieval and defense-oriented. It’s up on this hill above the town, see?
And then the only ways up to the castle are really steep, followed by either
The front, containing switchbacks guarded by arrowslits:
(again, I could have taken them out before they even knew)
OR the back, guarded by a FREAKIN’ MOAT that doubled as a faux-hunting arena in summer and an ice skating rink in winter, and could be flooded at any time:
and the main gate, complete with giant door and portcullis and awesome mini-door for messengers:
While we’re here, I’ll tell you about the legend of the door knocker ring. It is said that anyone who can bite through the iron ring will receive the castle of Heidelberg. Many people tried, but one day a witch came for the challenge. She bit with all her might but only managed to scratch the knocker, and that’s where the blemish came from.
The castle has been added on to and remodeled so many times that it’s pretty hard to get a good grasp of the layout beyond this point, especially with pictures, so I’ll just show you some notable items.
If you make it past the main gate, the first thing you’ll see is the side of this building that contains 16 life-size statues of Fredericks and family. Man, I want to be on a wall.
Moving on. Next to this building is a tower where the guy known for starting a movement to preserve old buildings and monuments lived, but even better is the super-fantastic sundial on the outside:
Don’t you just want to eat it? It’s so good.
Off to the right of this is a wall with a bunch of Greek heroes and gods on it and a crazy poof plant and a girl taking crooked pictures
Let’s go back outside, eh? Look at this crazy thing. It’s as big as you think it is. It’s called the powder tower because it’s where they kept the ammo, etc. It got cannoned or fireballed or something in a war about 400 years ago and they never fixed it and it became inspirational for a bunch of poets and dudes like Goethe and Mark Twain.
There’s no good way to introduce this except to say “holy crap look at this wine barrel”
Yeah, it was a tourist attraction even way back when it was in use.
I’ve gotta cut this short, guys, because it’s late and we’re getting up at 6am to get to the airport tomorrow, so I will leave you with a confirmation that the view from up there is just as good as you think it is.
For some reference, the hotel we stayed in is right behind Robin’s armpit.
P.S. I promise to do the Neuschwanstein castle and Munich posts on the plane and throw them up next time I have internet access. See you on the far side!
