Heidelberg

     Some of you have mentioned that you are unable to leave comments. Andrew looked into and he thinks he has that fixed now so feel free to leave comments. I'd love to hear what you think.  = )
     Now back to business . . . .

     Sunday we decided to head off for Heidelberg. It just so happens that Germany's number one sight to see (as voted by the National Tourism Board) is Heidelberg castle which is only 30 minutes away from Bruchsal. Given that it was so close and we were all very tired from our excursion in Rothenburg, we slept in Sunday morning and had a late breakfast of scrambled eggs and scones (again a la Andrew with no help from measuring cups or a recipe). Then we headed for Heidelberg which not only has the wonderful Heidelberg castle but is also home to one of Europe's oldest universities, Heidelberg University founded in 1386. But we didn't go there - we had our sights set on the castle.

     The GPS got us right to the center of town. Then we spent about ten minutes driving around looking for something that would give us some idea where we were on the map in our handy guide book. Then, just as we were going to around and try a different direction, I saw that we were actually right on the road that led up to the castle. We had decided to walk up to the castle from the town so we drove around a bit more till we found an underground parking garage with a sign flashing "frei" (german for free). Great! Free parking! Finally something that isn't costing us anything.
     We parked and went upstairs and found ourselves in a courtyard with a fountain in the center and big old buildings surrounding it.

Above our parking spot in Heidelberg

The castle on the hill

    On our way to the castle, we came to another courtyard with a statue (I have no idea what the statue was for but I love old statues - have you noticed?) and some quaint old streets.

Old statue and the Rathaus (I think)

Picturesque street

     It was a bit of a climb to the castle. We were trying to take the easy, windy path up, but somehow got on the difficult, steep path. 

At the beginning of the hike . . . 

Starting to tire out

    When we reached the top and paid for admission, we found there was an English tour that was going to start in 45 minutes in front of the big wooden door. So we used the time to look around the castle walls facing the town. 

Through the castle walls

A rare picture  - proof that I was on this vacation too.

View of Heidelberg from the Castle walls

     When we went to find the "big wooden door" it proved to be not the best landmark they could have used. The place had several "big wooden doors" - which one was it? We did finally stumble upon the the right "big wooden door" just as the tour started. We were not allowed to take pictures during the tour but I snapped this one before the guide gave us that rule.

Old statue (told you I loved them)
 This is one of the Prince Electors that rule here.

    The tour was very interesting. Our guide gave us the history of the castle and showed us a model of what it looked like at its grandest. The castle was built in stages with each prince elector adding on towers, walls, and rooms. The most famous inhabitant was Frederick V who inherited the castle in 1610 and married Elizabeth Stuart, King James of England's sister, in 1613. He made some of the greatest improvements. He made the top of one of the towers into a circular theatre reminiscent of the Globe Theatre in London for his English wife. He also had a new courtyard garden built, the Hortus Palatinus, designed by an English gardener and a French engineer. Before the Thirty Years' War, it was considered the eighth wonder of the world.

The garden as it looked in the 17th century

It is still pretty awesome. There is a fountain in one corner with a statue of the the reclining Father Rhine. And there are great views of the town and the castle from far end of the garden.

City of Heidelberg from garden

The castle viewed from the garden

I made it into another picture!

Taran and Father Rhine

    The castle also houses the apothecary museum detailing the development of the pharmaceutical arts from medieval times. This was not the kids' favorite part of the day but I thought it was very interesting.

All this fascinating medieval stuff and they 're glued to the TV!

Display of old apothecary drugs

Unicorn bones!

Apothecary lab
Really curious looking instruments

    We also saw the "big barrel" built in 1591 and its much larger successor, the "giant barrel" built in 1751. The giant barrel can hold 55, 345 gallons of wine! In medieval times, wine growers paid their taxes in wine.

The "big barrel"

The kids in front of the "giant barrel"

Then we amused ourselves climbing around the ruins and I got some more pictures of old statues. 

Heading down into the moat

Half collapsed tower in the back of the castle

Taran's favorite part - climbing on stuff

Old statues above the gate heading into castle courtyard

Looking through tunnel into castle courtyard

Castle courtyard - the building opposite first part of the castle that was built

Old statues - the apostles below and the Greek gods above them

Pretty tree - castle well is behind and to the right

     It was getting late by that time so we made a quick stop at the gift shop where we picked up a couple postcards and Taran bought himself a cool dagger with the money his grandparents gave him. Then we headed for the car. We decided to take a different route back to the car which made Piper very nervous. She was sure that we were going to get lost and spend the rest of our lives wandering around Heidelberg. Well, luckily, she was wrong and we found our way back to the car. On our way we decided to look for some pretzels to tide us over until we could get some supper. The bakery we'd passed on the way up was closed so we started exploring and discovered we'd parked very close to the old church you can see towering above Heidelberg in the picture of the city taken from the garden. (I have no idea which church it was. We plan to return to Heidelberg so I'll probably write more about it later.) All along the sides of the church were stalls with people selling souvenirs, drawings, paintings, and food. Unfortunately, no pretzels. We did find a stall that made crepes with different kinds of fillings. The kids split one filled with cinnamon, sugar, and nutella. Yum. Andrew and I split one filled with goat cheese, brie, and cranberries. Yum-yum! We sat on the steps of the church to eat our goodies then headed for the car. As we tried to exit the parking garage, I realized I had made a stupid American error. The parking garage gate would not open no matter what way Andrew put the ticket in. What was the problem? The sign had said free parking so what were we doing wrong? That's when it hit me that the "frei" on the sign didn't mean that parking was free - it meant that there was open parking spaces. Duh! So our "free" parking ending up costing 7.50 euros. Ugh!

    We got back to our flat and I went to get out the new postcards and I couldn't find them. They were not in the bag, on the table, or in the car. What did I do with them? I am still not sure but my best guess is they got left on the steps to the church when we sat to eat our crepes. And to keep them company, I also left our handy guide book. (Luckily, Taran was carrying his dagger in his pocket.) Ugh! It was not my best day. 

    And so ended our first weekend hanging around Europe. The week was fairly uneventful. Tomorrow we head off for Switzerland for the weekend. Should be interesting. I had a very hard time planning out this excursion - there's just too much information on some things and not enough on others that makes planning difficult. So we'll play it by ear . . . I don't like playing things by ear. Wish us luck!