Germany Day 2

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Welcome to our second day in Germany! We woke up around 9 and headed down for a (FREE!) continental breakfast at the hotel lobby. I got what would soon become my regular morning meal: a croissant with Noutella and a few cold cuts. Yum! It was Sunday, so a lot of the town was closed, but the castle was open. We got a taxi up to the top of the hill and there it was. The ruins are so vast and picturesque! We wandered around the outer courtyard for a little while-the facade is still pretty much intact, and there are statues all up and down the walls of famous rulers, Roman gods, and Christian values (an interesting assortment, I agree). Then we met up with another family from Canada to take the guided tour through a lot of the castle. We started in a room with suits of armor and various maps, and then went to walk through the ruins themselves. We visited the 'library', saw Elizabeth's tower, and went inside the restored bedroom/sitting room and chapel. I already knew a lot of the basic history from AP Euro (thanks Dr. Hennessey!) but it was very cool to walk and explore where it happened. Interesting fact: When Elizabeth moved here, she started a garden so magnificent that it was known as the Eighth Wonder of the World for many years. Nobles (and anyone who could afford it) would come from all over the world to see the exotic plants and animals she could get to thrive here. Now it's just open space and plazas overlooking a great view of the city.

Once the tour was over, we went to find the infamous Great Wine Vat. Down in the cellar they have a wine vat that could easily have fit ten of me inside. It's only after we've taken lots of silly pictures around it that we discover that is an average size wine vat. If you go down one level further, there is an ENORMOUS wine vat. I forget how many thousands of gallons it could hold, but you have to go up a flight of stairs to reach the top. They used it to collect the wine tax from the local vineyards-they just poured it all in there together. One we'd ogled our fill, we walked over to the apothecary and medicine museum. I'd heard that this was the overlooked jewel of the castle-they were right. It was so interesting to see how medicine has changed over time, and what people thought caused diseases in the middle ages. They had lots of reproductions of public and private apothecaries, and it was nice and warm! By that time, we were both getting pretty hungry and tired, so we went to the cafeteria just outside the castle and had hot potato and sausage soup. Very hearty and warming. We weren't quite ready to leave yet, so we wandered around the gift shop and where the gardens used to be-wonderful views of the city!

We decided to catch the funicular down instead of calling another taxi-that was a weird experience. The train basically moves vertically instead of horizontally! Most of the shops were closed, but we wandered around the old part of town admiring the architecture, explored a couple of the university buildings (including the Student Union-looked like a neat uni), and found an open apothecary after much confusion and laughter. By that time, the sun was starting to set, and we thought it would be fun to watch it set over the castle from the Philosopher's Walk. So, we scrambled up the trail and got up just in time to watch it set behind the castle. Such a pretty view!!!! We decided to walk along it towards the hotel as far as we could, then eventually descended on the opposite side of the river. We found a park with lots of local families playing and sledding in the snow-that might have been my favorite part of the day. I was also introduced to gleewine. All I can say is, wow. 😊

By this time, we were basically at the hotel, so we chilled for a while in the lounge and got ready for dinner, then headed out for another wonderful meal. I got potato pancakes with applesauce, and a mixture of beer and lemonade that I liked a lot better than the plain beer. Once we were back in the hotel we crashed pretty much right away, though we did find Harry Potter dubbed in German on TV. Knowing no German but having watched it so many times, I translated for Dad-hilarious!

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Photos

Hello Heidelberg Castle
Here's me at the entrance to Heidelberg Castle.

old gate
This used to be the grand entrance to Heidelberg Castle.

Romantic view of the castle
Pretty ruinous view of the castle

facade of the castle
Once you get inside the courtyard, this is the view.

town of Heidelberg
view of the river and town from the castle

Hello Papa!
Dad enjoying the view

giant wine vat
This is what we thought was the giant wine vat.

giant wine vat part 2
...until we saw this one!

artsy Heidelberg pic
doesn't it look neat?

library
this used to be the library before the French destroyed the castle

Elizabeth's tower
This tower was added especially for Elizabeth as a 'welcome to Heidelberg' gift

apothecary
this is part of the medicine museum-very interesting

ruins
another pretty view of the ruins

the castle's broken
oops...guess I won't press so hard next time...

8th wonder of the world
this used to be Elizabeth's famous garden

funicular down to town
What a coolio train!