We spent our day walking around Heidelberg, Germany. We walked through the pedestrian area of the city, alongside the shops, cafes, churches and hotels. We stopped and toured Heidelberg Castle, also known as Heidelberger Schloss. Nika had promised me that this was a really cool castle on a big hill that we would ride a cable car up to. I was all excited about the cable car ride and when we got there, we climbed an enormously steep hill and arrived, dripping in our own sweat, at the entrance to the castle. Nearly 3 hours later, we exited the castle through a different area, and I saw there really was a cable car that we could have taken up to the castle. Nika tried to calm me by telling me how healthy it was for me to have walked. We then descended 303 stairs back to the street level. If you've been reading this blog, you now know that we have climbed and descended a minimum of 1369 stairs in just two of the places that we visited!
Anyway, the Heidelberger Schloss is enourmous! The castle dates back to 1196 and has been partially destroyed through the years, including during the 30 year war in the 1600's. It sustained more damage from a lightning strike in the 1700's. The castle tour included seeing gorgeous views overlooking the Neckar River and the City of Heidelberg. It also contained sights of all the history involved with this castle including an oven that could roast up to 3 oxen at a time. There were also several large wine barrels inside the castle, the biggest of which could contain 58,100 gallons of wine! It is said the be the biggest wine barrel in history....period. :-) It is also said that 130 Oak trees were used to construct this barrel. During the tour, they told us this barrel was filled 3 times.
At the end of our castle tour (and after descending on foot from the upper elevations), we had a nice lunch and walked back through the shopping and pedestrian area nearby where we are staying. For dinner we had a very nice and relaxing time at a local "meeting place" Hemingway Bar and shared Schnitzel. This is our last night here in Heidelberg. Tomorrow we will go to Frankfurt for our last stop on the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment