Heidelberg

We visited Heidelberg yesterday, which is an amazing place. It's a beautiful little city, full of excruciatingly touristy things to do, but the real gem is Heidelberg Schloss, the ruins of a huge castle that overlooks the city and the river that runs through it.

A view of beautiful Heidelberg.

The Schloss overlooking a square in Heidelberg.

The Heidelberg Schloss is not a resored castle, so most of it is as it was after being destroyed in the wars of ages past. There are whole areas that are too dangerous to let people explore, but plenty of it is open to the public, and the gardens within it are still maintained. They also cleaned out one section of it and made it into a museum, and another section was turned into a concert hall, where they have many theatrical and musical performances.

The views of Heidelberg from the Schloss were intoxicating. Absolutely stunning. A river runs through a valley between the hills, and nestled around it are the streets of Heidelberg, with the castle on one hill, overlooking the entire valley. We didn't explore too much of Heidelberg itself, just some tourist traps and pastry shops that we could not ignore. There was also some beautiful pipe organ music that we heard, and eventually tracked down to a wonderful old church which we slipped into for a time to listen. Hearing Bach's Toccata and Fugue being played on a 3-story tall pipe organ in an ancient European church was DEFINITELY on my list of things to experience in this lifetime.

A view from the gardens within the Schloss

A crumbling tower overlooking the gardens.

Jason gapes in thirsty awe at a mammoth-sized keg.

Yes, this keg is even bigger. Definitely a German castle!

There were many of these lion busts, each with its own whimsical expression and unique personality.

John defends us from the invaders.

What do you get when you give a $5 tourist-stand umbrella to John? A broken umbrella.

"Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of Ulfin Bedwere of Regged make plain the last resting place of the most holy grail!"

A section of crumbling tower that we actually got to climb around inside, thought I don't think we were supposed to.

Downtown Heidelberg, with more American tourists than German citizens.

A pastry shop. I had an Amerikaner, Amber had some sort of strudel, and John had... everything else. So good!

Some tourist junk, but still fun to see. Amber bought the one on the lower right.

Another view of Heidelberg from the Schloss.

I want to live in this house!

All in all, a wonderul little day trip. Next up: Fourth of July! Woohoo!