Thursday, July 25, 2013

Heidelberg Ruins. . .

We left Rothenburg on the 3rd of June and headed back west toward Frankfurt. My flight was to leave the next morning and Kevin needed to drive to Zweibrucken that evening. On our way there, we made a last-minute decision to visit Heidelberg and the famous castle there. It really must have been an amazing place once! The earliest mentioning of the castle was in the 1100s, so it's incredibly old! Parts of it have been rebuilt and twice it's been struck by lightening badly enough to cause major damage! Even so, it's a beautiful place to visit. I was glad we made the quick stop.
This is the Castle Powder Turret, which was split by an explosion. You can see the massive section of the wall that fell a few hundred years ago!
The city gate. . .
Like the city gate in Rothenburg, this castle had a man-door for late-comers. The door itself was made of incredibly thick wood.
An old clock on the wall. . .
Statue of Friderich
Looking down toward the Neckar river, which was actually at flood stage due to the rain.
Overlooking Heidelberg
Church of the Holy Spirit
Reconstruction was taking place all over the castle. It'll be amazing to see it again one day if they ever finish it!
Scaffolding and more construction. . .
I always find these sculptures rather strange. I usually wonder what the meetings were like when trying to decide on a sculpture for the castle gardens. Apparently this almost-naked, elderly, bearded man made it to the top of someone's list. He was awfully relaxed. I'm sure there's a good explanation for him.
After visiting the ruins, we actually went inside one area of the castle for our final tourist stop on our trip. This was our last picture together on our trip. Happy ten years to us!

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