Heidelburg

On Monday, we traveled to Heidelburg by train to see the Heidelburg Castle. After getting off the train, we hopped on a boat tour that took us alongside the beautiful countryside, where castles and various old buildings littered the hillsides. We also passed through 2 locks, which are sections of the river where the water level is either raised or lowered in order to allow boats to travel in different water levels. It was interesting to look out in front of the boat before entering into the locks, because it looked as if we were just going to keep floating off the dams until we would land after dropping quite a bit...that would have been exciting...

A small castle alongside the Neckar. There were amazing sandstone cliffs next to this one castle. I imagine that the sandstone here would be amazing to climb on!

Here, we are coming closer to the town of Heidelburg. It was a hot day and there was some shade on the boat, but not nearly enough to keep us all from heating up from the sun exposure!

First sight of Heidelburg!

When we finally hopped off the boat, we had some time to eat lunch at the Heidelburg cafeteria. At the cafe, you could  get as much food as you wanted, but at the register you weighed the food to determine how much you owed. I thought that was interesting. Heidelburg is also a University town, so we were surrounded by many college students. Most were German, but we did hear English at some tables which made us excited. We also found Ben & Jerry's ice cream, a rare treat here in Germany because usually it is very expensive. But the prices this time were reasonable, and many bought little cups of their favorite flavors. 

We took a train up to the Heidelburg castle, where we met our tour guide who was dressed up in the fashions of the time that the castle was inhabited by noble figures. I felt bad for him because it was extremely hot, and he was wearing a bushy wig, a big black hat, various shirts and a wool vest. In addition to his outfit, he also was a great tour guide. He had great humor and helped us have fun while viewing such a remarkable estate. 

Here is a model of the castle (once it was finished) before it was destroyed a bit from various attacks.

On the outside wall of this building, there were statues of the nobles between every window (it was about a 3 story section of the castle!). This one we liked especially, because of the way his finger is laying on his sword. A bit immature, but back during those times it was a way to show others that they were still able to fight sufficiently because they had the most important fingers for pulling a bow & arrow. That's what our tour guide explained to us, while he held out his own middle finger and joked that in America that is what angry drivers like to do with that finger these days...

A shot from the balcony down on the town of Heidelburg. 

The building in the center of the picture is a church. 

After arriving back home to Christiana's house, I went to her younger brother's school concert, where he played his violin in the mini-orchestra. In addition to the strings, there were was singing. After the concert was over, the Bickert's took me out to their favorite Greek restaurant in Neustadt. There, I ordered döner kebab and a salad and talked about my stay in Germany. It was a great way to end such a busy day and I certainly appreciated their kindness in taking me out. On Tuesday, I left their house to live at Eva's, which is on the opposite side of Neustadt.