Trip to Heidelberg!

I had another day off from working in the ICU and I decided to hop on the train again and head to Heidelberg which is about two hours away. The weather was supposed to be a 30% change of morning showers, but in Germany that means "rain all day." It was cold and drizzling all day, but I made the most of it and hit the major sights in Heidelberg. There were some amazing sights and being away from the hospital is a great excuse to eat more bratwurst(which is even better on a cold, damp day!) Below are the highlights from my trip!

The Heidelberg Palace on the hill overlooking the city and the Neckar River.

This is what the castle looked at its finest...before being invaded during the Thirty Years War and burning after a lightning strike twice. Having high towers and being high on the hill turned out to have some disadvantages.

This sign is at the bottom of the hill...didn't think much of it at first.

Turns out that "stufen" means steps and there were 303 of them to get to the castle. My legs were burning!

I've posted quite a few pictures of castles recently so now I'm just going to point out the more unique things that I saw...like this vomit basin in the main hall.

This trunk has the most elaborate locking mechanism I've ever seen...and I've seen like 3 trunks like this!

Ceramic fireplace to keep the rooms warm...it opens outside so that servants can add wood without disturbing the guests.

Someone had an idea to keep all the gunpowder in one place which I bet was convenient right up until the time that the whole side of the tower blew off.

Claimed to be the largest barrel of wine in the world at 58,100 gallons

The jester who looked after the wine was named "Perkeo" which apparently means "why not" which is what he would answer everytime he was offered wine. The story goes that he only drank wine and lived until his 80s and died shortly after drinking water for the first time in decades.

The "Old Bridge" which was built in 1947 after the Nazi's blew up the original Old Bridge during their retreat to Berlin.

The Gate of the Old Bridge was unharmed.

Old town Heidelberg as seen from the castle.

The Church of the Holy Cross

Apparently the Catholics and Protestants shared the church...I didn't know they would do that!

From the inside

It was another great day of touring Germany even though it rained on me all day. I miss home, but luckily there are things to keep me busy during my time off until Sarah gets here in 2weeks!

Thanks again for reading,
Derek