Heidelberg, Germany

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While my brother Noel was visiting me from Canada, one of the first things we did was a tour of the ancient city of Heidelberg. Heidelberg is only a 15 minute train ride from Mannheim, and where Mannheim is functional and sometimes ugly, Heidelberg is beutiful and historic. This distinction is due to that fact that Mannheim, being one of the cheif industrial zones of Germany, was leveled during the Great Wars, forcing a hasty reconstruction. Heidelberg remained untouched and unscathed. The buildings of the Altstadt (old town) date back many 100's of years and retain that arcitectural genious that is so rare today. The center of the Altstadt is the Schloß (castle), an ancient structure that is now a decaying ruin. This castle is one of the most famous in Germany, destoyed by the French in former times, abandoned after by the Germans when they rebuilt a new Schloß in Mannheim. It was only in the Romantic era, when crumbling castles became fashionable, many famous poets and painters flocked to Heidelberg to capture the essence of the Schloß. Today the Heidelberg Schloß is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Germany. Click here or here to read more about the history and tourist attractions of Heidelberg.

Pictures from our visit to Heidelberg, Germany.

The Hotel zum Ritter. Built in 1592 by a cloth-dealer, it is one of the only buildings to remain intact throughout both the Thirty Years War and the War of Succession, in which the French General Mélac used it as his base of operations while his troops destroyed the castle and burned the town down to the ground.	Here you see a statue of some Saint on an old Catholic church.
Here you see an old Monastery located in the hills around Heidelberg. It was used as a Nazi meeting place during WWII.	Here is a view of the Altstadt from the Schloß walls. The closest church is the Church of the Holy Ghost, built in 1400 orininally as a Catholic church, today it is Protestant.
Another view of the Altstadt.
A nice photo of the Altstadt showing the Neckar river.
Another shot of the Neckar, this one showing the Alte Brücke (old bridge) spanning the river. Originally a wooden structure, the stone bridge was built in 1786, and became part of the town wall.
This picture shows the crumbling, decaying walls of the Schloß.
This tower was destroyed by cannon fire when the French invaded Heidelberg.	The French did quite a good job!
As you can see, this part of the Schloß was thoroughly destroyed and left to the elements.	This is a fountain in the courtyard with a statue of the Roman god Neptune. In the early 1600's, the Winter King, Friedrich V., demanded that the Schloß Garden be turned into the 8th wonder of the world. He was overthrown before this task could be accomplished, and this fountain is about all that remains.
This is the largest wine barrel in the world. Constructed in 1750 under the rule of Prince Elector Karl Theodor, it was used to house the wine taxes collected from the peasants each season.	As the story goes, the court at the time of Karl Theodor employed a dwarf as a jester, a drunk who would only drink wine from the barrel all day. One day some of the court ladies thought they would play a joke on the dwarf by replacing he wine skin with one filled only with water as the jester snoozed. When he awoke and took a drink from his 'wine' skin, the drunkard dropped dead on the spot. He could only drink wine, and drinking water killed him! Well so the story goes...
This is me and Irene next to the 'small' wine barrel...	Yes that is me looking at the ass of monkey statue on the Alte Brücke haha!
Here is a nice shot of the Schloß at night time from the Alte Brücke.