Heidelberg

We arrived in Heidelberg almost breathless from hurrying. After spending the morning at Rothenburg, Jenny and I only had a little time to see the Heidelburg Castle. We had a train to catch in the evening to Paris from Kaiserslaughtern, and had to drop off our renal car in Ramstein in the meantime. The two of us sped into town and grabbed a parking lot in the middle of the university, the first spot we found that seemed remotely close to the castle that overlooks the city.


After asking another tourist for directions, we ran up the crisscrossing streets towards the castle. The neighborhood was filled with old mansions in a distinctive style perched over red sandstone walls that held the hillside back. Ivy climbed up the walls, houses, and gazebos along our path. By the time we reached the castle, we had less than two hours to enjoy it.



We bought tickets and rushed past the guards into the courtyard.



The ruins gave me an evocative feeling of ancient grandeur fallen into decay.



The castle’s history begins in the 1200’s, and ends when Louis XIV destroyed it in the 1600's, during the Thirty-Years War. Mark Twain later visited the ruins, and recorded his impressions.



As I gazed into the innards of an ivy covered tower with one side collapsed, I imagined how regal and secure the castle must have seemed before the Sun King visited with wrath and destruction.



The castle overlooks the city and Nekar River.




With no time for a formal tour, Jenny and I looked through the courtyards, gazing up at the broken walls and down at the city below, and then visited an excellent pharmacy museum and art museum within the castle. Even though I would have preferred spending a whole day leisurely soaking up the atmosphere of the castle and nearby area, I’m glad for the time we had to see Heidelburg.